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 …

Harry Reid Told Caucus That Pete Sessions Was Behind Obama Insult, Senators Say  —  WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told his Democratic caucus last week in a private meeting that a top House Republican said to President Barack Obama, “I cannot even stand to look at you …

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.

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.

Buck Stops With Obama on Rocky Rollout of Health Care Plan  —  The HealthCare.gov debacle has been thoroughly dissected so far by America's best health journalists and policy analysts.  To be sure, every major rollout of a new or changed social policy, including Medicare itself, is rough and takes weeks or months to resolve.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Study: ObamaCare spending to top contractors tops $1B  —  A surge in government spending in the six months before the ObamaCare exchanges went live pushed federal spending to top government contractors over the $1 billion mark, a new study finds.  —  According to the report released Thursday …

How The Pope Could Tear Apart The Religious Right  —  Conservative Christians revolt against the new pope's new tone.  “That man needs to read his Bible,” says one evangelical.  —  John Gara  —  WASHINGTON — As political spectators gawk at the “civil war” currently engulfing Congressional Republicans …

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.

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 …

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 …

Case Explores Rights of Fetus Versus Mother  —  JACKSON, Wis. — Alicia Beltran cried with fear and disbelief when county sheriffs surrounded her home on July 18 and took her in handcuffs to a holding cell.  —  She was 14 weeks pregnant and thought she had done the right thing when …