Vice President Joe Biden will be in Iowa for Harkin steak fry  —  Vice President Joe Biden has accepted U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin's invitation to attend his steak fry this year, White House officials told The Des Moines Register this evening.  —  “It has been a long-standing commitment …

Tennessee Judge orders baby's name be changed from ‘Messiah’  —  Jaleesa Martin and the father of Messiah could not agree on a last name, which is how they ended up at a child support hearing in Cocke County Chancery Court on Thursday.  —  That is when the first name came into question.

Clown Dresses As Obama At MO State Fair, Democrats Cry “Racism®” *UPDATED  —  A rodeo clown at the Missouri State Fair over the weekend donned an Obama mask instead of typical clown fare.  The clown, a participant in the fair and not officially representative of the fair …

First dog Bo is airlifted to Obama holiday home  —  When President Barack Obama goes on holiday to the seaside things can get complicated.  —  Bo, the US First Family's waterdog, gets off the Marine helicopter at Martha's Vineyard  —  Rooms have to be found for dozens of Secret Service agents …

Next fiscal fight: Why Wall Street should worry  —  NEW YORK — Talk to anyone on Wall Street and they will tell you they really don't care about the brewing fiscal storm in Washington.  Possible government shutdown?  Whatever.  Debt ceiling crisis?  Meh.

Justice Dept. Seeks to Curtail Stiff Drug Sentences  —  WASHINGTON — In a major shift in criminal justice policy, the Obama administration will move on Monday to ease overcrowding in federal prisons by ordering prosecutors to omit listing quantities of illegal substances in indictments …

Newark Mayor Cory Booker pocketed ‘confidential’ annual payouts from law firm while in office  —  Cory Booker pocketed “confidential” annual payouts from his former law firm while serving as Newark mayor.  —  Booker, the front-runner in New Jersey's Senate race, received five checks …

Family Rescued In Pacific After Sailing ‘Where God Led Us’ … A leap of faith that sent an Arizona family bound for the South Pacific in a sailboat has returned them in an airplane after a harrowing ordeal at sea that saw them adrift and nearly out of food in one of the remotest stretches of ocean on the planet.

The Budget Sequester Is a Success  —  The Obama spending blitz is over and the deficit is heading below 4% of GDP.  —  The biggest underreported story out of Washington this year is that the federal budget is shrinking and much more than anyone in either party expected.

Weiner unveils first TV ad, vowing to fight ‘powerful voices’  —  Former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) on Sunday unveiled his first television ad in his bid to be New York City mayor, vowing to fight the “powerful voices” he says are trying to force him from the race.

Statement Issued by Ann Heywood  —  Mother of Murdered British Businessman Breaks Her Silence  —  This is the full text of a statement issued Sunday by Ann Heywood, the mother of a British businessman whose murder triggered China's worst political crisis in more than two decades.

Milton Friedman, Unperson  —  Recently Senator Rand Paul, potential presidential candidate and self-proclaimed expert on monetary issues, sat down for an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek.  It didn't go too well.  For example, Mr. Paul talked about America running “a trillion-dollar deficit every year” …

Trump spars with ABC reporter over Obama's birth certificate  —  Donald Trump, in the early presidential caucus state of Iowa this weekend for an event featuring many potential 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls, defended his questioning of President Barack Obama's place of birth in an interview aired Sunday on ABC's “This Week.”

Man shoots and kills son, himself at Manchester YWCA  —  Muni Savyon fatally shoots 9-year-old son  —  A man shot and killed his son before taking his own life at the YWCA in Manchester on Sunday morning, police said.  —  According to the attorney general's office, Muni Savyon, 54 …

NBC Buying Web Service to Stream Phone Video  —  When a plane crashes or a protest turns violent, television crews speed to the scene.  But they typically do not arrive for minutes or even hours, so these days photos and videos by amateurs — what the news industry calls “user-generated content” — fill the void.