Christie camp held Sandy relief money hostage, mayor alleges  —  Two senior members of Gov. Chris Christie's administration warned a New Jersey mayor earlier this year that her town would be starved of hurricane relief money unless she approved a lucrative redevelopment plan favored by the governor …

Actress Out Of San Francisco Production After Endorsing Tea Party Candidate  —  SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — A famed actress is facing backlash in San Francisco's Latino community, after she voiced support for a conservative candidate for California governor.  —  Maria Conchita Alonso starred …

Romney: Christie's presidential ambitions ‘not hurt’ by bridge scandal  —  Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Friday that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had handled the scandal over lane closures on the George Washington bridge “in a very effective way” …

Wonkblog sells out.  —  Ezra Klein is back in line.  The Journolist founder, who now runs Wonkblog for the Washington Post, took some flak from other left-liberal journalists last year when he acknowledged that the ObamaCare exchanges had serious technical flaws.

Mitt on Netflix: A knight errant in an age of political cynicism  —  A new documentary offers a behind-the-scenes look at Mitt Romney's ill-fated presidential campaigns  —  W  —  hen we think of that rarest figure in American politics — a man of integrity — Mitt Romney does not usually leap to mind.

Is the Obama marriage on the rocks?  Astonishing claims emerge of ugly fights over that selfie, and even a Presidential affair  —  With invitations warning guests to ‘EBYC’ — Eat Before You Come — and rumours they'll be dancing to star turns from Beyonce and her rapper husband Jay Z, it won't be your usual White House knees-up.

The Republican Party's uphill path to 270 electoral votes in 2016  —  A recent conversation with a veteran of GOP presidential campaigns raised this question: Which, if any, of the recent battleground states are likely to become more Republican by 2016?  The consensus: very few.

Obama's restrictions on NSA surveillance rely on narrow definition of ‘spying’  —  President Obama said Friday, in his first major speech on electronic surveillance, that “the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don't threaten our national security.”

Most health-exchange sign-ups already had coverage  —  Early estimates suggest that a majority of people signing up in the new marketplaces already had health plans.

Watchdogs sue FEC, demand investigation of Karl Rove group  —  Watchdog groups are suing the Federal Election Committee after it dropped its inquiry into Crossroads GPS, the nonprofit organization co-founded by GOP operative Karl Rove.  —  The Campaign Legal Center and Public Citizen filed …

Pope Benedict doubled defrockings  —  Close to 400 priests were defrocked in only two years by the former Pope Benedict XVI over claims of child abuse, the Vatican has confirmed.  —  The statistics for 2011 and 2012 show a dramatic increase compared with previous years, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press (AP).

Bloggers = Media for First Amendment Libel Law Purposes  —  So holds today's Obsidian Finance Group v. Cox (9th Cir. Jan. 17, 2014) (in which I represented the defendant).  To be precise, the Ninth Circuit concludes that all who speak to the public, whether or not they are members of the institutional press …