CNN exclusive: Feds investigating Christie's use of Sandy relief funds  —  Scandal is unfolding around New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over lane closures on the George Washington Bridge as part of a political vendetta to punish a local mayor who wouldn't support him at the polls.

Hillary's hit list  —  The Clintons keep a favor file of saints and sinners, according to this excerpt from HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton.  —  Inside a cramped third-floor office of Hillary Clinton's once-bustling presidential campaign headquarters in the Ballston neighborhood …

Robert Gates: My memoir has been ‘hijacked’ by politics  —  Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates clarified claims he supposedly made about President Obama's commitment to the military surge in Afghanistan, saying Monday he “absolutely believed” the commander-in-chief supported the mission at the time.

SCOTUS skeptical on White House recess appointments  —  The Supreme Court seems poised to reject President Barack Obama's bold use of the recess appointment power, judging from the surprisingly widespread hostility the administration's arguments received Monday from conservative and liberal justices.

Enemies of the Poor  —  Suddenly it's O.K., even mandatory, for politicians with national ambitions to talk about helping the poor.  This is easy for Democrats, who can go back to being the party of F.D.R. and L.B.J. It's much more difficult for Republicans, who are having a hard time shaking …

Records Show Christie Administration Canceled Meetings After Jersey City Mayor Didn't Endorse  —  Documents released Monday indicate that meetings arranged between top commissioners to Gov. Chris Christie and Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop were abruptly canceled without reason last year …

Ted Cruz hires sacked RSC staffer Paul Teller  —  A sacked aide to the Republican Study Committee, a group of House conservatives, has joined the office of Sen. Ted Cruz.  —  Paul Teller, who was fired in December as executive director of the RSC after leaking private conversations of members …

The reputation of Roger Ailes.  —  In the nineteen-thirties, one in four Americans got their news from William Randolph Hearst, who lived in a castle and owned twenty-eight newspapers in nineteen cities.  Hearst's papers were all alike: hot-blooded, with leggy headlines.

The Fight Over Unemployment Benefits Underscores the Right's Extremism  —  Under George W. Bush, the GOP never balked at extending unemployment benefits, but that was then.  Their newfound intransigence on this issue proves afresh that the party has been hijacked by extremists.

Veteran Dem George Miller to retire  —  California Rep. George Miller, Nancy Pelosi's strong right arm and one of the top Democratic legislators of his generation, is stepping down at the end of this year after four decades in Congress.  —  Miller informed Pelosi, the Democratic leader …

Heroic Measures  —  LISA BONCHEK ADAMS has spent the last seven years in a fierce and very public cage fight with death.  Since a mammogram detected the first toxic seeds of cancer in her left breast when she was 37, she has blogged and tweeted copiously about her contest with the advancing disease.

Alex Sink rises to top in Florida special election  —  It's been framed as the clearest barometer of the public's mood heading into this year's midterms: a special election battle for a 50-50 congressional district in the famously 50-50 state of Florida.  —  But upon closer inspection …

How to Fight Income Inequality: Get Married  —  In families headed by married couples, the poverty level in 2012 was just 7.5%.  Those with a single mother: 33.9%.  —  If President Obama wants to reduce income inequality, he should focus less on redistributing income and more on fighting …

Supreme Court Won't Hear Arizona Appeal on Abortion Ban  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Arizona officials seeking to revive a state law that barred most abortions after 20 weeks of fetal gestation.  The justices offered no reasons for turning down the appeal, as is their custom.