The New York Times Replaces Abramson as Executive Editor  —  Jill Abramson, the executive editor of The New York Times, is unexpectedly leaving the position and will be replaced by Dean Baquet, the managing editor of the newspaper, the company said Wednesday.

AMAZING VIDEO: Cat saves boy from dog attack in Southwest Bakersfield  —  BAKERSFIELD - A cat came to her best friend's rescue Tuesday when the young boy was attacked in his driveway in Southwest Bakersfield.  —  The surveillance video shows the boy playing on his bicycle when a dog sneaks up behind him and grabs his leg.

Our Second Black President?  —  For years, we've had a running conversation about how much or whether the often vitriolic, seemingly gut level opposition to President Obama is tied to his race as opposed to simple partisanship, opposition to policies and more.

Harry Reid Says He “Can't Vote” For Obama's Controversial Judicial Pick  —  “Unless I have a better explanation, I can't vote for him,” the Senate majority leader said of Michael Boggs.  —  U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).  —  Jonathan Ernst / Reuters / Reuters

New Benghazi Investigation Spooks GOP Leaders  —  It's not just the Democrats who are opposed to a new select committee looking into the Benghazi attacks.  Many top Republicans are uneasy, too.  —  Last Wednesday, as the House was preparing for its new investigation into the Benghazi attacks …

US using drones to find kidnapped Nigerian girls  —  The U.S. is now using unmanned drones in the search for hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamist group Boko Haram, the White House said Wednesday.  —  The deployment of drones comes in addition to manned surveillance flights …

Honest Work  —  Why the GOP argument against raising the minimum wage is really an argument against having a minimum wage at all.  —  For a few hours on Friday, Mitt Romney was the subject of positive press.  Why?  Because, in an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe, the former Republican …

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt: Defending the Drama  —  If you hang around climate scientists, you often hear the saying “Uncertainty is not our friend.”  It came to mind yesterday, when two teams of scientists released papers that reached the same terrifying conclusion.

Georgia Senate Frontrunner Touches Republicans' Third Rail, Suggests Raising Taxes  —  The Georgia Republican contenders for U.S Senate have made a lot of outrageous assertions, from calling evolution a lie “straight from the pit of hell” to proposing that poor students sweep floors to pay for lunch.

The Origins of “Privilege”  —  The idea of “privilege”—that some people benefit from unearned, and largely unacknowledged, advantages, even when those advantages aren't discriminatory —has a pretty long history.  In the nineteen-thirties, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote about the “psychological wage” …

Nebraska Senate Nominee Says Religious Beliefs Can Justify Breaking Any Law  —  “[O]ur right to the free exercise of religion is co-equal to our right to life,” according to the campaign website of Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican who won his party's nomination to the United States Senate on Tuesday.

Georgia Accused Of Sentencing Transgender Woman To ‘Torture’  —  Georgia's prison officials will have to explain themselves in court if they continue to refuse hormone therapy to transgender inmates, warns a letter delivered to the state's Department of Corrections on Tuesday …

Christie: Bridgegate Will Have No Effect On 2016  —  The scandal over the closure of lanes to the George Washington Bridge “will be a footnote” by the time the 2016 presidential race is under way, said New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who is still considering a run for the White House

Eric Cantor's tea party opponent in Va. primary may be picking up momentum  —  RICHMOND — There was a time when House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) sympathized with the tea party's frustration with Washington.  —  Now, he's engaged in open warfare with the GOP's insurgent wing.

Liberal Columnist Insists Again That Chris Stevens Wasn't Murdered In Benghazi  —  Republicans remain convinced that the Obama administration deliberately avoided labeling the attacks in Benghazi an act of terrorism.  But that alleged “cover-up” has nothing on a recent characterization by Eleanor Clift.

Newark's Voters Choose New Mayor and New Path  —  Councilman Ras Baraka, the fiery scion of a militant poet, was elected mayor of Newark on Tuesday, signaling a likely shift in the direction that New Jersey's largest city had embarked upon for most of the last decade.

Hopes fade for survivors after Turkish mine fire kills more than 230  —  (Reuters) - Hopes faded of finding more survivors in a coal mine in western Turkey on Wednesday, where 238 workers were confirmed killed and 120 more still feared to be trapped in what is likely to prove the nation's worst ever industrial disaster.