Sources: Miss. tea party leader Mayfield commits suicide  —  Sources have confirmed that attorney Mark Mayfield has committed suicide.  —  Mayfield, vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party, and is one of the three men charged with conspiring with Clayton Kelly to photograph U.S …

Congressional candidate feels opponent is a body double … OKLAHOMA CITY - An Oklahoma congressional candidate has announced he plans to contest Tuesday's primary election of long time Rep. Frank Lucas.  —  In a bizarre letter obtained by NewsChannel 4, Tim Murray says he doesn't feel Rep. Lucas is qualified for office.

How the Clintons went from ‘dead broke’ to rich: Bill earned $104.9 million for speeches  —  Over seven frenetic days, Bill Clinton addressed corporate executives in Switzerland and Denmark, an investors' group in Sweden and a cluster of business and political leaders in Austria.

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki: Russian jets will turn tide  —  Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki talks to the BBC  —  Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has told the BBC that he hopes jets from Russia and Belarus will turn the tide against rebels in the coming days.

Report: Mexican Military Chopper Crosses Into US, Shoots At Border Agents  —  TUCSON, Ariz. (CBS Las Vegas) — Border Patrol agents in Arizona were reportedly fired upon by a Mexican military helicopter that traveled across the border.  —  KVOA-TV reports that Mexican authorities were conducting …

The U.S. military's ongoing slur of Native Americans  —  Simon Waxman is managing editor of Boston Review.  —  Resistance to the Washington Redskins team name has ebbed and flowed over the years, but thanks in part to letters from 50 senators to the team's owner, Dan Snyder …

So Much for Obamacare Not Working  —  Have you been following the news about Obamacare?  The Affordable Care Act has receded from the front page, but information about how it's going keeps coming in — and almost all the news is good.  Indeed, health reform has been on a roll ever since March …

Obama Calls Boehner Lawsuit Threat a ‘Stunt’ … Despite Republican House Speaker John Boehner's threat this week to sue President Obama over his use of executive orders, the president refused to apologize for his actions during an exclusive interview with ABC News and took the Republican Party …

How the Guardian played down the assassination that sparked world war  —  Murder of archduke would have no ‘salient effect’ on Europe, declared Manchester Guardian, just 37 days before war erupted  —  “It is not to be supposed,” wrote a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian analysing …

The Supreme Court's Powerful New Consensus  —  WASHINGTON — FOR years, particularly after the 2000 election, talk about the Supreme Court has centered on its bitter 5-to-4 divisions.  Yet it is worth reflecting on a remarkable achievement: The court has agreed unanimously in more than 66 percent …

DC's Top Neocon Finds His Inner Hippie  —  Arthur Brooks' pursuit of the formula for happiness has some unlikely speakers talking to the American Enterprise Institute.  Is the 1 percent really listening to his spiritual gurus?  —  There were more turbans and saris among the suits and ties …

The GOP is now officially the party of ‘get the hell out’  —  Exactly one year after the Senate passed an immigration reform bill that built a compromise on an exchange of increased enforcement for legalization for the 11 million, Republicans have now officially abandoned any pretense …

Secrets of the Creative Brain  —  A leading neuroscientist who has spent decades studying creativity shares her research on where genius comes from, whether it is dependent on high IQ—and why it is so often accompanied by mental illness.  —  As a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who studies creativity …

Statistical Transparency Report Regarding Use of National Security Authorities  —  Annual Statistics for Calendar Year 2013  —  In June 2013, President Obama directed the Intelligence Community to declassify and make public as much information as possible about certain sensitive U.S. Government …

Congressional Candidate Warns Wisconsin Marriage Ruling May Lead To Incestuous Marriage  —  Wisconsin Congressional Candidate Karen Mueller (R)  —  A Wisconsin Republican congressional hopeful warned Tuesday that a federal court ruling striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage …

Meet Mitzi Bickers  —  A scandal-plagued Democratic operative may have worked the black vote for Cochran  —  Meet what appears to be one of the keys to Thad Cochran's black-turnout operation, Mitzi Bickers.  —  She is, from all appearances, something of a renaissance woman …

The Pitchforks Are Coming... For Us Plutocrats  —  The model for us rich guys here should be Henry Ford, who realized that all his autoworkers in Michigan weren't only cheap labor to be exploited; they were consumers, too.  Ford figured that if he raised their wages, to a then-exorbitant $5 a day, they'd be able to afford his Model Ts.

Yeah, We're Color-Blind Down South  —  Here's some unsurprising but depressing news from the Montgomery Advertiser's Mary Troyan: … The timing of Sessions' statement is interesting, coming right as conservatives next door in Mississippi and to some extent nationwide are in a full freakout mode …

Obama asks for authorization to provide direct military training to Syrian rebels  —  The Obama administration asked Congress Thursday to authorize direct U.S. military training and equipment for Syrian opposition fighters, a move that could significantly escalate U.S. involvement in Syria's civil war.