ObamaCare website contractors blame Obama administration  —  Principal contractors hired to build the ObamaCare website HealthCare.gov are hitting back at the Obama administration for the site's overwhelming technical problems.  —  The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) …

Obama wants Marines to wear ‘girly’ hats  —  A change to the Marine Corps' uniform hats could take the hard-nosed Leathernecks from the Halls of Montezuma to the shops of Christopher Street.  —  Thanks to a plan by President Obama to create a “unisex” look for the Corps …

A Wife Committed to Cruz's Ideals, but a Study in Contrasts to Him  —  WASHINGTON — At first glance, Senator Ted Cruz's wife, Heidi Nelson Cruz, seems to be just the sort of person the Tea Party supporters who celebrate her husband's anti-establishment positions love to hate.

Trash-talking the president  —  No matter how many times you've been there, the White House is a pretty awesome place, conferring on every president what “The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin once called “the single greatest home-court advantage in the modern world.”

What makes HealthCare.gov so complicated?  —  Building a website in 2013 should be as easy as U-R-L, so what's the deal with HealthCare.gov?  —  The White House billed the Obamacare portal as the Kayak.com of health coverage — only instead of plane rides, it was selling health insurance.

Why Obamacare Is Like Three Mile Island  —  I've been blogging a lot over the past week or so about the risk of an insurance market “death spiral” — where young people stay away, so the only people buying insurance are old and sick, causing the cost of insurance to rise over time and pushing ever …

Hillary Clinton speaks at UB, is heckled … AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) - Former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to a large crowd at the University at Buffalo Wednesday night, as part of the university's Distinguished Speaker Series.

Inside the Messy but Moneyed Republican Plan to Neutralize the Tea Party  —  The business-friendly GOP establishment is putting its cash to work in skirmishes across the country that might reshape the 2014 elections.  —  It took a tea party insurrection that disabled the federal government …

Gansler says breaking up teen party was not his job  —  Attorney general has advocated against underage drinking  —  Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler (white shirt with cell phone, right of center) is seen in a photo posted to Instagram from a senior week party in Delaware this summer.

Health Care Law Fails to Lower Prices for Rural Areas  —  As technical failures bedevil the rollout of President Obama's health care law, evidence is emerging that one of the program's loftiest goals — to encourage competition among insurers in an effort to keep costs low — is falling short for many rural Americans.

NYT's Rick Berke to join POLITICO as executive editor  —  Rick Berke, the veteran New York Times editor, has been named executive editor at POLITICO.  —  Berke, who joined the Times as a reporter in 1986, replaces Jim VandeHei, who was promoted earlier this month to President and CEO of POLITICO and Capital New York.

GOP reconsiders Obamacare tactics  —  Some Republicans say a unified focus on spending levels could prove to be the strongest ground on which to fight.  Democrats loathe sequester-level spending — their 2014 budget totaled $1.058 trillion.  If all Republicans demand a clean government funding bill …

Lew calls on Congress to replace sequester  —  Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Thursday said House and Senate budget negotiators should replace the sequester with other spending cuts.  —  Lew said the sequester has been a drag on the economy, and that it should be replaced with longer-term measures to reduce spending.

Teacher Took Students to Strip Club: Police  —  Travis Lechien, of Crown Point, Ind., faces up to one year in prison  —  A northwest Indiana teacher who allegedly took some students to a strip club and gave them alcoholic beverages at his home was terminated Tuesday night, district officials said.

The Devil and Herman Cain  —  It's been two years since allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced, but Herman Cain is finally fighting back.  —  The former Republican presidential hopeful gave RealClearReligion an exclusive look at evidence he'll be using in a soon-to-be published column …

Obamacare hearings: Oversight or heckling?  —  There's congressional oversight that answers everyone's most urgent questions - and then there's just heckling from the partisan peanut gallery.  —  Over the next few weeks, Republicans are going to have to decide which path they're …

Henninger: Obama's Credibility Is Melting  —  Here and abroad, Obama's partners are concluding they cannot trust him.

Live Blog: Thursday's Hearing on HealthCare.gov Problems  —  A new round of finger-pointing will kick off Thursday morning when a House committee grills four contractors involved in the development of Healthcare.gov, the troubled site where uninsured consumers are supposed to be able to sign up for health insurance.