Supreme Court Upholds Michigan's Affirmative Action Ban  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Michigan voter initiative that banned racial preferences in admissions to the state's public universities.  —  In earlier cases, including one from June concerning the University of Texas …

Kerry: ‘It was easier’ in Cold War  —  Washington (AFP) - Secretary of State John Kerry attested Tuesday to the massively complex challenges Washington faces in Ukraine, Russia, Iran and the Middle East, declaring “it was easier” during the Cold War.  —  In a candid moment during …

An open letter to the students of Azusa Pacific University  —  I was scheduled to speak to you tomorrow.  I was going to talk about my new book, “The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead,” and was looking forward to it.  But it has been “postponed.”  Why?  An email from your president …

Aaron Sorkin Wants To Apologize To Everyone About “The Newsroom”  —  “I think you and I got off on the wrong foot with The Newsroom and I apologize and I'd like to start over,” the creator told an audience at a Tribeca Film Festival event on Monday.  —  Aaron Sorkin with Jon Favreau at the Tribeca Film Festival on Monday, April 21.

The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World's Richest  —  The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.  —  While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower …

Who Will Win The Senate? … Every day, our computer churns through the latest polls and reams of historical data to calculate both parties' chances of winning control of the Senate.  Although the Democrats currently have a 51 percent chance, that doesn't mean we're predicting the Democrats …

Media Matters Chief Tells Sharyl Attkisson To Put Up Or Shut Up  —  The head of Media Matters for America challenged former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson on Monday to produce evidence that the liberal media watchdog has been paid to target her.  —  “Professional journalists …

First on CNN: 15 cities in running for 2016 Democratic Convention  —  Washington (CNN) - The Democratic Party has asked 15 mayors to submit formal bids to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention, an event that could cost a city as much as $60 million but the payout could be triple the investment or more.

GOP poll defies tide on gay marriage  —  Two conservative groups are pushing back on moves by the GOP to drop opposition to same-sex marriage from party platforms, releasing a poll of base voters taken last month that found in favor of defining marriage “only” as between a man and a woman.

Marionville mayor resigns  —  Marionville Mayor Dan Clevenger resigned Monday night for making anti-Semitic comments in the wake of the arrest of white supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller and after aldermen voted 4-1 to start the impeachment process.  —  Clevenger, 59, said he was personally hurt …

Romney gives $10,000 to McDonnell's legal defense fund  —  Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, has made a personal donation of $10,000 to former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell's legal defense fund, a Romney aide confirmed Tuesday.  —  McDonnell and his wife …

The Spread of ‘Debate is Over’ Syndrome  —  Appearing in:  —  Orange County Register  —  The ongoing trial involving journalist Mark Steyn - accused of defaming climate change theorist Michael Mann - reflects an increasingly dangerous tendency among our intellectual classes to embrace homogeneity of viewpoint.

John Boozman Undergoes Emergency Heart Surgery  —  U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-Arkansas) is recovering in a Rogers hospital after undergoing heart surgery Tuesday morning.  —  Boozman, 63, was taken to the Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas emergency room by ambulance.

Thomas Piketty Revives Marx for the 21st Century  —  An 80% tax rate on incomes above $500,000 is not meant to bring in money for education or benefits, but ‘to put an end to such incomes.’  —  Thomas Piketty likes capitalism because it efficiently allocates resources.  But he does not like how it allocates income.

I-Team: Bundy's ‘ancestral rights’ come under scrutiny  —  LAS VEGAS — Federal authorities remain silent about their next plans to confront Cliven Bundy at his Bunkerville ranch.  —  Both sides are fighting over history, with federal courts denying Bundy's claims of “ancestral rights” on the Virgin River valley.

The Class War Inside the Republican Party  —  It took David Perdue about 20 seconds of speechifying to expose a tension roiling the Republican Party.  Speaking in January, the former business executive turned Georgia candidate for U.S. Senate asked a group of local Republicans to parse the resumes of his primary foes.

Not a Single Republican Has Mentioned Earth Day in Congress Since 2010  —  Mining the Congressional Record for partisanship on environmental matters.  —  For years, mentions of Earth Day have sprung up each April from members of both parties.  In April 2010, Democrats spoke of Earth Day over 150 times …

American Journalist With Vice News Captured in Eastern Ukraine  —  Vice journalist Simon Ostrovsky has been taken by militia in Eastern Ukraine, Mashable has learned.  —  The reporter for Vice News, who has been filing a series of compelling video dispatches from Ukraine since early March …

How the world failed on climate change  —  It was the early 1990s.  Climate scientists had long known that humans were warming up the planet.  But politicians were just beginning to grasp that it would take a huge coordinated effort to get nations to burn fewer fossil fuels and avoid sharp temperature increases in the decades ahead.

The New Abolitionism  —  Averting planetary disaster will mean forcing fossil fuel companies to give up at least $10 trillion in wealth.  —  Before the cannons fired at Fort Sumter, the Confederates announced their rebellion with lofty rhetoric about “violations of the Constitution of the United States” …

Alabama Rep. Steve Hurst uses large handgun as parade float (and barbecue)  —  TALLADEGA — Alabama Rep. Steve Hurst wants you to know he is for gun rights.  —  The District 35 Republican from Talladega gets his message across at parades in a very unmistakable way: He uses a giant revolver as a parade float.