Edward Snowden asking 15 countries for asylum, Russian official says  —  Passengers sleep outside Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport on June 29, 2013.  (Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA / June 29, 2013)  —  MOSCOW — Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor …

Fast-Moving Blaze Kills 19 Firefighters in Central Arizona  —  CONGRESS, Ariz. — Nineteen firefighters were killed on Sunday battling a fast-moving wildfire menacing a small town in central Arizona.  —  The firefighters died fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire near the town of Yarnell, about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix.

Brotherhood HQ in Cairo stormed  —  Anti-government protesters in Egypt have stormed the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo.  —  People are reported to have ransacked the building in the capital's Moqattam district, throwing objects out of its windows, before setting it on fire.

GOP could pay price for gerrymandering  —  No one disputes Republicans used the once-a-decade redistricting process to lock in their House majority — almost certainly through 2014 and possibly until the next round of line-drawing in 2020.  —  But the party could pay a steep price for that dominance.

Surrounded By Men, Ohio Governor Signs Stringent Abortion Restrictions Into Law  —  Gov. John Kasich (R) signs the two-year budget bill on Sunday.  (Credit: Karen Kasler)  —  Flanked by a group of other male officials, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) signed a contentious two-year budget bill into law on Sunday evening.

They said the sequester would be scary.  Mostly, they were wrong.  —  Before “sequestration” took effect, the Obama administration issued specific — and alarming — predictions about what it would bring.  There would be one-hour waits at airport security.  Four-hour waits at border crossings.

EPA sends climate rule to White House  —  EPA just hit the accelerator in its push to fulfill President Barack Obama's climate promises.  —  The agency has sent the White House a new draft of its proposed greenhouse gas rule for future power plants, POLITICO learned Monday …

War On the Unemployed  —  Is life too easy for the unemployed?  You may not think so, and I certainly don't think so.  But that, remarkably, is what many and perhaps most Republicans believe.  And they're acting on that belief: there's a nationwide movement under way to punish the unemployed …

Putin Says Snowden Must Stop Hurting U.S. to Stay in Russia  —  MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin said on Monday that Edward J. Snowden, the former national security staffer accused of espionage, would not receive political asylum in Russia unless he stops publishing classified documents that hurt the interests of the United States.

Misinformation on classified NSA programs includes statements by senior U.S. officials  —  Amid the cascading disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance programs, the top lawyer in the U.S. intelligence community opened his remarks at a rare public appearance last week with a lament …

Google Reader dies today.  Here's why I'm not replacing it.  —  Google Reader will die tonight.  And I'm going to miss it terribly.  But I'm not going to replace it.  I'm going back to plain old bookmarks.  —  Goodbye Google Reader.  My conflicted feelings about your loss are represented by this moody photograph.

American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World  —  LACONIA, N.H. — Seven months pregnant, at a time when most expectant couples are stockpiling diapers and choosing car seats, Renée Martin was struggling with bigger purchases.  —  At a prenatal class in March, she was told …

Worries Swirl Over California's Initiatives  —  Supreme Court's Dismissal of State's Gay-Marriage Ban Raises Concerns that the Move Sets Precedent Limiting Voter Power  —  LOS ANGELES—Even as gay-rights advocates in California spent the weekend celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing …

A Republican Case for Immigration Reform  —  While the Senate bill can be improved, it would welcome more skilled workers and lead to faster economic growth.  —  Now that the Senate has passed comprehensive immigration reform, the action shifts to the House of Representatives.

Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees  —  A growing number of American workers are confronting a frustrating predicament on payday: to get their wages, they must first pay a fee.  —  For these largely hourly workers, paper paychecks and even direct deposit have been replaced by prepaid cards issued by their employers.

JFK Airport security supervisor axed after accidentally sending XXX photo of his genitals in mass email blast  —  A JFK Airport security supervisor has been fired for mistakenly sending out a mass e-mail blast — of his genitals — to nearly two dozen shocked underlings, supervisors and Port Authority executives.