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

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” …

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 …

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 …