American Forces Said to Bomb ISIS Targets in Iraq  —  DOHUK, Iraq — American military forces bombed at least two targets in northern Iraq on Thursday night to rout Islamist insurgents who have trapped tens of thousands of religious minorities in Kurdish areas, Kurdish officials said.

Walsh drops out of U.S. Senate race  —  HELENA — Sen. John Walsh said Thursday he is pulling out of the Senate race because his campaign was distracted by the controversy over allegations that he plagiarized a U.S. Army War College research paper.  —  Walsh, a Democrat, said he decided to drop out of the race.

The Executive Editor on the Word ‘Torture’  —  Dean Baquet is the executive editor of The Times.  —  Over the past few months, reporters and editors of The Times have debated a subject that has come up regularly ever since the world learned of the C.I.A.'s brutal questioning of terrorism suspects …

For release at 12:00 p.m. EDT  —  In its new Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households, the Federal Reserve Board provides a snapshot of the self-perceived financial and economic well-being of U.S. households and the issues they face, based on responses to the Board's 2013 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking.

Caution needed with Gaza casualty figures  —  War zones are not easy places to collect statistics.  —  In the Gaza conflict, most news organisations have been quoting from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which leads a group of humanitarian organisations known as the Protection Cluster.

Ex-councilman who quit in Klingon running for U.S. Senate  —  The Indian Trail councilman who wrote his resignation letter in Klingon wants to beam up to Capitol Hill.  David Waddell is running as a write-in candidate for U.S. Senate.  —  The N.C. Board of Elections certified this week …

Cease-Fire in Gaza Expires, and Strikes Resume  —  JERUSALEM — As a 72-hour truce in Gaza expired at 8 a.m. Friday, Palestinian militants fired barrages of rockets into Israel and the Israeli military responded with airstrikes, one of which killed a 10-year-old boy, according to relatives.

The U.N. Handmaiden of Hamas  —  The relief agency in Gaza, financed in part by the U.S., has become a patron of Palestinian grievance.

Inequality Is a Drag  —  For more than three decades, almost everyone who matters in American politics has agreed that higher taxes on the rich and increased aid to the poor have hurt economic growth.  —  Liberals have generally viewed this as a trade-off worth making …

Wolfowitz: We ‘won’ the Iraq War  —  Paul Wolfowitz, a former senior George W. Bush administration official and one of the chief Iraq War architects, said on Tuesday that the U.S. “won” the war in Iraq.  —  When asked his thoughts about the current situation in Iraq and whether the war was a mistake …

A high-speed train wreck for Obama and liberalism  —  CALIFORNIA BIG GOVERNMENT ECONOMY LIBERALISM RAILROADS  —  Few of President Obama's initiatives are more emblematic of his early ambitions to be a transformational liberal leader than his vision for connecting the nation with a vast high-speed rail network.

Ask Andrew W.K.: My Dad Is a Right-Wing A**hole  —  [Editor's note: Every Wednesday New York City's own Andrew W.K. takes your life questions, and sets you safely down the right path to a solution, a purpose or — no surprise here — a party.  Need his help?  Just ask: [email protected]]

Politics Counts: A 2014 Wave?  More Like a Ripple  —  The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows an angry electorate that blames Washington for much of its pain.  And with their blood boiling and Election Day only three months away, voters look ready to do ... maybe not too much.