Cover Story: Barry Blitt's “Playing in Traffic”  —  “I'm hoping this cartoon diverts a lot of traffic to my Web site,” Barry Blitt says about “Playing in Traffic,” the image of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that he penned for next week's cover.  —  KEYWORDS - CHRIS CHRISTIE; - COVERS

U.S. to Recognize Utah Gay Marriages Despite State Stance  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday said that it would recognize as lawful the marriages of 1,300 same-sex couples in Utah, even though the state government is refusing to do so.  —  Wading into the fast-moving legal battle …

Liberal Self-Identification Edges Up to New High in 2013  —  Fifteen-percentage-point conservative advantage ties as smallest to date  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans continue to be more likely to identify as conservatives (38%) than as liberals (23%).  But the conservative advantage …

People Not In Labor Force Soar To Record 91.8 Million; Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Levels  —  Curious why despite the huge miss in payrolls the unemployment rate tumbled from 7.0% to 6.7%?  The reason is because in December the civilian labor force did what it usually does in the New Normal …

Georgia GOPer Attacking Free School Lunch Expensed $4,200 In Meals  —  Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) warned that there's “no such thing as free lunch” for school children in Georgia, but he seems to have enjoyed a few.  —  An investigation by Georgia's WSAV channel 3 found that Kingston …

Crisis In West Virginia: Wal-Mart Calls In Police To Guard Bottled Water Delivery  —  Residents of South Charleston, W.Va., wait in line at Kroger to buy water following a chemical spill on the Elk River that compromised the public water supply of eight counties on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014.

Christie crackdown ups scrutiny over Obama's scandal response  —  While New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is getting hammered over a close aide's involvement in snarling traffic as an apparent act of political retribution, he's nevertheless set himself apart from the Obama administration in his response to scandal.

House Dems break ranks with the White House on ObamaCare vote  —  Dozens of House Democrats broke ranks with President Obama on Friday to support legislation that would require people to be notified of security breaches under ObamaCare.  —  The House passed the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act …

Beyond Polarization to Warfare  —  At WaPo's Monkey Cage subsite today, there's an important piece by University of Texas political scientist Sean Theriault that gets to a distinction in political attitudes that some of us have been trying to articulate ever since the radicalization of one of our two major parties occurred:

Rachel Maddow claims Florida group that backs drug-testing welfare recipients is affiliated with Koch brothers  —  PunditFact isn't always the first to weigh in on the tit-for-tat of cable news shows, in part because the nature of our work requires more than claims and counterclaims.

Obama administration to end contract with CGI Federal, company behind HealthCare.gov  —  The Obama administration has decided to jettison CGI Federal, the main IT contractor that was responsible for building the defect-ridden online health insurance marketplace and has been immersed in the work …

White House Dares Democratic Senators Pushing Iran Sanctions To Admit They Want War  —  WASHINGTON — The White House on Thursday challenged a group of senators to admit they are working to push the country toward war with Iran, upping the tension between the administration and Senate advocates …

Why people call themselves “independent” even when they aren't  —  This is a guest post by political scientists Yanna Krupnikov and Samara Klar.  An introduction to their research is here.  —  Earlier this week, Gallup announced that Americans are more politically independent than ever.