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.

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 …

‘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

“Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer to retire this summer  —  Shares -  —  Bob Schieffer, the anchor of CBS News' “Face the Nation,” announced Wednesday that he will retire this summer after more than 50 years of working in journalism.  —  Schieffer, who is 78, has been with CBS News for 46 years.

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 …

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.

White House Trolls Netanyahu on Iran with Bomb Graphic  —  Turnabout is fair play.  —  The White House has employed a graphic first used by Benjamin Netanyahu to push its case for a nuclear deal with Iran that the Israeli Prime Minister opposes.  On Wednesday the president's office posted …

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 …

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 …

Indictments May Be Near in George Washington Bridge Scandal  —  It has been falsely predicted many times in the last year, but now it seems to be true: The federal investigation into the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge appears to be coming to a head, with an announcement of indictments as early as next week.

Today in Politics: A Knighted Bloomberg Decrees Bush and Clinton Worthy Candidates  —  Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, received an honorary knighthood on Wednesday in Washington, making him Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.  —  Thibault Camus/Associated Press

So many candidates, so little love  —  A seemingly interminable flight, blessed with a well-stocked video-on-demand system, afforded me the opportunity to watch Woody Allen's classic “Annie Hall” again after a hiatus of many years.  —  At one point, the star tells a joke about two elderly women …

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 …

Why do we still tolerate the Supreme Court?  —  In America at the dawn of the 20th century, 25,000 little boys spent 10 hours a day in the living hell known as a coal mine.  Charged with pulling detritus out of coal shipments, boys as young as 8 hunched over an ever-flowing stream of minerals …

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.

Op-ed: Protecting LGBT Workers Means Protecting All Workers  —  “Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for black folks, but for every American.  Women marched through those doors.  Latinos marched through those doors.  Asian Americans, gay Americans …