The Minimum Wage: Getting to $15  —  The debate over the federal minimum wage in the nascent presidential campaign is really two debates: one among Democrats and one among Republicans.  —  Democrats are divided on how much to raise the minimum, currently $7.25 an hour.

Hillary Clinton's Favorable Rating One of Her Worst  —  Story Highlights  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dogged by continued scrutiny of her email practices as secretary of state, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's favorability with the American public has sunk to one of its lowest levels in Gallup's 23-year trend.

Clintons personally paid State Department staffer to maintain server  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton and her family personally paid a State Department staffer to maintain the private e-mail server she used while heading the agency, according to an official from Clinton's presidential campaign.

Why drivers in China intentionally kill the pedestrians they hit.  —  In April a BMW racing through a fruit market in Foshan in China's Guangdong province knocked down a 2-year-old girl and rolled over her head.  As the girl's grandmother shouted, “Stop!  You've hit a child!” …

At West Point, Annual Pillow Fight Becomes Weaponized  —  For generations, freshmen cadets at the United States Military Academy have marked the end of a grueling summer of training with a huge nighttime pillow fight that is billed as a harmless way to blow off steam and build class spirit.

Hillary Clinton Relying on Southern Primaries to Fend Off Rivals  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign is methodically building a political firewall across the South in hopes of effectively locking up the Democratic nomination in March regardless of any early setbacks in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.

Sen. Ben Cardin: I will vote against the Iran deal  —  The writer represents Maryland in the U.S. Senate, where he is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  —  Throughout the process of evaluating the Iran nuclear agreement, I continuously returned to two fundamental questions …

Insiders: Scott Walker the biggest loser of the summer  —  <p>It's been a cruel summer for Scott Walker and Martin O'Malley.</p><p> That's the assessment of this week's POLITICO Caucus, our weekly bipartisan survey of the top activists, operatives and strategists in Iowa and New Hampshire.

White Boy Rick to be resentenced; prosecutors appeal  —  Richard Wershe Jr., who gained notoriety in the 1980s as a drug dealer in Detroit, won his bid for resentencing.  Known as “White Boy Rick”, Wershe was sentenced to life in prison in 1988 when he was 18.  —  CONNECT

Burning Man founder: 'Black folks don't like to camp as much as white folks'  —  Larry Harvey discusses lack of racial diversity and the allegation that Silicon Valley bosses in luxury camps are destroying the festival's egalitarian ethos  —  urning Man founder Larry Harvey has countered criticism …

Morning Plum: Trump has a better answer on Iran than his GOP rivals do.  Seriously.  —  On Morning Joe today, Donald Trump staked out another position that could — or at least should — force a real debate among Republicans that previously might have remained mostly walled off from discussion by GOP orthodoxy.

YouGov poll: 64% want a border fence with Mexico — including pluralities of Dems, blacks, and Hispanics  —  Build it high, build it far, build it fast.  But build it.  —  You know who agrees with me on that?  Everyone.  Yes, even Hispanics.  —  Democrats split 44/43 in favor, the closest any group comes to outright opposition.