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 …

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 …

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 …

Almost Everything Barack Obama's Ever Said About Marijuana Over The Years  —  “I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” Obama said.  —  Mid 1970s: The Choom Gang Years  —  Growing up in Hawaii, Barack Obama belonged to a group of friends who were known as the “Choom Gang.”

Clinton Library files show Hillary image polishing  —  LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — As Hillary Clinton prepares to announce a new bid for the White House, her husband's presidential library here is spilling more secrets about her top advisers' efforts to burnish her image during the eight years she spent as first lady.

South Carolina to SCOTUS: We Can Discriminate Against Women, So Why Not Gays?  —  One key problem with originalism—the theory that the Constitution should be interpreted as its drafters understood it—is that the men who wrote our constitution had some pretty barbaric views about humanity.

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.