Unclassified Syria briefing exposes rifts among key lawmakers  —  Thursday night's briefing by top Obama administration officials exposed divisions among key lawmakers on what to do in Syria.  —  Lawmakers on the unclassified conference call said the officials made it clear that President Obama …

David Miranda was carrying password for secret files on piece of paper  —  A journalist's partner who was detained carrying thousands of British intelligence documents through Heathrow airport was also holding the password to an encrypted file written on a piece of paper, the government has disclosed.

White House, Republican senators give up on budget talks  —  The Obama administration and a group of Republican senators abandoned efforts Thursday to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a showdown over the national debt, saying they had failed to resolve their long-standing dispute over taxes.

Alabama Republican Wants to Ban Toni Morrison's ‘The Bluest Eye’ from Schools  —  Bowing to Tea Party pressure, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw said this week that he thinks The Bluest Eye, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's novel about a little black girl who wishes for blue eyes, should be banned in schools.

Facebook Post Said to Be by Assad's Son Dares Americans to Attack  —  A Facebook post said to be written by the 11-year-old son of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and “liked” or commented on by several people who appear to be the children and grandchildren of other senior members …

The Unsaved World  —  The rupiah is falling!  Head for the hills!  On second thought, keep calm and carry on.  —  In case you're wondering, the rupiah is the national currency of Indonesia, and, like many other emerging-market currencies, it has fallen a lot over the past few months.

What ‘The Butler’ gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race  —  Steven F. Hayward, Paul Kengor, Craig Shirley and Kiron K. Skinner are Ronald Reagan historians.  —  One cold evening in Dixon, Ill., in the early 1930s, a young man known as Dutch Reagan brought home two African American teammates from his Eureka College football team.

DNI Clapper Directs Annual Release of Information Related to Orders Issued to Telecom Providers Under National Security Authorities  —  August 29, 2013  —  In June, President Obama directed the Intelligence Community (IC) to declassify and make public as much information as possible …

Pelosi: I Don't Want to Be Speaker Again  —  “No, that's not my thing.  I did that.”  —  D.C. is a wait-and-then-hurry-up kind of town.  After more than a month away, Congress returns to a full plate.  Legislators need to find a way—and quickly—to pass some kind of short-term budget and deal with the debt ceiling.

Poverty Has Same Effect On The Brain As Constantly Pulling All Nighters  —  The mental strain of living in poverty and thinking constantly about tight finances can drop a person's IQ by as much as 13 percent, or about the equivalent of losing a night of sleep, according to a new study.

Liz Cheney says gay marriage should be decided by the states  —  Liz Cheney flatly declared on Friday that she is “not pro-gay marriage.”  —  Cheney, a Republican running for the U.S. Senate in Wyoming, made the policy statement after accusing the campaign of incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Enzi …

Leading Democrats, de Blasio Has Broad Support as Primary Nears  —  Frustration with New York City's unaffordability and its aggressive police tactics is elevating Bill de Blasio, once dismissed as a left-leaning long shot, into the lead of the Democratic mayoral primary field …