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 …

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 …

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.

Boehner Goes Off On Obama Over Immigration Crisis  —  “When is he going to take responsibility for something?” the speaker said of the president Thursday.  —  BOEHNER: 'THIS IS A PROBLEM OF THE PRESIDENT'S OWN MAKING'  —  “This is a problem of the president's own making,” Speaker John Boehner said during his weekly press briefing.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

Chinese Hackers Pursue Key Data on U.S. Workers  —  WASHINGTON — Chinese hackers in March broke into the computer networks of the United States government agency that houses the personal information of all federal employees, according to senior American officials.

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.’

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.

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 …

America's Shifting Statehouse Press  —  Can New Players Compensate for Lost Legacy Reporters?  —  Within America's 50 state capitol buildings, 1,592 journalists inform the public about the actions and issues of state government, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.

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 …