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.”

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

BREAKING: Here are the Republican Principles for #Immigration Reform-to be formally announced by @SpeakerBoehner at 4:30 pm ET  —  Standards for Immigration Reform  —  PREAMBLE … Border Security and Interior Enforcement Must Come First  —  It is the fundamental duty of any government …

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 …

Vice Admiral to Be Named N.S.A. Director  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is set to announce that Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers will become the new director of the National Security Agency and the commander of the new Pentagon unit that directs the country's offensive cyberoperations …

Is Blogging Unscholarly?  —  The political science blogosphere has erupted in protest after the International Studies Association unveiled a proposal to bar members affiliated with its scholarly journal from doing just that — blogging.  —  “No editor of any ISA journal or member …

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 …

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.