For Obama, loss of the Senate could be freeing  —  The walls seem to be closing in on the Obama presidency.  —  Iraq and Syria are overrun with terrorists.  Violence is flaring in Ukraine and on Israel's borders.  A humanitarian crisis is developing on our own southern border …

Obama Weighs Steps to Cover Contraception  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, reeling from back-to-back blows from the Supreme Court this week, is weighing options that would provide contraceptive coverage to thousands of women who are about to lose it or never had it because of their employers' religious objections.

The Daily Show President: Obama's Edgy Humor  —  Obama's approval numbers may be not so great, but his funny bone is well-honed, and different from his predecessors'.  —  While President Obama's approval ratings may be in the tank, there's still one arena in which he's riding high …

What If America Had Lost the Revolutionary War?  —  The Fourth of July—a time we Americans set aside to celebrate our independence and mark the war we waged to achieve it, along with the battles that followed.  There was the War of 1812, the War of 1833, the First Ohio-Virginia War …

Shut Out of White House, G.O.P. Looks to Democrats of 1992  —  WASHINGTON — It took 24 years for Democrats to end the last period of Republican presidential advantage, in which issues and the makeup of the Electoral College helped Republicans win five of six elections, and to start their own behind Bill Clinton.

ISIS Already in Gaza Strip … Despite denials by Hamas, there is growing evidence that the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS] — also known as “The Islamic State” — has begun operating in the Gaza Strip.  —  Palestinian Authority [PA] and Israeli security sources …

Hillary Clinton Says She's Donated All University Speaking Fees  —  Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the Edmund Fusco Contemporary Issues Forum at the University of Connecticut, April 23, 2014, in Storrs, Conn.  —  Hillary Clinton continued to justify …

ASU professor encourages students to defy body hair norms  —  To shave or not to shave?  —  That's the question confronting students in classes taught by Breanne Fahs, associate professor of women and gender studies in ASU's New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.

The Dangerous Lies We Tell About America's Founding  —  Myths may comfort us, but facts are our best weapon against Tea Party perversions  —  When it comes to the Founding Fathers and the American Revolution, we can tell a lie—and we have been, ever since before the musket-fire stopped.

Richard Scaife, conservative champion, newsman & philanthropist, dies  —  Tribune-Review owner and philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife, whose vision and funding reinvigorated conservative politics in America, died Friday, July 4, in his home.  —  His death came just one day after his 82nd birthday.

Build We Won't  —  You often find people talking about our economic difficulties as if they were complicated and mysterious, with no obvious solution.  As the economist Dean Baker recently pointed out, nothing could be further from the truth.  The basic story of what went wrong is, in fact …

Callers Use C-SPAN Civil Rights Discussion To Complain About White Oppression (VIDEO)  —  When C-SPAN invited viewers on Thursday to offer their thoughts on the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, a handful of individuals used the opportunity to lament white oppression.