ObamaCare author: Health law is ‘really complicated’  —  Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the coauthors of the Affordable Care Act, now thinks Democrats may have been better off not passing it at all and holding out for a better bill.  —  The Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education …

Conservatives scoff at Boehner deal  —  Hardliners are again ready to cause leaders problems.  —  The “Hell No” caucus is once again causing headaches for Republican leadership.  —  A cadre of the House's most conservative members will meet Wednesday morning at the Capitol Hill Club …

Mitch McConnell already running the show for the GOP  —  Sen. Mitch McConnell won't become majority leader until next month, but he's already acting the part.  —  The Kentucky Republican, who will visit President Obama Wednesday at the White House, has taken the lead on a variety of thorny issues …

Media in Frenzy Over Hill Staffer's Comments on Obama's Daughters  —  Five days after Elizabeth Lauten published a Facebook post criticizing the outfits worn by President Barack Obama's daughters, the previously obscure Republican Hill staffer is being inundated with threatening messages …

Former Congressman Hill mulls run for governor  —  Baron Hill has calculated the financial commitment for top office run  —  INDIANANAPOLIS — After losing his bid to return to Congress in 2010, Baron Hill flirted with the idea of running for governor.  —  There's no flirtation this time.

Roy H. Beck Quietly Leads a Grass-Roots Army  —  He keeps grade cards for every member of Congress, deploys three million activists to blast lawmakers with anti-immigration-reform telephone calls, faxes and emails, and runs a website where his followers have called undocumented immigrants “criminal invaders” and “wolves at the door.”

WEST ANTARCTIC MELT RATE HAS TRIPLED  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. - A comprehensive, 21-year analysis of the fastest-melting region of Antarctica has found that the melt rate of glaciers there has tripled during the last decade.  —  The glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica …

Uber.gov  —  It's Time to Let the Government Drive  —  Flying to Vegas?  Look to your left.  Now look to your right.  Statistically speaking, one of you is about to get ripped off by a cabbie.  And it'll probably be you, the imbecile who chose the middle seat and paid $15 for plane wifi.

Fall of the Bond King: How Gross Lost Empire as Pimco Cracked  —  Bill Gross, the 70-year-old king of bonds, rushed through the offices of his $2 trillion empire on a Friday morning distributing hand-written notes.  He knew his reign was over.  —  The billionaire co-founder …

Georgia Town Votes To Ban Muslim Mosque, Residents Hate Islam (Video)  —  While anti-Muslim protesters waved signs outside the Kennesaw City Hall, the City Council voted against allowing an Islamic group the opportunity to rent a retail space in the small Georgia town.

Former Democratic congressional aide pleads guilty to sexual assault  —  A former Democratic congressional aide pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting two women in 2010.  —  Donny Ray Williams Jr., 37, who served as a staff director for the Senate Homeland Security …

Charles Barkley: We never talk about race until something bad happens  —  Watch Brooke Baldwin's full interview with Charles Barkley on CNN on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET  —  (CNN) — Charles Barkley — who once said he doesn't create controversies, he just brings them to our attention — is at it again.

The right's ‘State of the Union plan’ continues to percolate  —  Last week, shortly before Thanksgiving, the idea that congressional Republicans might block President Obama from delivering a State of the Union address first crossed the political world's radar.

House passes bill to end benefits for Nazis  —  The House on Tuesday passed legislation to terminate Social Security benefits for suspected Nazi war criminals.  —  Passed 420-, the bill was approved after an October Associated Press report found that dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals forced …

The plight of the Southern Democrat  —  Southern Democrats who lost key races this election cycle  —  New Orleans (CNN) — The 2014 elections seemed like the final reckoning for Southern Democrats, the culmination of a political metamorphosis that began in the Civil Rights era and concluded under the nation's first black President.

Woman sues Bill Cosby, claiming underage abuse  —  Associated Press 3 hrs ago  —  LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bill Cosby was sued Tuesday by a Southern California woman who claims the comedian molested her in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion around 1974 when she was 15 years old.

Why Our Memory Fails Us  —  NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, the astrophysicist and host of the TV series “Cosmos,” regularly speaks to audiences on topics ranging from cosmology to climate change to the appalling state of science literacy in America.  One of his staple stories hinges on a line …

Hillary should stop dithering  —  The media have moved from Hillary fatigue to Hillary exhaustion  —  Blessed art they who are ready for Hillary, for they have the patience of saints.  —  Each day, they gather money and names and deep data to lay at her feet in preparation for her presidential announcement.

Wife and suspected son of Islamic State leader arrested  —  A wife and suspected son of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, were arrested in Lebanon.  It comes as U.S. military members receive their strongest warning yet that they could be personally targeted by the terrorist group.