Shinseki resigns amid VA scandal over veterans' health care  —  Eric K. Shinseki resigned Friday as secretary of veterans affairs, taking responsibility for a scandal in the VA health-care system over excessive waiting times and coverups of what he called “systemic” problems.

Exclusive: Hillary Clinton's Benghazi chapter  —  Hillary Clinton offers a detailed account of the deadly attack on the American embassy in Benghazi — and a pointed rebuttal to Republican critics who've laced into her over the incident — in a much-anticipated chapter of her forthcoming book, “Hard Choices,” obtained by POLITICO.

Toddler critically burned during SWAT raid  —  ATLANTA —  A family says a SWAT team raided their home in the middle of the night and seriously injured a 19-month-old boy with a stun grenade.  —  Alecia Phonesavanh told Channel 2's Ryan Young her child is at the Grady Memorial Hospital burn unit …

White House Press Secretary Resigns  —  WASHINGTON — Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, is leaving his post as the public face of the administration, stepping down after shifting from two decades of reporting to politics at the highest levels, President Obama said on Friday.

The Affordable Care Act in Kentucky: It's Working  —  For months, critics of the Affordable Care Act boldly vowed to eradicate what they insisted was a failed health reform plan — vows they repeated even as thousands, then tens of thousands and now hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians began …

Edward Snowden responds to release of e-mail by U.S. officials  —  Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden responded to questions from The Washington Post following the release of an e-mail he had sent while working for the National Security Agency.  —  Q: How do you respond …

GOP Senate Candidate: UCSB Shooting An ‘Unfortunate Accident’  —  Iowa state Sen. Joni Ernst (R), a candidate for U.S. Senate, said Thursday that the recent mass shooting near the University of California, Santa Barbara was an “unfortunate accident.”  —  During a televised primary debate …

House Votes To End DEA Raids On Legal Medical Marijuana Operations  —  “Marijuana does not make people commit crime.  It makes them overeat,” Rep. Steve Cohen said.  The amendment passed 219-189.  —  WASHINGTON — The House passed an amendment late Thursday night to restrict …

Surprise!  The House Actually Managed To Pass A Gun Safety Bill  —  The United States House of Representatives just passed a small appropriation that will improve the accuracy of the national database used to conduct background checks prior to many gun sales.

Cutting Back on Carbon  —  Next week the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce new rules designed to limit global warming.  Although we don't know the details yet, anti-environmental groups are already predicting vast costs and economic doom.  Don't believe them.

Dem to Hispanic Republican: ‘We Need to Send Her Back to Wherever She Really Came From’  —  Democratic gubernatorial candidate Alan Webber of New Mexico says of his likely political opponent, Republican governor Susana Martinez, that “We need to send her back to wherever she really came from.”

Why Do Republicans Always Say 'I'm Not a Scientist'?  —  Well, it's true, anyway.  —  Asked by reporters yesterday if he accepts the scientific consensus that greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming, John Boehner demurred on the curious but increasingly familiar grounds that he is not a scientist.

Scott Walker is falling apart: The little corruption problem he just can't shake  —  But that has his conservative base up in arms  —  It seems as though every presidential race in recent years offers up a Republican governor from the upper Midwest as the great white hope.

‘Period Of Turmoil’ Preceded Abramson Firing, Says Top Editor At ‘Times’  —  Dean Baquet sat in his new office in midtown Manhattan, the very picture of composure and precision, as he described the top-level dysfunction that led to the firing of Jill Abramson as executive editor of The New York Times …