Iowa Poll: The early favorites for 2016 presidential race  —  Iowa Poll: Presidential candidate preferences: Iowa Poll: Presidential candidate preferences  —  Hillary Clinton, left, and Paul Ryan / Getty Images photos  —  Coming Monday  —  How do Iowans feel about health care reform and its rollout?

Ambassador Kennedy: A star is born  —  Caroline Kennedy is a long way from Syracuse.  —  The soft-spoken presidential scion, who four years ago this month toured upstate New York in a short and ill-fated bid for the U.S. Senate, has swept with force into her newest public role as President Barack Obama's ambassador in Japan.

White House delayed enacting rules ahead of 2012 election to avoid controversy  —  The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election …

ARAPAHOE HIGH GUNMAN HELD STRONG POLITICAL BELIEFS, CLASSMATES SAID  —  The teenage gunman who entered Arapahoe High School on Friday afternoon and shot two fellow students with a shotgun was outspoken about politics, was a gifted debater and might have been bullied for his beliefs, according to students who knew him.

Enrollment Errors Cut, Officials Say; Fixes Are Overstated, Insurers Report  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Saturday that it had reduced the error rate in enrollment data sent to insurance companies under the new health care law, even as insurers said that files they received …

The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder  —  The Number of Diagnoses Soared Amid a 20-Year Drug Marketing Campaign  —  After more than 50 years leading the fight to legitimize attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Keith Conners could be celebrating.  —  Severely hyperactive …

Tea Party candidates launch battle against Republican honchos  —  Several Republican senators' reelection efforts are being threatened by conservative challengers such as the controversial Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.)  —  Republican honchos like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) are facing an uprising.

“Never be afraid of tenderness”  —  In this exclusive interview, Pope Francis speaks about Christmas, hunger in the world, the suffering of children, the reform of the Roman Curia, women cardinals, the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), and the upcoming visit to the Holy Land

SantaCon is on!  Drunken Saint Nicks, Mrs. Clauses swarm city streets  —  The annual bacchanal kicked off in the East Village, but the belligerent Santas and naughty elves made their way towards Downtown Brooklyn for a ‘Rudolph Dance-Off.’  —  The SantaCon Twitter account …

Congress turns to tax reform  —  Updating the federal tax code could be the next area that the Democratic Senate can find common ground with the Republican House, according to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).  —  Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman …

Restriction of Immigration  —  When we speak of the restriction of immigration, at the present time, we have not in mind measures undertaken for the purpose of straining out from the vast throngs of foreigners arriving at our ports a few hundreds, or possibly thousands of persons, deaf, dumb …

Officials Say U.S. May Never Know Extent of Snowden's Leaks  —  WASHINGTON — American intelligence and law enforcement investigators have concluded that they may never know the entirety of what the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden extracted from classified government computers …

Inequality As A Defining Challenge  —  It has taken an amazingly long time, but inequality is finally surfacing as a significant unifying issue for progressives — including the president.  And there is, inevitably, a backlash, or actually a couple of backlashes.