New poll: Donald Trump still leads, but Ben Carson makes strong gains  —  Shares -  —  At 27 percent nationally, Donald Trump maintains his frontrunner status among Republican primary voters, but Ben Carson is now close behind him, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.

Price Tag of Bernie Sanders's Proposals: $18 Trillion  —  Democratic presidential candidate's agenda would greatly expand government  —  WASHINGTON—Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose liberal call to action has propelled his long-shot presidential campaign, is proposing an array of new programs …

POLICY & POLITICS  —  DES MOINES, Iowa — People concerned about liberal political correctness on college campuses have a powerful ally: President Obama.  —  At a town hall here on college affordability on Monday afternoon, one student asked Obama to respond to Republican presidential …

How Hillary Clinton is using old photographs to make herself more ‘relatable’  —  In a bid to burnish her image with voters, the Clinton campaign is flooding the Internet with nostalgic pictures of the Democratic front-runner.  —  Splashed across social media and the airwaves, the photos are hard to miss.

Fecklessness 101  —  Apparently the Obama administration turned down a Russian offer to dump Assad... because the Administration was sure he was going to fall on his own.  The Guardian reports: … If true, this was a staggering missed opportunity.  The President's string of misjudgments …

Florida Down on Bush, Rubio Campaigns  —  PPP's new Florida poll finds that a plurality of voters in the state think that both Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio should drop out.  —  Only 40% of voters in the state think Bush should keep running, compared to 47% who think he should drop out.

Federal Data: U.S. Annually Admits Quarter Of A Million Muslim Migrants  —  A Breitbart News review of State Department and Homeland Security data reveals that the United States already admits more than a quarter of a million Muslim migrants each year.  President Obama intends to add another 10,000 Syrian migrants on top of that.

Post-ABC poll: Most say Kim Davis should issue marriage licenses to gay couples  —  Sixty-three percent of Americans say Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis should be required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples regardless of her religious objections, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Anti-Abortion Hardliners Not Budging In Shutdown Fight With GOP Leaders  —  The plan hatched by the GOP leadership in Congress to appease abortion hardliners and avoid a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding shows little sign of working so far.

Donald Trump's Grand Inquisitor  —  Hugh Hewitt drew Trump's ire with a smart question.  On Wednesday night, the conservative talk radio host will be ready for round 2.  —  Getty  —  When the motor-mouthed mogul next takes the stage with the ten nearest rivals who have failed for months to trip him up …

Obama won't watch second GOP debate  —  President Obama will follow news coverage of the second Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday night, but he won't be tuning in.  —  “He has better things to do,” press secretary Josh Earnest said when asked why Obama is skipping the debate, which will air on CNN.

Alabama Official: God Told Me to Ban Saggy Pants  —  God may also ban short skirts and skimpy dresses in the Alabama town of Dadeville.  —  He thought about it, prayed about it, and now an Alabama councilman is close to ending one local evil that's plagued him for years: saggy pants.

David Vitter responds to question about prostitution scandal  —  U.S. Sen. David Vitter was forced to respond to question about his 2007 prostitution scandal Monday night (Sept. 14).  (Photo by Brianna Paciorka, NOLA.com |  The Times-Picayune) (Brianna Paciorka)