‘I am Chelsea’: Read Manning's full statement  —  Video: “I am Chelsea Manning.  I am female,” explains the Army private via a statement read on TODAY Thursday.  Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday for leaking classified government documents.

Bradley Manning wants to live as a woman, be known as Chelsea  —  (CNN) — “I am Chelsea Manning.”  —  With those words, read from a statement on NBC's “Today” on Thursday, Bradley Manning immediately shifted public conversation away from the Army private's conviction on espionage charges to gender identity.

The Movement to Defund Obamacare, Explained  —  The activists pushing the latest Tea Party cause can't explain how their effort to stop health-care reform could ever possibly succeed.  Will they shut down the government?  —  The Tea Party has a new obsession: killing Obamacare by stripping the funding needed to implement the law.

The great Democrat hope: Government shutdown  —  They'd never say it publicly.  But catch many Democrats in an honest moment and they would admit that a Republican-led government shut down this fall might be the best thing — perhaps the only thing — that could revive their fading hopes of capturing the House next year.