The Obamacare We Deserve  —  TODAY marks the beginning of health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act's new insurance exchanges, for which two million Americans have signed up.  Now that the individual mandate is officially here, let me begin with an admission: Obamacare is awful.

Chief Justice Warns Sequestration Cuts Already Threatening Public Safety  —  Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, in his annual Year-End Report on the State of the Federal Judiciary, blasted the 2011 Budget Control Act's automatic “sequestration” federal spending cuts and warned …

Reid says jobless aid vote coming Monday  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told The Associated Press in an interview that the Senate will vote Monday on a three-month extension of federal unemployment benefits.  —  Calling the House a “black hole of legislation,” …

Last Slide  —  The new year got a little happier for pot smokers in Colorado on Wednesday as the nation's first retail outlets for recreational marijuana opened their doors.  —  “Marijuana does not have to be a burden to our communities,” said Betty Aldworth, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association.

Justice Sotomayor grants temporary Obamacare exemption to nuns  —  The Catholic nuns would have faced ‘draconian fines’ if they failed to provide contraceptive coverage, as the healthcare law requires.  —  Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor starts the countdown for the New Year's Eve ball drop in New York's Times Square.

Phil Robertson slams the Chinese, says Muslims are ‘famous for murder’ in newly surfaced video  —  The controversy surrounding Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson has now taken a step beyond his comments about homosexuality and bestiality, along with his assertion that black people in the Jim Crow South …

No, 2.1 million haven't enrolled in Obamacare plans  —  BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL OBAMACARE HEALTH CARE KATHLEEN SEBELIUS CMS HHS  —  With President Obama's health care law scheduled to begin in earnest when the new year kicks off, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius claimed …

The State of the Euro, In One Graph  —  Happy New Year!  I'm trying to organize my thoughts and data on matters European, and I think I've come up with a useful way to summarize what has been happening in the euro area.  In the figure below I compare the ratio of government debt to GDP …

2014: Good Year for a Great War?  —  Precisely a hundred years ago today, the richest man in the world sent New Year's greetings to a thousand of the most influential leaders in the U.S. and Europe announcing: mission accomplished.  “International Peace,” he proclaimed …

Mayor Bill De Blasio Chooses His Path With Uncompromising Inauguration  —  A mayor unafraid to make enemies, and eager to keep his friends.  —  Former President Bill Clinton, left, administers the oath of office to New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, right, on the steps of City Hall.

Rescue Efforts for Trapped Antarctic Voyage Disrupt Serious Science  —  Early this morning, I received an e-mail message from one of many polar scientists whose important and costly field research in Antarctica has been seriously disrupted by the diversion of icebreakers to try to evacuate the journalists …

13 hospitalized after building explosion in Mpls.  —  A check on Google Maps indicates that the main floor of the structure houses a business called the Otanga Grocery, with the upper two floors consisting of apartments.  —  CONNECT  —  MINNEAPOLIS - Authorities say at least 13 people …

Outrage at JFK as Customs men smash a musician's instruments  —  Boujemaa Razgui, a flute virtuoso who lives in New York and works with many US ensembles, was returning to base over the holiday when Customs officials at Kennedy Airport asked to see his instruments.