Obama announces proposals to reform NSA surveillance  —  President Obama announced plans Friday to pursue reforms that would open the legal proceedings surrounding the National Security Agency's surveillance programs to greater scrutiny, the administration's most concerted response yet to a series of national security disclosures.

TRANSCRIPT: President Obama's August 9, 2013, news conference at the White House  —  By Washington Post Staff,  —  President Obama took questions from reporters at the White House on Aug. 9, 2013.  —  PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Good afternoon, everybody.  Please have a seat.

Boxer Sends Open Letter to San Diego Mayor Bob Filner  —  Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today sent an open letter to San Diego Mayor Bob Filner.  The text of the letter follows:  —  Dear Bob,  —  We've known each other for a long time, and have worked together …

Rand Paul on Republicans' Voter Appeal and the Federal Reserve  —  How seriously are you thinking about the White House?  —  At this point we're thinking about ways to grow the Republican Party and won't make any decision about whether that involves me running or not for about a year.

LePage in fighter jet simulator: ‘I want to find the Press Herald building and blow it up’  —  NORTH BERWICK, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage — who earlier this summer told his commissioners to stop speaking to reporters from the Portland Press Herald and its two sister papers after he objected …

Reid raises race in discussing GOP opposition to Obama's agenda  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Friday said he hoped GOP opposition to President Obama was not based on his race.  —  Reid made the comments in response to a question during a radio interview.

The Bourne Hypocrisy: Matt Damon's Peculiar School Choice  —  The movie star's explanation for sending his four daughters to private school is disingenuous.  —  Oscar winner Matt Damon has earned millions successfully playing a super spy, tortured genius, rugby icon, and poker player.

How Dumb Is Immigration Debate?  This Dumb.  —  Everything you know about immigration, particularly unauthorized immigration, is wrong.  —  So says Princeton University's Doug Massey, anyway.  Massey is one of the nation's preeminent immigration scholars.

Patch staffers will be laid off and sites closed over next 7 days as Tim Armstrong takes charge  —  Patch employees listened in on this morning's conference call expecting to hear that hundreds are losing their jobs today.  But AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong told the listeners that the layoffs …

Ken Cuccinelli slams Terry McAuliffe at forum  —  MANASSAS, Va. — Republican Ken Cuccinelli threw the kitchen sink at his Democratic opponent Friday, using a forum here to unload the most blisteringly negative and far-reaching attacks yet of an already nasty governor's race.

Anthony Weiner slips to lowest rating ever in poll of Democratic voters  —  City Council Speaker Christine Quinn leads with 24% approval among Democrats, while an embattled Anthony Weiner falls to only 10% approval, according to New York Times/Siena College poll.

Why can't we talk about IQ?  —  “IQ is a metric of such dubiousness that almost no serious educational researcher uses it anymore,” the Guardian's Ana Marie Cox wrote back in May.  It was a breathtakingly ignorant statement.  Psychologist Jelte Wicherts noted in response that a search for …

Candy Crowley on Clinton documentary: ‘Life more difficult’  —  In the wake of news that NBC plans a four-part drama about the life of Hillary Clinton and that CNN has commissioned a documentary on her, both television networks have had to deflect criticism that these are designed to bolster a potential Clinton presidential run.

Twitter seeks clout in Washington  —  Twitter is ready to play the Washington power game.  —  The company is starting its own political action committee — called Twitter#PAC — and has registered its first in-house lobbyist as it seeks influence in the nation's capital.