A Rand Paul rout in CPAC straw poll  —  NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Rand Paul handily won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference Saturday, one gauge of the Republican base's mood less than two years before the 2016 primary season kicks off.

Malaysia Airlines plane vanishes over South China Sea; Vietnamese reportedly spot oil slicks  —  BEIJING — Vietnamese air force planes have spotted two large oil slicks that officials believe are from a Malaysia Airlines flight that suddenly vanished from air traffic control screens …

Is US losing new cold war?  —  If there is a new cold war with Russia, many observers believe the U.S. is losing it.  —  First under President George W. Bush and now under President Obama, the U.S. and Vladimir Putin's Russia have engaged in a series of foreign policy battles — and Putin has repeatedly got his way.

McConnell waves musket, falls flat at CPAC  —  The normally sharp-shooting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell may have misfired on Thursday when he took to the stage at the Conservatives Political Action Conference brandishing a gun.  —  The gun was actually an award from the National Rifle Association …

Leading Republicans Move to Stamp Out Challenges From Right  —  WASHINGTON — As conservative activist groups stirred up trouble for establishment Republican Senate candidates in 2010 and 2012, party leaders in Washington first tried to ignore the insurgents, then tried to reason with them …

Obama to Dems: It's time to worry  —  The election is coming, the election is coming!  —  That's the message coming from President Obama as he tries desperately to rouse Democrats out of a midterm election stupor that could cost his party control of the Senate — and bury his agenda once and for all.

The IRS's behavior taxes credulity  —  What's been said of confession — that it is good for one's soul but bad for one's reputation — can also be true of testifying to Congress, so Lois Lerner has chosen to stay silent.  Hers, however, is an eloquent silence.

Is Ben Carson 2016's sleeper candidate?  —  Neurologist Ben Carson could be 2016's sleeper presidential contender.  —  You won't find him in early polls, and he doesn't make headlines for huddling with top advisers in primary states.  —  Carson is lauded for his plainspoken yet forceful ability …

WH defends Obama's Key Largo vacation  —  White House spokesman Josh Earnest defended President Obama's weekend vacation in Key Largo, despite the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, arguing Obama would be able to monitor events from Florida.  —  “What the president will be doing this weekend …

Hard drugs demand solid understanding: Column  —  Know heroin, combat Hoffman-like abuse.  —  Phillip Seymour Hoffman's death has prompted a lot of discussion about heroin in recent weeks.  Heroin statistics from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) have fueled the debate, but they may be leading us astray.

Why the Cold War isn't back  —  German Chancellor Angela Merkel's private analysis that Vladimir Putin is living “in another world” struck a chord because Russia's military incursion into Crimea does feel like a blast from the Cold War past of twilight struggle, eyeball-to-eyeball brinkmanship …