David Gregory: Dead Head Talking?  —  NBC News' chief White House correspondent, Chuck Todd, and Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are jockeying to replace the moderator of Meet the Press.  —  Whenever he got around to reading the unpleasant item in the Page Six column on Wednesday …

Signs of donor fatigue at Obama's Bay Area fundraisers  —  President Obama hit the Bay Area for a fast cash-and-grab fundraising drive Wednesday, but there were signs that even in one of the nation's most reliable Democratic ATMs, donor fatigue is setting in.

Hillary Clinton: I need to ‘work on’ press relations  —  Hillary Clinton, who has long had a tempestuous relationship with the media, on Thursday said she may need to “work on” her “expectations” of the press.  —  Her comments, which came on NPR's “On Point” program, follow criticism …

Video: Woman in Labor ‘Not Allowed’ to Cross Street to Hospital Over Obama's Impending Motorcade  —  Witnesses say a pregnant woman in labor was prevented by authorities from crossing a Los Angeles street to a hospital Wednesday because the road had been closed for President Barack Obama's impending motorcade.

Executions should be by firing squad, federal appeals court judge says  —  Days before an Arizona murderer gasped and snorted for more than 90 minutes and died nearly two hours after his execution began, a conservative federal appeals judge called for replacing lethal injection with firing squads …

Texas gun nuts' scary ritual: How hatred of a president turned profane  —  The “open carry” crew is now spouting right-wing conspiracy theories and waving guns in the worst place imaginable  —  Three weeks before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a concerned citizen from Dallas named …

Isis ‘ordering female genital mutilation’ in Iraq - UN  —  A top UN official in Iraq has said the Sunni Islamist group Isis controlling the city of Mosul is seeking to impose female genital mutilation.  —  All females aged 11 and 46 in the northern city must undergo the procedure …

Why Am I Moving Left?  —  I used to be right down the middle.  But America's changed, and so have I.  —  In my late 50s, at a time of life when most people are supposed to be drifting into a cautious conservatism, I am surprised to find myself moving steadily leftward.  —  This is unexpected.

Behind the Scenes in Putin's Court: The Private Habits of a Latter-Day Dictator  —  The President wakes late and eats shortly after noon.  He begins with the simplest of breakfasts.  There is always cottage cheese.  His cooked portion is always substantial; omelette or occasionally porridge.

Obama Campaign Vets: Pay Us $5,000 To Learn — And Work On A Campaign  —  Started by top Obama campaign vets, 270 Strategies' new training program has drawn skepticism from Democrats and progressives on the campaign trail.  —  Darren Hauck / Reuters  —  WASHINGTON — Two top veterans …

An Idiot's Guide to Inequality  —  We may now have a new “most unread best seller of all time.”  —  Data from Amazon Kindles suggests that that honor may go to Thomas Piketty's “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” which reached No. 1 on the best-seller list this year.

Glenn Beck's audacious defense against Boston Marathon bombings defamation suit  —  On April 15 of last year, a thin kid with a bright smile named Abdulrahman Alharbi decided he would stop and watch the Boston Marathon for a few minutes.  A Saudi Arabian studying English in Boston …

BuzzFeed Editor Caught Lifting Text From Yahoo! Answers  —  Yahoo! Answers, one of the great artifacts of Internet history, is intently studied at viral news website BuzzFeed, where its trove of half-literate questions (and even less literate answers) has supplied material for at least fifty different posts and listicles.

Grim Details Emerge in FSU Professor's Shooting Death … A criminal law professor at Florida State University gunned down at his home was shot in the side of the head at relatively close range, ABC News has exclusively learned.  —  Professor Dan Markel, 41, was fatally shot Saturday …

Michigan GOP Mayor Compares Atheists To Nazis, KKK  —  The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and two other groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the mayor of Warren, Mich., who banned an atheist group from setting up a station alongside one run by a prayer group in the city hall atrium.

The Solution to Border Disorder  —  The best antidote to illegal immigration is a functioning system of legal immigration.

Ted Cruz hits back at State Department  —  Sen. Ted Cruz is slamming the State Department after a spokeswoman called his claim that the Federal Aviation Administration made a politically motivated decision to halt U.S. airlines' flights to Israel “ridiculous and offensive.”

GOP Has Midterm Engagement Advantage  —  But ‘Enthusiasm Gap’ Narrower than in 2010  —  The Republican Party holds a clear advantage in voter engagement in this fall's midterm elections, according to a new national survey by the Pew Research Center.  Yet GOP voters are not as enthused …

Conservatives Write an Assertive New Script to Fight Abortion  —  It was not on the public schedule for the Republican National Committee's spring meeting at the stately Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis.  But inside a conference room, a group of conservative women held a boot camp to strengthen …

Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of July 2012  —  If an asteroid big enough to knock modern civilization back to the 18th century appeared out of deep space and buzzed the Earth-Moon system, the near-miss would be instant worldwide headline news.  —  Two years ago, Earth experienced a close shave …