A Civil Rights Leader Has Disguised Herself As Black For Years, Her Parents Say  —  Rachel Dolezal is president of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the NAACP and also chairs a city police oversight commission.  Her parents also told BuzzFeed News that she is passing off her younger adopted black brother as her own son.

Why Does Obama Want This Trade Deal So Badly?  —  The political battle over the enormous, twelve-nation trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership keeps getting stranger.  President Obama has made the completion of the deal the number-one legislative priority of his second term.

Last Slide  —  The Iowa Straw Poll is dead.  —  The governing board for the Republican Party of Iowa voted unanimously Friday to cancel the straw poll, a milestone on the path to the White House that had passed the strategic tipping point.  It was no longer a political risk for presidential campaigns …

Congressman On Sex Abuse Scandal: ‘The Only Victim Here Is Denny Hastert’  —  The indictment last month of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) on charges of illegally concealing millions in banks withdrawals and lying to the FBI also revealed another serious breach …

Elizabeth Warren Tells Us That She Can't Even With Jamie Dimon's Mansplaining  —  So that happened.  On this week's podcast, come for Sen. Eilzabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) plan to fix higher education, stay for her throwing shade back on JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon.

West Baltimore's Police Presence Drops, and Murders Soar  —  BALTIMORE — From the steps of her New Bethlehem Baptist Church, the Rev. Lisa Weah looked down the block to the open-air drug market outside the bodega on the corner a few hundred feet away.  —  The traffic there had been slowing until …

Wonk warrior  —  Inside the relaunch of Hillary Clinton.  —  Lead image by Getty.  —  Hillary Clinton hasn't always been a profile in political courage, but she's had her moments.  One of them came in late December 2006, a month before Clinton announced her first run for the presidency …

Story highlights  —  (CNN)An upstate New York maximum-security prison employee gave hacksaw blades, drill bits and eyeglasses with lights affixed to them to a pair of convicted murderers before their brazen escape, sources said Friday.  —  Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie told CNN's …

Midstate musician shot to death by bounty hunter  —  A deadly incident is once again focusing attention on what rights bounty hunters should have.  —  Randy Howard, a well-known musician, was shot to death by a bounty hunter inside his home.  The bounty hunter claims he fired in self-defense.