Experts to Obama: Here Is What to Do in Syria  —  A big group of foreign policy experts, from across the ideological spectrum, is calling on President Obama to impose “meaningful consequences on the Assad regime” for their use of chemical weapons.  —  “At a minimum, the United States …

Ben Bradlee's daughter-in-law reveals (almost) all on Facebook  —  Ben Bradlee, one of the great men of American journalism, celebrated his 92nd birthday yesterday, and his daughter-in-law paid tribute by posting a photo of them and saying “it is a dream to be part of his family.”

Robertson: Gay People Deliberately Spread HIV/AIDS By Cutting People With Special Rings  —  Today on the 700 Club, Pat Robertson told co-host Terry Meeuwsen that gay men in cities like San Francisco attempt to spread HIV/AIDS to others by cutting them with a special ring when shaking hands.

Teens face ethnic intimidation charges after brutally beating woman in North Side  —  PITTSBURGH —  Three teenage girls are facing several charges, including ethnic intimidation, after police said they brutally beat a 32-year-old woman Sunday in Pittsburgh's North Side.

Why are Feminists Judging Miley Cyrus?  —  RUSH: This Miley Cyrus incident from Sunday night, “twerking” on the MTV Music Awards, continues to be discussed.  I ran across something today I really want to share with you about the curriculum at many (one particularly, but I'm sure at many other) universities and colleges in this country.

New Jersey's Cory Booker: A perfect senator for ‘This Town’?  —  “That's really a phenomenon of the last two years,” Booker acknowledges, “when people started projecting me, not as this guy working in the inner city, but maybe as somebody who was going somewhere.”

Brian Lewis Speaks Out: Roger Ailes and Fox News Should Fear Him  —  Brian Lewis's attorney Judd Burstein just provided this statement to Gawker: … Fox News President Roger Ailes fired Lewis in late July following accusations of “financial irregularities” and “multiple, material and significant breaches of his employment contract.”

Twerking: A Scientific Explanation  —  Twerking is such a complex, technical subject, only a Ph.D. researcher can explain how the body does what it does to make it happen.  —  Twerking is a combination movement involving a deep squat and a pelvic tilt, Michelle Olson, a professor …

Rape victim, 93, bravely speaks out after she was ‘attacked by 17-year-old boy who kicked in back door of her home as she slept’  —  A 17-year-old boy has been charged with rape following a sickening assault on a 93-year-old woman.  —  Iquise Taylor of Anderson, Indiana …

August 2013 Ratings: MSNBC Down Double Digits  —  MSNBC continued its rough 2013 in the ratings, continuing to lose significant audience from 2012.  The problems were particularly prevalent in primetime, with some shows losing close to -50% of viewers.  —  The ratings for August 2013 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):

Michaud leads in Maine Gubernatorial race  —  Mike Michaud is the new leader in the Maine Governor's race, benefiting from the continued unpopularity of incumbent Paul LePage and declining support for independent Eliot Cutler over the last seven months.  Michaud is at 39% to 35% for LePage and 18% for Cutler.

Boehner visits Boise; vows to succeed with entitlement reform this fall  —  The House speaker predicts ‘a whale of a fight’ but he says the timing is right.  —  House Speaker John Boehner said Monday that getting the GOP-controlled House to agree to raising the U.S. debt ceiling will only come …

Al Jazeera America Launch Ratings  —  Al Jazeera America launched last week, and we have the ratings from Nielsen for its first few days.  —  Not surprisingly given the low-rated channel it replaced (Current TV), and the fact that it lost a few million homes from AT&T before launch …

Bubonic plague outbreak feared in central Asia  —  Health officials on alert after teenager who ate infected barbecued marmot dies and three others are admitted to hospital  —  Health officials fear an outbreak of bubonic plague in central Asia after a teenage boy died from the disease …

Michigan Medicaid Expansion In Legislative Limbo  —  A Michigan bill to expand Medicaid under Obamacare is currently in legislative purgatory after a state senator refused to cast a vote, therefore stymying its passage.  —  The bill needs 20 votes out of the 38-member Senate to pass.

‘Revenge Porn’ Could Be Criminal Offense in California  —  On a recent episode of “The Newsroom,” on HBO, the character Sloan Sabbith, a financial reporter, was mortified when an ex-boyfriend posted compromising pictures of her online, which then went viral.

Wal-Mart will offer health coverage to workers' partners starting in 2014  —  The largest private employer in the United States will provide health insurance to the domestic partners of its U.S. workers starting next year in a major victory for gay rights activists.

10 Questions for Jacob Lew  —  Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has been part of Washington's fiscal battles for three decades, since he served as an aide to then-House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill.  But soon he will be the Obama administration's point man on an unusual convergence of fronts …

Ickes Returns to Democratic Committee's Rules and Bylaws Panel  —  SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Democratic National Committee's summer meeting here late last week was starkly different from the gathering of its Republican counterparts earlier in the month.  There were no surefire news-making speakers …

MSNBC's Karen Finney bails on Hugh Hewitt  —  MSNBC's Karen Finney on Monday hung up on conservative talker Hugh Hewitt after he repeatedly asked her during an interview on his radio show to say whether Alger Hiss was a communist.  —  Hewitt had Finney on his program to discuss her statement …

Fox News expert: ‘Women have the breasts’ so health care should cost more than men  —  A Fox News medical expert on Tuesday argued that President Barack Obama's administration was wrong to force gender equality for health insurance rates because men “only have the prostate,” while women “have the breasts, they have the ovaries.”