Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Cheney shooting incident: ‘Look, it happens’  —  AKRON, IA — Republicans have become accustomed to defending former Vice President Dick Cheney's political record, but Texas firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz is now defending his reputation as a hunter.

United States tracked Merkel's phone since 2002: report  —  (Reuters) - The United States may have bugged Angela Merkel's phone for more than 10 years, according to a news report on Saturday that also said President Barack Obama told the German leader he would have stopped it happening had he known about it.

Rice Offers a More Modest Strategy for Mideast  —  WASHINGTON — Each Saturday morning in July and August, Susan E. Rice, President Obama's new national security adviser, gathered half a dozen aides in her corner office in the White House to plot America's future in the Middle East.

A frustrated and angry West Virginia has been cutting ties with its reliably Democratic roots  —  PINEVILLE, W.Va. — Those old enough to remember still tell visitors how this mountain town helped make history on April 26, 1960.  That was the day 600 people showed up in front …

Exclusive: The feds have made 330,000 Obamacare subsidy calculations  —  More than 330,000 people have managed to get deep enough into new government health insurance Web sites to learn how much financial assistance they will receive purchasing coverage, the Internal Revenue Service said Saturday.

Libertarians And Progressives Team Up Against NSA Surveillance  —  Hundreds of protesters descend upon Washington to protest NSA surveillance practices.  —  Gary Johnson and Medea Benjamin  —  Rosie Gray  —  WASHINGTON — Progressives and libertarians came together in Washington on Saturday …

Miners' deaths aren't a theme-park thrill  —  “Alone in the darkness . . . the only sound is the pulsing of your heart as the searing heat slowly boils you alive . . .  It was reported to be the worst coal mine accident in history.

Bill de Blasio for Mayor  —  The rise of Bill de Blasio, New York City's public advocate, has been remarkable.  In a clamorous primary campaign against better known, more seasoned candidates, he won the Democratic nomination without a runoff, by appealing directly and doggedly to struggling …

In Fed and Out, Many Now Think Inflation Helps  —  WASHINGTON — Inflation is widely reviled as a kind of tax on modern life, but as Federal Reserve policy makers prepare to meet this week, there is growing concern inside and outside the Fed that inflation is not rising fast enough.

All the Wrong People Are Getting Obamacare  —  The state insurance exchanges have been the highlight of a so far dismal rollout process for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  When Obamacare's supporters are challenged on the law's merits, that's where they point to show …

Health Site Woes Undermine Obama's Vow on Government  —  WASHINGTON — The implicit promise of Barack Obama's presidency, delivered during the 2008 campaign and again repeatedly since then, was that government would not face a debacle like the recent malfunction of the technology behind the president's new health care marketplaces.