Plane Deliberately Diverted, Malaysia Says  —  SEPANG, Malaysia — Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia announced on Saturday afternoon that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 left its planned route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing as the result of deliberate action by someone aboard.

In Context: Were Paul Ryan's poverty comments a ‘thinly veiled racial attack’?  —  The backlash to comments U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan made about poverty and inner-city residents suggested that the former vice-presidential candidate had been bigoted.  —  U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. …

What Washington-focused liberals miss about Progressivism  —  The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster)  —  It is no secret that we are living in a second Gilded Age—another era, like the first, of corrupt rule by plutocratic elites.

Thank You for Smoking—Marijuana  —  Justin Hartfield, the Weedmaps.com founder, on his plans to legalize the drug nationwide and become the Philip Morris of pot.  —  Justin Hartfield is high.  —  “I've been high since I'm 13,” the 30-year old marijuana entrepreneur says as he sips …

You Don't Need a Weatherman  —  What the seasonal and cyclical forces in American politics suggest about the coming elections.  —  The political chatter these days is about the special election in Florida's 13th Congressional District, which was held to fill the vacancy left by the late GOP Rep. Bill Young.

Judge recognizes gay marriages of 3 Tennessee couples  —  NASHVILLE — A federal judge here granted a preliminary injunction Friday against the state's ban on same-sex marriage in certain instances.  —  In October three same-sex couples filed a lawsuit asking the state to recognize …

Senate Balks at Obama Pick for Surgeon General  —  WASHINGTON — Facing a possible defeat in the Senate, the White House is considering delaying a vote on President Obama's choice for surgeon general or withdrawing the nomination altogether, an acknowledgment of its fraying relationship with Senate Democrats.

Democrats are making income inequality worse  —  Someone who is determined to disbelieve something can manage to disregard an Everest of evidence for it.  So Barack Obama will not temper his enthusiasm for increased equality with lucidity about the government's role in exacerbating inequality.

Charges unlikely for Houston dad accused of shooting daughter's boyfriend, prosecutor says  —  The Houston father who police say fatally shot a 17-year-old boy who was inside his daughter's bedroom early Thursday morning will likely not be charged, an area prosecutor told MyFoxHouston.com.