Trey Radel to resign House seat  —  Rep. Trey Radel (R-Fla.) will resign from Congress on Monday, according to multiple sources.  —  Radel, 37, was caught buying cocaine in November from an undercover federal agent in Washington and spent nearly a month in a rehabilitation facility.

Vox is our next  —  Early last year, Melissa Bell, Matt Yglesias and I began wrestling with a question that had bugged all of us for a long time: why hadn't the Internet made the news better at delivering crucial context alongside new information?  —  This year, we're founding a new publication …

Time for Obama to punch hard  —  As President Obama goes to Capitol Hill for his State of the Union address he is telling the world he is fed up with Congress — the paralysis and the GOP obstruction — but his anger is secondary to signs that he is a demoralized lame duck.

D'Souza Producer: ‘I Never Feared My Govt Until Now’  —  More ways to share...  Stumbled  —  LinkedIn  —  Vine  —  Newstrust  —  Tell my politician  —  Technocrati  —  Get Short Link  —  Gerald Molen, the producer of Dinesh D'Souza's documentary film “2016: Obama's America,” …

Deficit Reduction Declines as Policy Priority  —  Just Half of Democrats Rate Deficit as ‘Top Priority’  —  For the first time since Barack Obama took office in 2009, deficit reduction has slipped as a policy priority among the public.  Overall, 63% say reducing the budget deficit …

Gary woman admits selling baby for sex  —  HAMMOND, Ind. (Sun-Times Media Wire) -  —  A Gary, Ind. woman admitted this week that she sold a baby eight times to a Gary man for sex and was in the room for all the meetings except for the last one.  —  Natisha Hillard, 25 …

Sochi 2014: No gay people in city, says mayor  —  The mayor of Sochi, host of the Winter Olympics, has said there are no gay people in the city.  —  Anatoly Pakhomov said homosexuals were welcome at the Games - as long as they “respect Russian law” and “don't impose their habits on others”.

Steve Stockman rips press over MIA claim  —  Rep. Steve Stockman says he has not been missing in action this month and blasted the media for claiming that no one knew where he was .  —  The Texas Republican slammed an Associated Press story last week that detailed him missing every vote …

Paranoia of the Plutocrats  —  Rising inequality has obvious economic costs: stagnant wages despite rising productivity, rising debt that makes us more vulnerable to financial crisis.  It also has big social and human costs.  There is, for example, strong evidence that high inequality leads to worse health and higher mortality.

How Scott Walker and the conservatives saved Wisconsin.  America, take note  —  There was a time when Wisconsin was headline news.  You must remember the story?  Wisconsinites elected some caveman called Scott Walker as their governor on a platform of drowning government in the bath.

Sheriffs cheer pot shot, say DEA chief ripped Obama remarks  —  Photo by:  —  WE'RE ‘FRUSTRATED’: Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson, above, lauded DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart after she criticized President Obama for comparing smoking marijuana to drinking alcohol.  —  By:

Clinton Supporters Want Iowa To Want Her  —  “You guys want a list.  Iowans want a sense of engagement and conversation and dialogue like they got on the Obama campaign.”  The super PAC takes the first of what they say will be many trips to the early caucus state.  —  Justin Hayworth / Associated Press

Timothy P. Carney on Chuck Schumer: Voice of the little man, courtier of plutocrats  —  TEA PARTY CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS LOBBYING CHUCK SCHUMER REVOLVING DOOR  —  The favorite senator of Wall Street and K Street explained to a liberal D.C. audience last week how to defang the Tea Party …

It begins: Afghanistan releases dangerous jihadists over U.S. objections  —  The latest news, via TOLO News: … As I noted in my column on this impending release and jihadist flood earlier this month, the Obama administration itself set the stage for the security-undermining releases.

Republicans Don't Have a Single Woman Running a Battleground Senate Campaign  —  GOP operatives accuse the party of pushing its female staffers away from leadership paths offered to men.  —  Republican candidates want to do better with women voters.  The people running their campaigns might make that more difficult.