A Limit on Consumer Costs Is Delayed in Health Care Law  —  WASHINGTON — In another setback for President Obama's health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.

How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets  —  This past January, Laura Poitras received a curious e-mail from an anonymous stranger requesting her public encryption key.  For almost two years, Poitras had been working on a documentary about surveillance, and she occasionally received queries from strangers.

Release Detail  —  August 13, 2013 - De Blasio Leads See-Saw New York City Mayoral Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Stop-And-Frisk Could Be Helping New Front-Runner  —  With strong support from white Democratic likely primary voters and voters critical of the so- called stop-and-frisk police tactic …

A Former Engine of the G.O.P., the Town Hall Meeting, Cools Down  —  WASHINGTON — Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, is no stranger to town hall meetings and their political possibilities.  Four summers ago, he helped his party use them to stoke opposition to President Obama's health care bill.

The Economic Benefits of Providing a Path to Earned Citizenship  —  Today, the White House released a report detailing the economic benefits of providing a path to earned citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living and working in the U.S. shadow economy.

Don't vote for Cory Booker today  —  Today New Jersey Democrats will decide who will be their nominee for the United States Senate.  The winner of today's primary election will be the heavy favorite in the general election.  If any New Jersey voters are reading, and they have not yet voted …

White House denies intel chief will lead NSA surveillance review  —  The Obama administration is denying that James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, will control a review of the government's surveillance programs.  —  Privacy advocates expressed dismay on Monday …

400 US surface-to-air missiles were ‘STOLEN’ from Libya during the Benghazi attack and are ‘now in the hands of Al Qaeda’, claims whistleblower  —  Four hundred American surface-to-air missiles were ‘taken from Libya’ during the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi …

Exclusive: After Multiple Denials, CIA Admits to Snooping on Noam Chomsky  —  For years, the Central Intelligence Agency denied it had a secret file on MIT professor and famed dissident Noam Chomsky.  But a new government disclosure obtained by The Cable reveals for the first time that the agency …

50 Years Later, Fighting the Same Civil Rights Battle  —  WASHINGTON — John Lewis was the 23-year-old son of Alabama sharecroppers and already a veteran of the civil rights movement when he came to the capital 50 years ago this month to deliver a fiery call for justice on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Until Last Week, The Official Policy Of One Virginia City Was To Assume All Rape Victims Were Lying  —  Until last week, Norfolk, Virginia police classified sexual assault claims to be “unfounded” — or not valid — by default.  According to the Virginian-Pilot, a 22-year-old woman's case …

Thoughts on the Road Ahead in North Carolina  —  Today North Carolina's governor signed one of the most restrictive voting laws in the Nation.  I have been trying to think of another state law passed since the 1965 Voting Rights Act to rival this law but I cannot.

Jean Bethke Elshtain, a Political Scientist Unafraid to Talk God, Has Died  —  “We're in real danger of reducing the person to his or her genotype,” she warned in 2001.  —  “Public intellectuals, much of the time at least, should be party poopers,” Jean Bethke Elshtain declared in 2001.

Porn Professor Hugo Schwyzer Comes Clean About His Twitter Meltdown and Life as a Fraud  —  He built a successful, if divisive, career as a ‘male feminist’ and porn advocate.  Then his life fell apart—on Twitter.  He talks to Richard Abowitz about what fueled his epic meltdown.

Ignoring the realities of NYC crime  —  New York's 20-year reprieve from debilitating violence may well be over.  Yesterday, US District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the New York Police Department has been willfully targeting blacks and Hispanics for unlawful stop …

Tackling the Roots of Rape  —  Steubenville.  The Naval Academy.  Vanderbilt University.  The stories of young men sexually assaulting young women seem never to stop, despite all the education we've had and all the progress we've supposedly made, and there are times when I find myself darkly wondering …

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Friends Should Not Spend 25 Years in Prison  —  They're collateral damage in the Boston Marathon bombing.  —  Last week, Carmen Ortiz, Boston's top federal prosecutor, indicted Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, two college buddies of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Post v. Putin — Whose Side Are You On?  —  The culture war has gone global.  —  And the divisions are not only between, but within nations.  —  “Suddenly, homosexuality is against the law,” wailed Jay Leno.  “I mean, this seems like Germany.  Let's round up the Jews.  Let's round up the gays. ...

McConnell: ‘Shutting Down the Government Will Not Stop Obamacare’  —  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told a crowd at a health care forum in Kentucky on Tuesday that while he does not like the president's health care law, shutting down the government over funding it “will not stop” it from existing.

In 1994, there was a ‘George Bush’ rodeo clown dummy  —  In the wake of ‘Clown-gate’ at the Missouri State Fair, it appears that professional rodeo clowns will think twice before mocking the president.  —  But in 1994, Douglas A. Campbell, a writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer chronicled a rodeo clown even featuring George H.W. Bush.

Obama grabs fried seafood takeout for lunch with Jarrett  —  President Obama's fourth day on a dreary Martha's Vineyard saw the president stop by a snack bar on the waterfront for fried seafood and then swing by the vacation home of senior adviser Valerie Jarrett for lunch.

Gohmert: Obama Stirring up ‘Racial Tension and Violence’  —  Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) yesterday maintained that President Obama is stirring up “racial tension and violence” to a point not experienced in decades.  While speaking to conservative talk show host Steve Malzberg about the Department …

Labrador to announce political plans Wednesday  —  Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said this afternoon he will announce his future political plans during a press conference Wednesday though he gave no indication of the exact time or location.  —  The two-term congressman from Idaho's First District …