Michael Hastings, ‘Rolling Stone’ Contributor, Dead at 33  —  The bold journalist died in a car accident in Los Angeles  —  Michael Hastings, the fearless journalist whose reporting brought down the career of General Stanley McChrystal, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles, Rolling Stone has learned.

WMAL EXCLUSIVE: Allen West Challenges Marco Rubio On Immigration; Won't Rule Out 2016 Primary Bid  —  WASHINGTON — Former Congressman Allen West says challenging Senator Marco Rubio in the 2016 Republican Florida primary election would be a daunting task.  —  “That's a pretty heavy lift …

Karzai suspends talks with U.S. over Taliban agreement  —  Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen following a security handoff ceremony at a military academy outside Kabul.  (Shah Marai, AFP/Getty Images / June 18, 2013)

THINGS IN POLITICO THAT MAKE ME WANT TO GUZZLE ANTIFREEZE, PART THE INFINITY  —  It's just that Drudge-whorish and link-baity. … Actually, the critique of Politico is, “Jesus H. Christ on a Jetski, you people are trivial.”  You gave a column to Joe Fking Scarborough for pity's sake.  To wit:

House passes far-reaching bill to limit abortions  —  WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House of Representatives approved a far-reaching bill to ban a woman's ability to seek an abortion after 20 weeks on a mostly party-line 228-196 vote Tuesday  —  It stands no chance of becoming law under the Obama administration.

Breaking: Full House committee transcripts shed new light on genesis of IRS targeting  —  Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have just released a full transcript of testimony from a key witness in the investigation of IRS targeting of conservatives — and it appears to confirm …

U.S. to Propose New Phase In Nuclear Arms Cuts  —  WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, in a major foreign policy speech in Berlin on Wednesday, is set to make the case for a new phase in nuclear weapons reductions, according to senior U.S. officials briefed on the plans.

Google challenges U.S. gag order, citing First Amendment  —  Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government.

Chris Van Hollen: IRS Rules To Be Challenged In Court  —  WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Tuesday that he and two campaign finance watchdog groups would sue the IRS, challenging regulations that allow nonprofit groups to be involved in politics if they're “primarily” devoted to a social welfare purpose.

TWA Flight 800 investigators break silence in new documentary, claim original conclusion about cause of crash is wrong  —  A group of whistle-blowers, including a number of aviation experts, have come forward in a new documentary to claim that the official explanation for the crash of TWA Flight 800 …

WAS JUSTICE ROBERTS INTIMIDATED INTO VOTING FOR ‘OBAMACARE’?  SENATOR MIKE LEE PRESENTS THE EVIDENCE  —  After Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as “ObamaCare,” many wondered if there could be a yet-unknown reason …

The GOP's clueless caucus  —  They've waxed philosophic about “legitimate rape,” reflected on the economic role of “wetbacks” and denounced the actions of “brazen, self-described illegal aliens.”  They've lamented that “mom got in the workplace” and called out the United States attorney general for casting “aspersions on my asparagus.”

The F.B.I. Deemed Agents Faultless in 150 Shootings  —  WASHINGTON — After contradictory stories emerged about an F.B.I. agent's killing last month of a Chechen man in Orlando, Fla., who was being questioned over ties to the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, the bureau reassured the public that it would clear up the murky episode.

LePage issues new policy: No more talking to 3 newspapers  —  The policy comes after a series of articles about the Department of Environmental Protection.  —  AUGUSTA - Gov. Paul LePage's administration will no longer comment in stories published by the Portland Press Herald …

Extending a Hand Abroad, Obama Often Finds a Cold Shoulder  —  WASHINGTON — Over porterhouse steak and cherry pie at a desert estate in California earlier this month, President Obama delivered a stern lecture to President Xi Jinping about China's disputes with its neighbors.

On fertility, and the flauntingly fecund Sarah Palin  —  Distilled to a slogan, politics of late goes something like this: “I'm more fertile than you are.”  —  It seems fecundity is emerging as the best argument for public office, policy or even citizenship.

Dissent Festers in States That Obama Forgot  —  WASHINGTON — You might call North Dakota the antithesis of President Obama's political base.  —  Whites make up 90 percent of its population, which is fewer than one million people and mostly in rural areas.  Its proportion of people 65 and over exceeds the national average.

Did senior State Department security officials commit perjury?  —  Two top officials at the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service (DS) — the federal law enforcement agency that protects American diplomats and investigates allegations of criminal misconduct by State Department employees …