Courts Strike Down Voter ID Laws in Wisconsin and Texas  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday evening stopped officials in Wisconsin from requiring voters there to provide photo identification before casting their ballots in the coming election.  —  Three of the court's …

Obama Weighs Options to Close Guantanamo  —  Any Move to Override Congressional Ban on Bringing Detainees to U.S. Would Spark Fight  —  The White House is drafting options that would allow President Barack Obama to close the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by overriding …

Oregon First Lady: My sham marriage  —  Oregon Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber's fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, admitted on Thursday to entering into an illegal marriage in 1997, calling it a “serious mistake.”  —  “It was wrong then and it is wrong now and I am here today to accept the consequences, some of which will be life changing.

Pregnant teens who joined ISIS: We've made a huge mistake  —  The two teens are believed to be married, pregnant and living in the Islamic State-controlled city of Raqqa.  —  The teenage girls who abandoned their families in Austria to become jihadis for ISIS feel they've made a terrible mistake …

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2014  —  The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2014 is to be awarded to Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzay for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education.

Amazon Must Be Stopped  —  It's too big.  It's cannibalizing the economy.  It's time for a radical plan.  —  Before we speak ill of Amazon, let us kneel down before it.  Twenty years ago, the company began with the stated goal of creating a bookstore as comprehensive as the great Library of Alexandria …

President Obama at Gwyneth Paltrow Fundraiser: Democrats Should Feel “Sense of Urgency” Over Midterms    —  The actress hosted the President in her Brentwood backyard, gushing to Obama, “You're so handsome that I can't speak properly”  —  The Democrats may not want President Barack Obama …

Dems call for Ebola flight ban  —  A growing number of Democrats are pressuring President Obama to ban flights to Ebola-ravaged countries despite repeated warnings from global health leaders that closing borders could accelerate the crisis.  —  A group of 27 lawmakers, including three Democrats …

Voyeur charges dropped against photographer at Lincoln Memorial  —  Charges have been dropped against a man accused of taking photos of women's “private areas” at the Lincoln Memorial after a judge ruled that he did not do anything illegal and that police did not have a probable cause to investigate him.

Secret Deficit Lovers  —  What if they balanced the budget and nobody knew or cared?  —  O.K., the federal budget hasn't actually been balanced.  But the Congressional Budget Office has tallied up the totals for fiscal 2014, which ran through the end of September, and reports that the deficit plunge …

U.S. taxpayers paid $486 million for Afghan air fleet.  DOD sold it for scrap.  —  The Defense Department destroyed nearly half a billion dollars worth of defective Italian aircraft that U.S. taxpayers bought for Afghanistan and then sold the scrap for $32,000, according to an agency watchdog.

Army War College Revokes Sen. John Walsh's Degree  —  The U.S. Army War College revoked Democratic Sen. John Walsh's master's degree after an investigation completed Friday concluded he plagiarized a research paper required to graduate, a college spokeswoman said.

How to Seize Back the Political Center  —  Democrats may be glum now, but Republicans' extremism has presented them with an historic opportunity to build a lasting majority—and make America work again.  —  For all the roller coaster drama of the battle to control the Senate, the midterm elections won't really change much.

Jeff Bell says single moms drive gap in Senate race  —  Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Bell said he is behind in the polls by double digits because single mothers are “wed” to the social benefits that Democrats hand out.  —  Bell said his 20-plus percentage point deficit among women …