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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Grimes won't say if she voted for Obama  —  U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes refused to say Thursday if she voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 or 2012 but noted that she was a delegate for Hillary Clinton at the 2008 Democratic Convention.

South Dakota Senate candidate lives in D.C.  —  Larry Pressler, who is running for Senate in South Dakota as an independent, has his principal residence in Washington, according to District of Columbia tax records.  —  Pressler, who served as a Republican in Congress from 1975 to 1997 …

How to save the Democratic Party from itself  —  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 …