Gaining Ground: Americans' Health Insurance Coverage and Access to Care After the Affordable Care Act's First Open Enrollment Period  —  A new Commonwealth Fund survey finds that in the wake of the Affordable Care Act's first open enrollment period, significantly fewer working-age adults …

Pundits Collectively Lose It Over A Quote Obama Didn't Even Say  —  Many pundits on Thursday were shocked by the gall of President Obama to say that he doesn't “do photo-ops,” a mere day after glossy, White House-sanctioned shots surfaced of him sipping beer and shooting pool with the Colorado governor.

GOP to Todd Akin: Shut up  —  Todd Akin is back talking about rape in his new book and Republicans have a message for him: Shut up.  —  The Missouri Republican's memoir offers no apologies for his comments on “legitimate rape,” his bruising loss to Sen. Claire McCaskill or the effect …

Washington man first to buy legal weed in Spokane is fired after spotted on news  —  Mike Boyer, 30, was canned Tuesday after waiting 20 hours to buy pot and immediately going home to smoke.  He was called up for urine analysis after he was spotted on TV buying the pot.  Boyer told The News he ‘regrets nothing.’

Jill Abramson Talks Obama Secrecy and Her New York Times Firing  —  Two months after her abrupt exit from the Gray Lady, the former executive editor delivered a speech about how different Obama is from Bush—and why she was dismissed from her post.  —  Aside from her unceremonious firing …

The Gaza Rules  —  Israel, unlike Hamas, isn't trying to kill civilians.  It's taking pains to spare them.  —  According to many critics, Israel is slaughtering civilians in Gaza.  It's “purposefully wiping out entire families,” says an Arab member of Israel's parliament.

IRS worker campaigned on help line  —  An IRS help line worker has been suspended for 100 days without pay for urging callers to reelect President Barack Obama in 2012, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel announced on Thursday.  —  The employee, who was not named, “acknowledged that he had used …

Bloomberg: Colorado Gun Recall Towns So Rural, They Don't Have Roads  —  DENVER — In what may come as a surprise to residents of Colorado Springs and Pueblo, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn't think those cities have roads.  —  Bloomberg told Rolling Stone that he was …

Major Union Drops Partnership With United Negro College Fund Because Of The Kochs  —  “This was a betrayal of everything the UNCF stands for,” AFSCME president says.  —  Shannon Stapleton / Reuters / Reuters  —  WASHINGTON — One of the nation's largest public-sector unions is severing …

Have the Anti-Obamacare Ads Backfired?  —  According to the recent report of nonpartisan analysts Kantar Media CMAG, ACA opponents have spent 450 million dollars on anti-Obamacare ads so far.  Spending on negative ads outpaced positive ones by more than 15 to 1.  This map shows the spending on negative ads in each state.

McDaniel backers killing his political future  —  By continuing the fight over the primary, Chris McDaniel and his supporters are risking a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate, not to mention McDaniel's own political future.  —  CONNECT  —  Chris McDaniel, candidate for the U.S. Senate …

Justice declines to pursue allegations that CIA monitored Senate Intel staff  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has decided not to pursue accusations that the CIA spied on the Senate Intelligence Committee and allegations that committee staff slipped classified documents from a secure agency facility, McClatchy has confirmed.

Republican Governors Are Blowing Up The Laboratories Of Democracy  —  Louis Brandeis once described the states as the “laboratories of democracy” — places where you can experiment with different policy options to see what works.  The 2010 elections gave a handful of new Republican governors …

Israel Under Attack, Obama Remains Silent  —  Israel is under attack by the terrorist group Hamas.  Hundreds of rockets have fallen on its cities and towns.  Millions of Israelis run, and must pull their children, into shelters each day.  —  Prime Minister Netanyahu has discussed …