Obama Rejects Criticism of Shifting Syria Policy: 'I'm Less Concerned About Style Points'  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama says a tumultuous month as commander in chief, when his policy toward Syria took a number of unexpected turns, may not have looked “smooth and disciplined and linear,” but it's working.

Russia deal opens door to end Syrian civil war, says Rep. Cummings  —  The U.S.-Russian deal to end Syria's chemical weapons program could be the diplomatic opening President Obama is seeking to end the bloody civil war in the Mideast country, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md) said Sunday.

Angry House Republicans want better communication from leaders  —  Republican lawmakers are growing increasingly frustrated with what they say is a lack of communication from their leaders.  —  Both centrist and conservative members in the House believe that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) …

By the Book  —  What's the best book you've read so far this year?  —  I've been reading autobiographies to get me in the mood for writing my own and show me how it's done: Tolstoy (at one time my own memoir was to have been called, at my wife's suggestion, “Childhood, Boyhood, Truth"); …

Global warming is just HALF what we said: World's top climate scientists admit computers got the effects of greenhouse gases wrong  —  A leaked copy of the world's most authoritative climate study reveals scientific forecasts of imminent doom were drastically wrong.

Big U.S. banks keeping door open to another financial crisis  —  Big banks have watered down rules aimed at keeping them from fobbing bad loans off on investors and ensured loopholes in transparency rules.  ‘Fundamentally not that much has changed,’ an analyst says.

Don't blame climate change for extreme weather  —  Bjørn Lomborg, an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, directs the Copenhagen Consensus Center.  He is the author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” “Cool It” and, most recently, “How Much Have Global Problems Cost the World?