'Duck Dynasty's' Phil Robertson on Indefinite Hiatus Following Anti-Gay Remarks  —  UPDATED: The news comes after the reality star compared being gay to bestiality, drawing ire from LGBT groups including GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign.  —  Phil Robertson

Biden ‘dead meat’ in Iowa, governor says  —  Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) - Vice President Joe Biden, widely assumed to be plotting a third presidential bid in 2016, shouldn't bother booking any flights to Des Moines, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said.  —  “Biden is dead meat out here,” …

Pajama Boy, An Insufferable Man-Child  —  He is the face of a web ad that is the latest effort by the Obama team to leverage the holidays for conversation about Obamacare.  “Wear pajamas,” the ad reads.  “Drink hot chocolate.  Talk about getting health insurance.  #GetTalking.”

W.H. to nominate Sen. Max Baucus as next ambassador to China  —  Sen. Max Baucus, the veteran Montana Democrat who has served in the Senate since 1978, is expected to be nominated by the White House to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to China, according to several sources familiar with the matter.

Barack Obama's NSA fine-print problem  —  An independent panel's call for major changes to the nation's surveillance programs ups the pressure on President Barack Obama to back serious reforms.  —  But the big changes the committee is calling for may be less vexing for Obama than one painful …

Rep. Jack Kingston Proposes That Poor Students Sweep Floors In Exchange For Lunch  —  WASHINGTON — Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) wants kids to learn early in life that there's no such thing as a free lunch.  To make sure they absorb that lesson, he's proposing that low-income children …

Uninsured Skeptical of Health Care Law in Poll  —  WASHINGTON — Americans who lack medical coverage disapprove of President Obama's health care law at roughly the same rate as the insured, even though most say they struggle to pay for basic care, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Al Goldstein, Pioneering Pornographer, Dies at 77  —  Al Goldstein, the scabrous publisher whose Screw magazine pushed hard-core pornography into the cultural mainstream, died early Thursday in Brooklyn.  He was 77.  —  The cause was believed to be renal failure, said his lawyer, Charles C. DeStefano.

Obama's extreme use of executive discretion  —  “To contend that the obligation imposed on the president to see the laws faithfully executed implies a power to forbid their execution is a novel construction of the Constitution, and is entirely inadmissible.”  — U.S. Supreme Court, 1838

Record High in U.S. Say Big Government Greatest Threat  —  Now 72% say it is greater threat than big business or big labor  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Seventy-two percent of Americans say big government is a greater threat to the U.S. in the future than is big business or big labor …

Sources: Target Investigating Data Breach  —  Nationwide retail giant Target is investigating a data breach potentially involving millions of customer credit and debit card records, multiple reliable sources tell KrebsOnSecurity.  The sources said the breach appears to have begun …

Patty Murray backs off military pension cut  —  Sen. Patty Murray is distancing herself from a cut in military pensions in the budget deal she brokered with Rep. Paul Ryan.  —  Her unease about a key element of her own deal, which passed the Senate on Wednesday and is now headed to President Barack Obama …

Wyoming Senate race 2014: Liz Cheney husband Phil Perry on vote rolls in 2 states  —  Liz Cheney's husband has been registered to vote in both Virginia and Wyoming for the past nine months, even though he signed a document in Wyoming saying he was not registered elsewhere.

The GOP Repeal Trap  —  The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Indiana, reports on a fascinating exchange between GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman and a local meat market owner, Lee Albright, who likes the Affordable Care Act and quizzed the Congressman about the real world implications of the GOP repeal stance:

Fear of a Black Santa  —  S#&t just got real for Megyn Kelly.  —  “Award-winning Pastry Chef Mahesh Weerasinghe stands with his hand-sculptured, chocolate art at the Hilton Americas, Monday, Dec. 16, 2013, in downtown Houston.  Chef Mahesh, along with the culinary and property operations teams …

In probe of Va. Gov. McDonnell, prosecutors agreed to delay decision on charges  —  View Photo Gallery — McDonnell's time in office comes to a close: Gov. Robert F. McDonnell was supposed to be in the thick of the race to succeed him.  Instead, the Republican found himself relegated …