Henry Waxman, 20-Term Democrat, Is Leaving House  —  CAMBRIDGE, Md. — Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, a diminutive Democratic giant whose 40 years in the House produced some of the most important legislation of the era, will announce on Thursday that he is retiring at the end of the year.

Lunches seized from kids in debt at Salt Lake City elementary  —  Education » School officials cite unpaid balances on students' meal accounts.  —  | The Salt Lake Tribune  —  Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday …

Liberal vituperation makes our letter writer's point.  —  Five days on, the commentariat continues to drop anvils on Tom Perkins, who may have written the most-read letter to the editor in the history of The Wall Street Journal.  The irony is that the vituperation is making our friend's point …

Why I Was Wrong About Chris Christie  —  He wasn't so smart or post-partisan, and may pay the price as a presidential hopeful.  —  A year ago, I wrote: “The smartest move in politics today is to move against Washington and the two major parties.  And the smartest man in politics may be Chris Christie.”

Gallup Obama approval numbers suggest shifting Electoral College map  —  BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL BARACK OBAMA POLLS CAMPAIGNS APPROVAL RATINGS ELECTORAL COLLEGE  —  Gallup has released President Obama's approval numbers for 2013 for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: January 2014  —  January 1st may have been a monumental date for those working on and closely following the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds little change in the public's knowledge and views of the law.

JOHANSSON STEPPING DOWN AS OXFAM AMBASSADOR  —  You are here  —  Home » SodaStream International Ltd. » Johansson stepping down as Oxfam ambassador  —  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scarlett Johansson is ending her relationship with a humanitarian group after being criticized over her support …

Jed Udall, son of Sen. Mark Udall, arrested on heroin, vehicular-trespassing charges  —  Sheriff: Udall, 26, broke into cars in Eldorado Springs  —  Jed Udall, the 26-year-old son of Colorado Sen. Mark Udall, was arrested Wednesday after Boulder County sheriff's deputies say he broke …

Convention wipeout coming soon?  —  This could be the year that Congress bans taxpayer money to pay for presidential political conventions.  —  Public money for the four-day partisan shindigs has long been a political bull's-eye.  But effort after effort has fallen short even as criticism of the party-heavy gatherings has increased.

Obama Issues Fewer Executive Orders than Any President Since the 1800s  —  Ted Cruz has already referred to Barack Obama's use of executive orders as “lawless.”  Considering it's a safe bet we'll be hearing a lot more of this rhetoric in the months to come, I decided to dig into the historical data on presidential executive orders.

Is National Review doomed?  —  The conservative movement's leading magazine faces a lawsuit that could bring it to its knees  —  N  —  ational Review, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955, has had an enormous impact on the nation's politics.  Its writers formulated the ideology …

Senate Majority Leader Reid delivers body blow to Obama on trade  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid broke with the White House and said he opposed legislation aimed at smoothing the passage of free-trade agreements, imperiling two major deals being negotiated with Asian and European partners.

Some Republicans See Racism As a Factor in Immigration Stalemate  —  “I hate to say this, because these are my people — but I hate to say it, but it's racial,” says a Republican congressman.  —  Jason Reed / Reuters  —  WASHINGTON — For more than a year House Republican leaders have insisted …

Feds to seek death penalty against accused Boston bomber Tsarnaev  —  The Justice Department has notified a federal judge that it intends to seek the death penalty if a jury convicts Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for last April's bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon.  —  Tsarnaev is awaiting trial …

It's Not Just MSNBC Making Flip Assumptions About Non-Liberal Racism (UPDATED)  —  Last night, the official Twitter feed of MSNBC used a Cheerios Super Bowl commercial to make a crack about non-lefties being uncomfortable with race-mixing:  —  After an eruption of outrage on Twitter …

No Smoking Guns Yet, But the Noose is Tightening Around Chris Christie  —  The New York Times is pretty clearly expending a lot of resources on the various Chris Christie scandals.  So far they haven't produced any smoking guns, but they're sure digging up some stuff that doesn't look good for Team Christie.