Obama distress signal: President seeks help from first-term A-Team  —  A struggling President Obama is calling for help from members of his first-term A-Team, who have left the White House for other jobs.  —  With his poll numbers falling and his second-term floundering so far …

Release Detail  —  September 18, 2013 - Virginia Voters Dislike Mcauliffe Less Than Cuccinelli, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Libertarian Could Be Key In Tight Race  —  With 7 percent of likely voters, Robert Sarvis, the Libertarian candidate in the too-close-to call Virginia governor's race …

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.

The Money Behind the Shutdown Crisis  —  Representative Aaron Schock is a conservative Republican from Illinois, but not conservative enough for the hard-right activist group Club for Growth, which is seeking someone to run against him in next year's primary.  —  His crime?

An Open Letter from Howard Schultz, ceo of Starbucks Coffee Company  —  Posted by Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer  —  Few topics in America generate a more polarized and emotional debate than guns.  In recent months, Starbucks stores and our partners …

New York Times gets it wrong, media obsessed with linking AR-15 with Navy Yard shooter  —  The liberal media is so obsessed with linking the Navy Yard shooter with the AR-15 rifle that it is making up false tales of Aaron Alexis trying to obtain one.  —  The New York Times attempts to give …

Dems split on new gun control push  —  Congressional Democrats are divided on whether to renew their push for gun control in the wake of Monday's deadly shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.  —  Hours after Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday called for action on gun legislation …

Undocumented LA County Parents On Pace To Receive $650M In Welfare Benefits  —  LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A projected $650 million in welfare benefits will be distributed to illegal alien parents in 2013, county officials said Monday.  —  Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich announced …

IRS list reveals concerns over Tea Party ‘propaganda’  —  WASHINGTON — Newly uncovered IRS documents show the agency flagged political groups based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about “anti-Obama rhetoric,” inflammatory language and “emotional” …

FOX News announces new prime-time lineup  —  The Fox News Channel's new evening programming schedule will premiere on Oct. 7, with another show joining what is already cable news' top-rated lineup.  —  “On the Record” with Greta Van Sustren will air at 7 p.m. ET, followed by “The O'Reilly Factor,” continuing in its 8 p.m. slot.

Time to Give America a Raise  —  It's been a good week for the nation's numerous poverty-wage workers.  They've been way overdue for a good week.  —  On Tuesday, the Labor Department issued a much anticipated and delayed extension of the federal minimum wage and overtime regulations to the nation's 2 million homecare workers.

Obama: Everybody is wrong to doubt ObamaCare  —  President Obama said Tuesday that Americans were wrong to doubt his signature healthcare reform law, saying concerns over rising costs or worsening health outcomes were not supported by the evidence.  —  In an interview with Telemundo on Tuesday …

White House Shifts Debt-Ceiling Tone, Warning of Fiasco  —  In 2011, then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner repeatedly brushed off questions about whether Congress would raise the debt ceiling.  He wasn't worried, he would tell audiences.  Congress would raise it sooner or later.

Wendy Davis to announce plans on Oct. 3  —  Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis will announce her future plans — which could include a gubernatorial run — early next month, she said in an email to supporters Tuesday.  —  “There's one question I've gotten quite often in the past few months,” the Democrat wrote in an email.

Congress Has No Clothes: A Quick and Dirty Summary of the New FISC Opinion  —  Today's release of two important FISC documents probably won't generate the media frenzy that previous releases of NSA materials have sparked.  As of this writing, the New York Times did not even have the story on its website's home page.

51% Favor Government Shutdown Until Congress Cuts Health Care Funding  —  President Obama yesterday criticized congressional Republicans for insisting on spending cuts in any budget deal that continues government operations past October 1, saying they risk “economic chaos.”

Tennis security exec's ‘racist’ e-mails  —  An exec at the firm that handles security for the US Open tennis tournament in Queens is a raging racist who has it in for black people, shocking e-mails obtained by The Post reveal.  —  Scott Dennison, 56, a VP for special events at Contemporary Services Corp. …