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.

John McCain: Arizona execution ‘torture’  —  A botched execution in Arizona on Wednesday amounted to “torture,” said the state's senior senator John McCain.  —  The longtime Republican lawmaker, who experienced years of torture while being held in captivity by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

To Ease Crisis, U.S. May Vet Young Refugees Inside Honduras  —  Hoping to stem the recent surge of migrants at the Southwest border, the Obama administration is considering whether to allow hundreds of minors and young adults from Honduras into the United States without making …

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.

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 …

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

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 …

Senate: 2014 a Year All Its Own  —  Republicans' takeover odds remain decent, but this isn't 2006 or 2010  —  Analysts always strain to generalize about elections.  We want to “model” them, find the common elements, and project them as early as possible based on the commonalities.

An opportunity to cut poverty  —  Let's re-conceive the federal government's role in providing a safety net for the poor.  —  This week, our economy received some bad news: The International Monetary Fund revised its projection for U.S. economic growth this year to just 1.7%.  Working families will pay the price.