Can Rand Paul stand for big military without losing libertarians?  —  WASHINGTON — With an aircraft carrier as his backdrop, Rand Paul will seek Thursday to reassure hawkish Republican voters and donors during his presidential campaign roll-out week that he isn't the same politician who called for cutting defense spending in 2011.

White House mocks Netanyahu on Twitter  —  The White House on Wednesday took a shot at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by using a cartoon bomb to defend its nuclear deal with Iran.  —  The bomb diagram attached to a White House tweet looked a lot like a chart used by Netanyahu during …

University of Michigan reverses decision, will show ‘American Sniper’ as scheduled  —  Bradley Cooper as former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in ‘American Sniper’  —  The University of Michigan said late Wednesday that it will show the film “American Sniper” as originally scheduled after a protest …

Bystander Considered Erasing Footage of Cop Shooting  —  Feidin Santana said there was a struggle between the unarmed man and the officer, but the officer had control of the situation before opening fire.

Lincoln Chafee Considers Run For 2016 Democratic Presidential Nomination  —  Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee is announcing that he is considering a campaign for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president.  —  The 62-year old former U.S. Senator and governor said in an interview …

A killing on camera  —  Protesters gathered outside city hall in North Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday.  —  The Rev. Calvin Butts this week threatened to withhold his electoral support from Mayor de Blasio.  He demands the mayor order Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to fully abandon …

‘America is the real terrorist and my boys are the best’: Boston Marathon bombers' defiant mother rails against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's guilty verdict in bizarre rant as he faces death penalty  — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was emotionless with his head bowed as the verdict was read out in U.S. District Court in Boston on Wednesday afternoon

The ‘Face The Nation’ shortlist: Who's on tap to replace Bob Schieffer?  —  Now that Bob Schieffer has announced his retirement, CBS News is hard at work determining who will become the next host of “Face The Nation.”  —  Network president David Rhodes is a long way from settling on a successor.

Lee Surrendered, But His Lieutenants Kept Fighting  —  “If the programme which our people saw set on foot at Appomattox Court-House had been carried out ... we would have no disturbance in the South,” testified the former Confederate general (and future senator) John Brown Gordon in 1871.

Obama to Call for End to ‘Conversion’ Therapies for Gay and Transgender Youth  —  WASHINGTON — A 17-year-old transgender youth, Leelah Alcorn, stunned her friends and a vast Internet audience in December when she threw herself in front of a tractor-trailer after writing in an online suicide note …

Will Ted Cruz Super-PACs Usher in New Frontier of Donor Influence?  —  Now big donors can go super-PAC shopping.  —  The four super-PACs preparing to give a $31 million boost to the presidential hopes of Texas Senator Ted Cruz represent the latest twist in the infiltration of big money in politics …

Wall Street Fees Wipe Out $2.5 Billion in New York City Pension Gains  —  The Lenape tribe got a better deal on the sale of Manhattan island than New York City's pension funds have been getting from Wall Street, according to a new analysis by the city comptroller's office.

10 questions for Ted Cruz  —  Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas grew famous nationally through his zealous attacks on President Obama's health law.  Shortly after entering the 2016 Republican presidential race, Cruz sat down with me at Ninfa's, one of his favorite Tex-Mex restaurants in Houston.

Bachmann: Obama Has Virtually Guaranteed a World War III  —  WASHINGTON - Former Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann doesn't mince words when discussing President Obama's “pro jihad” and “anti christian” foreign policy.  —  She also evaluates the Republican field for 2016 …

These Texas rebels say the American flag is more racist than the Confederate flag  —  When people tell the Texas Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesman Marshall Davis that his group's flags are an enduring symbol of the South's savage history of slavery, he has an answer ready for them.

Predictors of Indoor Radon Concentrations in Pennsylvania, 1989-2013  —  1Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; 2Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland …

Moroccan cash flows to Clinton Foundation  —  The Clinton Foundation is accepting a major donation from a Moroccan government-owned company to hold a high-profile conference next month in Marrakech with the king of Morocco — an event likely to reignite concerns about the foundation's acceptance …