Signs of Mental Illness Seen in Navy Gunman for Decade  —  WASHINGTON — The former Navy reservist who killed 12 people in a shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday had exhibited signs of mental illness dating back more than a decade, including a recent episode in which he complained …

FRIEND: NAVY YARD SHOOTER LIBERAL, SUPPORTED OBAMA  —  Tuesday, on CNN's “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” Michael Ritrovato spoke at length about his friend, suspected Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis.  After expressing his condolences to the victims and their families, Ritrovato then expressed …

If House Republicans can't hold together, they have no leverage at all.  —  Perhaps the only war strategizing more inept than President Obama's on Syria are GOP plans for the budget hostilities this autumn.  Republicans are fracturing over tactics, and even over the nature of political reality …

House to Vote on Defunding Obamacare  —  Leadership sources tell me the House GOP will soon vote on a continuing resolution that simultaneously funds the federal government and defunds Obamacare.  Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor are expected to announce the decision at Wednesday's closed-door conference meeting.

Senate, House Ensnared in Health Care Controversy  —  Implacable Republican opposition to Obamacare has Congress once more veering closer to gridlock.  —  In the House, more than 60 conservatives support tacking a one-year delay in implementing the health care law onto a bill needed to prevent a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1.

The typical American family makes less than it did in 1989  —  The Census Bureau is out with the annual report on incomes and poverty.  And while you might think that after years of stagnant incomes and elevated poverty rates, we would be inured to the depressing facts contained therein, it still somehow has the power to shock.