Farm Bill's Failure Poisons Well in House  —  Updated 6:23 p.m. |  The House's stunning defeat of the farm bill Thursday dealt another blow to Speaker John A. Boehner's leadership and set off a poisonous round of partisan finger-pointing that raised questions about the ability of the chamber …

Revealed: the top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant  —  Fisa court submissions show broad scope of procedures governing NSA's surveillance of Americans' communication  —  • Document one: procedures used by NSA to target non-US persons

FAA to Relax Rules for Gadgets in Flight  —  Airline passengers irritated at having to turn off their devices could soon see some reprieve, with regulators set to allow wider use of gadgets in flight.  —  The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to relax the ban on using some types …

Obama hits a wall in Berlin  —  The question of whether Barack Obama's second term will be a failure was answered in the affirmative before his Berlin debacle, which has recast the question, which now is: Will this term be silly, even scary in its detachment from reality?

Gov. Cuomo was death ray target of Ku Klux Klansman  —  Nutty Glen Crawford, an industrial mechanic at General Electric, and Hudson man Eric Feight have been accused of building a deadly radiation-emitting device, which Crawford planned to use it on Gov. Cuomo, sources say.

George W. Bush's Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Was a Slave Trader  —  A surprising new discovery about the notorious Thomas “Beau” Walker.  —  BUNCE ISLAND, Sierra Leone—Twelve American presidents owned slaves, eight while serving in office, and at least 25 presidents count slave owners among their ancestors.

George Zimmerman trial: Jury selected, opening statements begin Monday  —  SANFORD - A jury has been seated and sworn for the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, after more than a week of intensive jury selection in the high-profile case.

WikiLeaks says Michael Hastings contacted it just before his death.  Are they implying he was murdered?  —  WikiLeaks just threw some gasoline onto the conspiracy fire.  On Wednesday night, they Tweeted: “Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died …

The top 9,486 ways Jay Carney won't answer your questions (interactive)  —  Jay Carney doesn't have an answer for that.  He hasn't discussed that subject with the president.  He will refer you to the Department of [insert agency here].  He refuses to speculate on that.  He'll have to get back to you.

On the left, Howard Dean open to presidential bid  —  San Jose, California (CNN) - Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who electrified anti-war liberals during the 2004 presidential race, said Thursday he would consider another run for the White House - a statement that will surely be met …

The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis  —  It's long been suspected that ratings agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's helped trigger the meltdown.  A new trove of embarrassing documents shows how they did it  —  By  —  W  —  hat about the ratings agencies?

Inside the border deal that almost failed  —  Sen. Chuck Schumer spent Tuesday privately urging President Barack Obama and the entire Democratic caucus to just be patient — a border security deal they could accept was still within reach.  —  But after a testy, 45-minute call that night …

White House Offers Stealth Campaign to Support Immigration Bill  —  WASHINGTON — The hide-out has no sign on the door, but inside Dirksen 201 is a spare suite of offices the White House has transformed into its covert immigration war room on Capitol Hill.  —  Strategically located down the hall …

LePage slips ‘Vaseline’ jab toward Democratic senator  —  AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday said a Democratic lawmaker, Sen. Troy Jackson of Aroostook County, “claims to be for the people but he's the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline.”

Icelandic Businessman Has Jet Ready For Snowden  —  REYKJAVIK, June 20 (Reuters) - An Icelandic businessman linked to WikiLeaks said he has readied a private plane to take Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed secret U.S. surveillance programmes, to Iceland if the government grants him asylum.

In Syrian chemical weapons claim, criticism about lack of transparency  —  UNITED NATIONS — Despite months of laboratory testing and scrutiny by top U.S. scientists, the Obama administration's case for arming Syria's rebels rests on unverifiable claims that the Syrian government used chemical weapons …

The Incarceration Epidemic  —  About one-fourth of all incarcerated people on Earth is in the U.S. That constitutes a public health problem.  —  The U.S. incarceration rate has more than quadrupled since 1980.  It's now the highest in the world, just ahead of Russia and Rwanda.

Chelsea Clinton Laments: My Great Grandmother Did Not Have Access to Planned Parenthood  —  New York, NY (CFAM) — From the stage at the recent Women Deliver conference, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's daughter Chelsea revealed that her much-admired maternal grandmother …

In Head-Hunting, Big Data May Not Be Such a Big Deal  —  This interview with Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of people operations at Google, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.  —  Q. How is Big Data being used more in the leadership and management field?

Christian Clergy, Pastors, Leaders, Sign Statement in Solidarity to Defend Marriage  —  Contact: Public Relations Department, 877-810-1776; FreedomFederation.org  —  Joining together, pledging in solidarity to defend marriage at an historic moment in history, a group of Catholic, Orthodox …

GOP leader steps down after rant on ex-Miss America  —  WASHINGTON — The local Illinois Republican Party official who called a biracial congressional candidate a “street walker” resigned Thursday, after his comments were widely denounced as offensive.  —  Jim Allen referred to Erika Harold …