Uphill battle for Obama: Where Congress stands on Syria  —  President Obama faces a daunting battle to win congressional authorization for a military strike on Syria, a USA TODAY Network survey finds.  But a large number of undecideds may be open to persuasion.  —  CONNECT

Sen. Tom Udall: ‘My heart is broken’ by Syrian videos  —  An opponent of President Obama's plan to launch a military mission into Syria said that new videos seeming to show the victims of chemical weapons attacks do not change his mind.  —  “My heart is broken when I see that video …

Global warming?  No, actually we're cooling, claim scientists  —  A cold Arctic summer has led to a record increase in the ice cap, leading experts to predict a period of global cooling.

Fox News Pundit Shuts Down Network's Hysteria Over Benghazi: 'It's Gone, Baby.  It's In Your Head'  —  Fox News' Juan Williams tersely dismissed the GOP's year-long effort to implicate the Obama administration in a so-called “cover-up” of the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi …

NAACP chief Ben Jealous to resign, cites family reasons  —  NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous says he wants to spend more time with his wife and children.  —  CONNECT  —  The man who has become the face of the NAACP — from marches protesting the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin …

LEFT WITH NOTHING.  —  On the day Bennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to the curb.  —  Movers carted out his easy chair, his clothes, his television.

Obama administration had restrictions on NSA reversed in 2011  —  The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency's use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately …

Elizabeth Warren assails Supreme Court as too far right  —  LOS ANGELES - Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka denounced the United States Supreme Court on Sunday as a right-wing panel that serves the interests of corporate America, previewing a theme …

Charlie Rose interviews Bashar Assad  —  Charlie Rose interviewed Syrian President Bashar Assad at the presidential palace in Damascus on Sunday morning.  —  The interview, Assad's first with an American television network in nearly two years, will air in its entirety on PBS's “Charlie Rose” …

Iowa grants gun permits to the blind  —  No one questions the legality of the permits, but some officials worry about public safety.  —  CONNECT  —  DES MOINES, Iowa — Here's some news that has law enforcement officials and lawmakers scratching their heads:

Benghazi Whistleblower: I've Been ‘Punished’ for Speaking Out  —  Gregory Hicks, the former Deputy Chief of Mission in Libya who testified before Congress about the 9/11 attacks on an American diplomatic facility earlier this year, believes he has been “punished” for speaking …

Barry's War Within  —  WASHINGTON — THE winner of the Nobel Peace Prize had been up late pleading for war.  —  The president looked exhausted as he met the press in St. Petersburg on Friday.  The man elected because of his magical powers of persuasion had failed to persuade other world leaders …