Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers dies at 74  —  This post has been updated.  See note below for details.  —  Phil Everly, who with his brother, Don, made up the most revered vocal duo of the rock-music era, their exquisite harmonies profoundly influencing the Beatles, the Beach Boys …

Is the NSA Spying on Congress?  —  U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today asked the National Security Agency director whether the agency has monitored the phone calls, emails and Internet traffic of members of Congress and other elected officials.  —  “Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying …

Ruth Marcus, David Brooks, and Reefer Madness  —  Whoever's been drugging the tap water in the Acela, please just stop.  Your efforts have resulted in complementary columns in the Washington Post from Ruth Marcus and in the New York Times from David Brooks.  Unless ... did they come up with these columns all by themselves?

Al-Qaeda force captures Fallujah amid rise in violence in Iraq  —  BEIRUT — A rejuvenated al-Qaeda force asserted control over the western Iraqi town of Fallujah on Friday, raising its flag over government buildings and declaring an Islamic state in one of the most crucial areas …

Why Snowden Won't (and Shouldn't) Get Clemency  —  He went too far to be considered just a whistleblower.  —  I regard Daniel Ellsberg as an American patriot.  I was one of the first columnists to write that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper should be fired for lying to Congress.

Degrees of Value: Making College Pay Off  —  For Too Many Americans, College Today Isn't Worth It … In the field of higher education, reality is outrunning parody.  A recent feature on the satire website the Onion proclaimed, “30-Year-Old Has Earned $11 More Than He Would Have Without College Education.”

IMF Says: By the Way, There's a Debt Crisis  —  Two summers ago, we ran the Power Line Prize contest to try to focus attention on the exploding national debt.  The contest was successful, in that it incentivized the production of many high-quality videos, songs, pictures …

Political palliatives won't cure ObamaCare's ills.  —  While we were away, the Department of Health and Human Services offered what might be termed a concession to reality.  In a Dec. 19 letter, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius informed Virginia's Mark Warner and five other members …

Administration faces tough fight on contraception cases  —  As a new round of religion-based challenges to President Barack Obama's health care law head to the Supreme Court, advocates on both sides of the issue say the administration's arguments are likely facing a chilly reception.

Utah man fasting to stop same sex marriages  —  SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 Utah) - A Utah man is vowing to go without any food until the state stops allowing same sex marriages.  He claims if Utah wants to protect traditional marriage, it has an option it's not using, and he's fasting until it does it.

Rude and Crude: Why MSNBC keeps getting into trouble  —  Is there something in the water over at 30 Rock?  —  Whether you love or detest MSNBC, the network has had a rough few months, and I'm wondering whether a series of embarrassing episodes is more than a coincidence.

The Social-Minded Pope Francis Is a Very Different Kind of Pontiff  —  Pope Francis, the first Pope from a developing nation, sees the world through the eyes of the poor and dispossessed.  —  Add my name to the long list of souls who have leapt aboard the Pope Francis bandwagon.

FACT SHEET: Strengthening the Federal Background Check System to Keep Guns out of Potentially Dangerous Hands  —  Today, the Administration is announcing two new executive actions that will help strengthen the federal background check system and keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Access to Abortion Falling as States Pass Restrictions  —  A three-year surge in anti-abortion measures in more than half the states has altered the landscape for abortion access, with supporters and opponents agreeing that the new restrictions are shutting some clinics …

Detroit police chief: Legal gun owners can deter crime  —  Detroit Police Chief James Craig (Charles V. Tines / The Detroit News, file)  —  Detroit— If more citizens were armed, criminals would think twice about attacking them, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Thursday.

900 Rich People Won't Pay Into Social Security For The Rest Of The Year  —  While almost all working Americans will pay into Social Security through their paychecks throughout the year, the 900 wealthiest people in the country won't.  That's because the highest-earning 0.0001 percent of the U.S. …

Why the Senate Will Only Get More Polarized  —  As party-line voting between presidential and congressional races steadily increases, so will gridlock.  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., (left) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Did North Korea's Kim Jong-un really kill his uncle with 120 starving dogs?  —  The thing about North Korea is that it's so mad, so gruesome that it's difficult not to believe whatever tall story you hear about it.  Kim Jong-un ate a baby?  The army uses kittens for taget practice?