The Death of Steven Sotloff  —  In the final moments before an ISIS executioner beheaded the American journalist Steven Sotloff, the masked man offered up, in an English accent, a message to his viewers: “We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America …

Louisiana Marriage Ban Is Constitutional, Federal Judge Rules  —  “The State of Louisiana has a legitimate interest under a rational basis standard of review for addressing the meaning of marriage through the democratic process.”  The first federal court ruling upholding a ban in the past year.

Our Senate model is moving in Democrats' direction all of a sudden.  Why?  —  On July 15, Election Lab, WaPo's election model, gave Republicans an 86 percent chance of winning the six seats they needed to take over the Senate majority.  Today — 50 days later — it gives Republicans only a 52 percent chance of winning the majority.

Senate control 'on knife's edge'  —  Some $400 million has already been spent in the battle for the Senate.  Yet the record-shattering early money has hardly budged the half-dozen races that will decide the fate of the upper chamber, and two months out from Election Day …

Phil Robertson's Plan For Combating ISIS: ‘Convert Them Or Kill Them’  —  “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson put forward a strategy Tuesday for combating militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: “convert them or kill them.”  —  Robertson was asked to opine on Fox News' …

Columbia Student Will Carry a Mattress Everywhere Until Her Alleged Rapist Is Expelled  —  Emma Sulkowicz staged the piece of performance art as a protest against Columbia's handling of her sexual-assault case.  —  1.9k  —  Shares  —  1.8k  —  Emma Sulkowicz says she was raped …

EXCLUSIVE: ISIS fighter worked at Minneapolis airport  —  He was the second known American killed while fighting for ISIS in Syria, and the second from Minnesota — and a Fox 9 exclusive uncovering his employment history is raising a few eyebrows.  —  An airport is probably the last place anyone …

New poll says large majority of Americans believe Redskins should not change name  —  (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)  —  A large but shrinking majority of Americans say the Washington Redskins should not change their team's name, according to a poll released Tuesday finding …

Sen. Coburn: Let's change Constitution  —  Sen. Tom Coburn is pushing for a national convention to amend the Constitution.  —  The Oklahoma Republican, who has grown disenchanted with gridlock in Washington, will officially launch his effort after he retires from the Senate in a few months.

Biden: ISIL will reside in hell  —  Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a fiery response to the killing of American journalist Steven Sotloff, telling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants that the U.S. will “follow them to the gates of hell.”  —  “[W]hen people harm Americans, we don't retreat.

Who runs for office?  A profile of the 2%  —  There are 90,107 government units in the U.S. — everything from county governments (3,031) to independent school district governments (12,880), according to 2012 Census Bureau data.  Some governments have appointed officials …

5 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die  —  If we're genuinely committed to improving the circumstances of women, we need to get the facts straight  —  Much of what we hear about the plight of American women is false.  Some faux facts have been repeated so often they are almost beyond the reach of critical analysis.

Ready, Aim, Fire.  Not Fire, Ready, Aim.  —  President Obama has been excoriated for declaring that “we don't have a strategy yet” for effectively confronting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.  In criticizing Obama for taking too much time, Representative Mike Rogers …

The Secret Pot-Growing Operations in America's Cornfields  —  On any given weekday in the summer, you will find me walking through fields counting bugs.  In fact, it's my job: I'm an ecologist studying the communities of insects that live in agricultural landscapes.