Mark Herring explains gay marriage shift  —  New Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring says his decision to challenge his state's ban on gay marriage, rather than defend it on behalf of the state, is part of an evolution in his views on the subject.  —  Herring announced his decision to side …

Schumer seeks to poison Tea Party  —  Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate Democrats' political guru, has a plan to poison the Tea Party by driving a wedge between its rich funders and its blue-collar rank and file.  —  Schumer, one of the Democrats' most influential strategists …

Independent review board says NSA phone data program is illegal and should end  —  An independent executive branch board has concluded that the National Security Agency's long-running program to collect billions of Americans' phone records is illegal and should end.

Can Anyone Stop Hillary?  Absolutely  —  Time magazine's cover this week asks, “Can Anyone Stop Hillary?”  The answer to that question is yes, but you'd never know it judging by the overwhelming belief among Democratic insiders that the party's 2016 presidential nomination is simply Hillary Clinton's for the asking.

Obama State of the Union to focus on income inequality  —  President Obama will try to pump some vitality into a lackluster second term on Tuesday when he delivers his State of the Union address.  —  The address will include a “healthy dose” of the income inequality message the White House …

U.S. appeals court throws Arctic drilling into further doubt  —  A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Interior Department wrongly awarded offshore oil leases in the Chukchi Sea near Alaska in 2008 without considering the full range of environmental risks posed by drilling in the Arctic.

Angry Geithner once warned S&P about U.S. downgrade - filing  —  Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner angrily warned the chairman of Standard & Poor's parent that the rating agency would be held accountable for its 2011 decision to strip the United States of its coveted “triple-A” rating, a new court filing shows.

Antiabortion movement faces a cold reality  —  James Dobson's Focus on the Family asked Christians to pray for rain to fall on Barack Obama in 2008 when he accepted the presidential nomination.  Various religious conservatives have said that hurricanes, earthquakes and other meteorological phenomena …

Poll: United we stand on wealth gap  —  INCOME INEQUALITY AND THE GOVERNMENT'S ROLE  —  A USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll explores attitudes toward income inequality and poverty in the United States.  —  RICH GETTING RICHER? HOW AMERICA WORKS GOVERNMENT ROLE  —  POVERTY  —  RICH VS. POOR

Gregory Hicks: Benghazi and the Smearing of Chris Stevens  —  Shifting blame to our dead ambassador is wrong on the facts.  I know—I was there.  —  Last week the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued its report on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

The GOP's Birth-Control Trojan Horse  —  The right wants to use religion as an excuse to legally discriminate against gays and unmarried women—and, ultimately, anyone who doesn't share their Christian faith.  —  Ever since the Obama administration included contraception in the list of services …

‘US perceives Israel as encouraging anti-Obama backlash among Jews’  —  Israeli diplomats tell Israel Radio: Netanyahu government seen by Obama, Kerry as encouraging US Jewish leaders to criticize White House.  —  A US official close to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry …

Senate 2014: A Coin-Flip  —  Political news in the opening weeks of 2014's midterm year has been dominated not by the upcoming national election, but instead by the one coming after it, in 2016.  The year's biggest political story is Gov. Chris Christie's (R-NJ) bridge controversy …

What Obama's Next Three Years Will Look Like—for Better or Worse  —  Imagining the best- and worst-case scenarios for the rest of the president's term  —  On the cusp of his 2014 State of the Union message, President Obama is not exactly floating on air.  —  His fifth year …

Upward Mobility Has Not Declined, Study Says  —  The odds of moving up — or down — the income ladder in the United States have not changed appreciably in the last 20 years, according to a large new academic study that contradicts politicians in both parties who have claimed that income mobility is falling.

The Heritage Foundation Might Be Shedding Some Of Its Crazy Soon  —  2013 wasn't exactly been a banner year for the Heritage Foundation, Washington's most well-known and influential conservative think tank.  —  In its first year under former senator and tea party godfather Jim DeMint …

Hannity to attend State of the Union with Rep. Gohmert, may run for office in Texas  —  Sean Hannity on Fox News, Jan. 21, 2014  —  WASHINGTON — The guest list for President Obama's upcoming State of the Union address just got more interesting.  —  Yesterday, Sean Hannity said he'd be attending as a guest of Rep. Louie Gohmert.

Leaning Right in Hollywood, Under a Lens  —  LOS ANGELES — In a famously left-leaning Hollywood, where Democratic fund-raisers fill the social calendar, Friends of Abe stands out as a conservative group that bucks the prevailing political winds.  —  A collection of perhaps 1,500 right-leaning players …

Hoboken Mayor Is Said to Have Told of Threat  —  Federal authorities in New Jersey have interviewed several witnesses who said the mayor of Hoboken told them in May about a state official's threat to withhold hurricane recovery funds if the mayor did not support a development project favored by the governor …

Iran on what it didn't agree to do  —  Watch CNN's full interview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani Sunday at 10 a.m. on “Fareed Zakaria GPS”  —  (CNN) — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted Wednesday that the Obama administration mischaracterizes concessions by his side …