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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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” …