Democrat Manchin Breaks Ranks to Back Mandate Delay  —  U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia broke ranks with fellow Democrats and said he'd support a stopgap spending plan that delays the individual mandate in President Barack Obama's health-care law.  —  “There's no way I could not vote for it …

Tea Party Support Dwindles to Near-Record Low  —  Republicans ambivalent about movement, while most Democrats oppose it  —  PRINCETON, NJ — As Washington braces for another budget showdown, this time with the threat of defunding the new healthcare law in the mix, the key political force pushing …

Italian pasta baron's anti-gay comment prompts boycott call  —  * Gay, lesbian groups call for consumer boycott  —  * Barilla apologises, emphasises women's “central role”  —  Guido Barilla, chairman of the world's leading pasta manufacturer, prompted calls for a consumer boycott on Thursday …

Wendy Davis tells Democrats she's in  —  Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis and her advisers have begun informing influential Democrats that she intends to run for governor in 2014, according to multiple sources familiar with Davis's conversations.  —  The Fort Worth legislator made a national name …

Comedian Arrested After Punching Journalist Josh Rogin at D.C.'s Funniest Celebrity Competition  —  This year's D.C.'s Funniest Celebrity contest may go down as the most memorable and not for what was going on onstage.  Comedy headliner Dan Nainan — a professional comedian who in the past …

Another Obamacare delay  —  The Obama administration is delaying another piece of Obamacare - this time postponing online enrollment in some of the small-business exchanges scheduled to open Oct. 1, sources tell POLITICO.  —  Small businesses looking to enroll in coverage on so-called SHOP exchanges run …

Now Revealed by Stripper: Booker's Twitter Messages  —  Mayor Cory A. Booker has a high schooler's affinity for Twitter, reveling in its ceaseless flow of affirmation and infinite space for self-promotion.  —  But the occasional perils of his reliance on the social media service became evident …

Marissa Alexander will get a new trial  —  Marissa Alexander, the African-American woman who was sentenced to 20 years for discharging a firearm in Florida despite pleading Stand Your Ground against her husband, will get a new trial.  Alexander, 32, said she fired a bullet at the ceiling because she was afraid of her husband.

If John Boehner Knows What's Good For Him, He'll Shut Down the Government  —  What the hell is John Boehner thinking?  I don't mean that strictly in a rhetorical sense, though it's hard not to slap your head when you see the most powerful Republican in the country lurching from one cockamamie strategy to another.

“If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't let these people run my bathwater”  —  In one of the more remarkable television interviews with a politician I have ever seen, ex-Rep. Shelley Berkley eviscerated her U.S. Senate campaign staff for bottling her up, not having a strategy and being too paranoid.

Let ObamaCare Collapse  —  Congress can't kill the entitlement state.  Only the American people can.  —  What the GOP's Defund-ObamaCare Caucus is failing to see is that ObamaCare is no longer just ObamaCare.  It is about something that is beyond the reach of a congressional vote.

IRS Watchdog: $67 Million Missing from Obamacare Slush Fund  —  The IRS is unable to account for $67 million spent from a slush fund established for Obamacare implementation, according to a TIGTA report released today.  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. - The IRS is unable to account for $67 million spent …

INTERPOL issues Red Notice for arrest of Samantha Lewthwaite at Kenya's request  —  Public's help in identifying and locating ‘White Widow’ fugitive crucial, says INTERPOL Chief  —  LYON, France - An INTERPOL Red Notice, or internationally wanted persons alert, has been issued …

Looting the Pension Funds  —  All across America, Wall Street is grabbing money meant for public workers  —  In the final months of 2011, almost two years before the city of Detroit would shock America by declaring bankruptcy in the face of what it claimed were insurmountable pension costs …

Man Accidentally Shoots Self In Abdomen At McDonald's After Smoking Pot, Police Say  —  Police said a man trying to place his gun in his waistband accidentally shot himself in the abdomen Wednesday night at a McDonald's parking lot in Callaway, Fla., the Panama City News-Herald reported.

School official tells students Trayvon Martin case proved it is ‘legal to hunt’ children  —  An email sent to students by a University of Maryland official that cites the Trayvon Martin shooting as evidence “it is legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida” …

Wisconsin bridge drops 2 feet  —  (CNN) — Call it the “cheese dip.”  —  A 400-foot section of the Leo Frigo Bridge — named after a late Wisconsin cheese scion — suddenly sagged Wednesday, forcing police to close off the span that carries Interstate 43 over the Fox River some 120 feet below.