Dick Cheney Was Lying About Torture  —  The Senate report confirms it doesn't work.  As those of us on the inside knew.  —  It's official: torture doesn't work.  Waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, did not in fact “produce the intelligence that allowed us to get Osama bin Laden …

The Rise and Fall of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge, America's Worst Gay Power Couple  —  Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge have always been entitled brats.  And now the media has finally noticed.  —  Just three years ago, Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge were the toast of the liberal establishment.

Sharp Racial Divisions in Reactions to Brown, Garner Decisions  —  Many Blacks Expect Police-Minority Relations to Worsen  —  The public has very different reactions to the recent grand jury decisions in two police-related deaths that have sparked protests in cities across the country.

Republicans clash on reversing nuclear option in Senate  —  Republicans are split over whether to change the Senate's rules to allow filibusters on executive and judicial nominations.  —  As they head into a conference meeting on Tuesday, some Republicans say it's time to undo a wrong committed …

Lena Dunham's publisher says her alleged rapist “Barry” wasn't actually named Barry  —  Lena Dunham in a scene from the HBO series “Girls.”  (JoJo Whilden/HBO via AP)  —  As I noted last week, Lena Dunham's memoir describes her having sex with someone named Barry, whom she labels as Oberlin's “resident conservative.”

Approval Ratings Hit 5-Year High for GOP  —  Republicans are enjoying a five-year peak in popularity after their wins in the midterm elections, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll, while President Barack Obama struggles with his lowest job approval rating, at 39 percent.

The Plan to Get Climate-Change Denial Into Schools  —  “As the amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase, the Earth warms.  Scientists warn that climate change, caused by this warming, will pose challenges to society.”  —  That language—featured in a fifth-grade Texas …

McConnell Pushes Campaign Finance Changes  —  An effort to ease limits on spending by party committees was among the late lingering issues as negotiations continued on legislation to keep the government funded past Thursday.  —  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has championed the change …

Fed Aims to Signal Shift on Low Rates  —  Central Bank Could Drop ‘Considerable Time’ Phrasing in Policy Statement  —  Federal Reserve officials are seriously considering an important shift in tone at their policy meeting next week: dropping an assurance that short-term interest rates …

Circus set for Gruber at Capitol  —  The Jonathan Gruber show is coming to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with House Republicans set to grill the former ObamaCare adviser for his controversial remarks about the “stupidity” of voters who let the law pass.  —  The hearing is likely to be a spectacle …

De Blasio: Giuliani ‘Fundamentally Misunderstands the Reality’ of Race  —  The New York mayor today addressed the week in protests, and experience with his own son.  —  New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday admonished former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for his repeated recent comments that …

Applying ‘Broken Windows’ to the Police  —  In poorer neighborhoods, overly aggressive officers are too often a source of community anxiety.  Their misbehavior contributes to disorder.  —  One of the most influential policing concepts of our era, the broken-windows theory …

When rape matters, and when it doesn't: Column  —  In the eyes of the media, all rapes are equal.  But some rapes are more equal than others.  —  Rape is a terrible crime and deserves the harshest punishment and condemnation.  Yet, in the public sphere, all rapes are not created equal.