New clues in Michael Brown shooting?  —  (CNN) — Could a newly released audio provide more clues on what led up to Michael Brown's shooting death?  —  The FBI has questioned a man who says he recorded audio of gunfire at the time Brown was shot by Ferguson police on August 9, the man's attorney told CNN.

VA official: No deaths due to wait times at Phoenix VA facility  —  (CNN) — A soon-to-be-released inspector general's report finds that a waiting list is not the cause of any deaths at the VA facility in Phoenix, a Department of Veterans Affairs official said Tuesday.

IRS Shocker: Filing Reveals Lerner Blackberry Destroyed  —  The device was wiped AFTER Congressional inquiry began  —  The IRS filing in federal Judge Emmet Sullivan's court reveals shocking new information.  The IRS destroyed Lerner's Blackberry AFTER it knew her computer had crashed …

One in six French people say they support ISIS  —  TWEET SHARE +1 LINKEDIN EMAIL PRINT  —  Two polls released this week both ask a question that you would hope wouldn't need asking: how many people support the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)?  Unfortunately, in all four countries surveyed …

Republicans Open Up Wider ‘Expectations Gap’ Ahead of Midterms  —  With just over two months before the midterm elections, Republican voters are widening the “expectations gap” with the Democrats.  About six-in-ten (61%) Republican and GOP-leaning registered voters think their party …

Steve Schmidt joins Rick Perry's legal team  —  Republican strategist and former John McCain consultant Steve Schmidt has joined the team helping Texas Gov. Rick Perry with the strategy around his indictment, POLITICO has learned.  —  Schmidt is the latest addition to a team that Perry has been expanding with legal hands.

The Monkey in the Room  —  As shown in the pictures below, the monkey is the second most photographed subject in H-232, aside from Speaker Boehner himself.  It all started in the fall of 2011, when Speaker Boehner joked in an interview that some days he felt like a windup toy because his jam-packed scheduled kept him so busy.

Will there be a GOP wave or wipeout in the Senate?  —  Will there be a GOP wave in the Senate—or a wipeout?  —  So where's the wave?  This is President Obama's sixth-year-itch election.  The map of states with contested Senate seats could hardly be better from the Republicans' vantage point.

Lost in America  —  More and more I'm convinced that America right now isn't a country dealing with a mere dip in its mood and might.  It's a country surrendering to a new identity and era, in which optimism is quaint and the frontier anything but endless.  —  There's a feeling of helplessness …

Michael Brown's Unremarkable Humanity  —  The New York Times has a feature today looking at the brief life of Michael Brown, informing us that he was “no angel.”  The reasons for this are many.  Brown smoked marijuana.  He lived in a community that “had rough patches.”

550 Buyouts, Layoffs Imminent at Turner; HLN, CNN Among Cuts (Exclusive)  —  An individual with knowledge of the network's plans tell TheWrap a large portion are expected at the two cable channels  —  Some 550 buyouts are to be offered at Time Warner's Turner network this week …

Scott Walker's Race for Governor Could Shape U.S. Politics for Years to Come  —  Everyone knows the most important political race in the country this fall is the race that determines control of the U.S. Senate, which is very much up in the air.  According to The New York Times prediction model …

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown calls for Burger King boycott over planned Tim Hortons deal  —  U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, listens to a testimony during a hearing on banks and the financial crisis on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 15, 2011.  (File/Reuters)

Sanders weighs Clinton challenge  —  Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) is gearing up for a presidential primary challenge against Hillary Clinton and hopes to capitalize on Democratic concerns over Clinton's coziness with Wall Street banks.  —  Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats …

Photographer Captures Scientists' Frightened Responses To Climate Change Discussions  —  We've read the daunting headlines.  We've seen the bleak predictions.  We know in our minds that climate change is putting our Earth's future in danger.  And yet there's something uniquely frightening …

At Michael Brown funeral, Al Sharpton's double-edged eulogy evokes anger  —  MISSOURI AL SHARPTON RACE AND DIVERSITY FERGUSON  —  The shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., has been so heavily politicized that it would have been unreasonable to expect Brown's funeral to be free of politics …

Social Media and the ‘Spiral of Silence’  —  Summary of Findings  —  A major insight into human behavior from pre-internet era studies of communication is the tendency of people not to speak up about policy issues in public—or among their family, friends, and work colleagues …

GAO finds no fault with ‘social cost of carbon’  —  A government probe into the metric used by federal agencies to measure the “social cost of carbon” found no evidence that it was improperly developed, investigators said Monday.  —  The Government Accountability Office (GAO) …