Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Is Reached  —  ATLANTA — The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations on Monday agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history, a potentially precedent-setting model for global commerce and worker standards that would tie together 40 percent …

Stakes are high in GOP leadership fight  —  If Las Vegas posted odds on what Washington politics will look like after November 2016, the betting line would be ike this:  —  1-3 a Democrat wins the White House — simply because Democrats have won 5 of the last 6 popular votes for the White House …

Exclusive: Biden eyes weekend decision  —  He's finally close.  Confidants of Vice President Joe Biden expect him to make a decision next weekend, or shortly thereafter, on whether to launch an epic battle with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton Proposes New Gun Measures, Staking Claim Vs. Sanders  —  The front-runner is calling for repeal of a law that gives legal protection to gun manufacturers and dealers whose guns are used for criminal activity.  —  jeneps  —  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday …

Carly Fiorina's first political campaign had a surprising problem: Money … Famed California pollster Joe Shumate was found dead in his home one month before Election Day 2010, surrounded by sheets of polling data he labored over for the flailing Senate bid of Carly Fiorina.

Carly Fiorina's Mystery Foundation  —  The Fiorina Foundation is run by an organization that has distributed funds to Planned Parenthood.  Oh, and the Fiorina Foundation doesn't appear to exist.  —  Carly Fiorina is so opposed to Planned Parenthood, which she believes is …

4 students arrested in Tuolumne County school shooting plot  —  Investigators say plan was in early stages; no students, faculty hurt  —  An investigation into a planned shooting at a Tuolumne County school led to the arrests of four male students, deputies said Saturday.

West Hartford Dunkin Donuts worker tells police officer 'we don't serve cops' … WEST HARTFORD - An officer entered the Dunkin Donuts located at 1234 Farmington Avenue in West Hartford to purchase a cup of coffee.  —  The store was busy with a number of customers inside.

Pollsters: Don't trust us to winnow GOP field  —  <p>Pollsters surveyed by POLITICO have a unanimous warning for the Republican National Committee and the TV networks who are using public-opinion surveys to exclude presidential candidates from debates: Don't trust polls to detect often-tiny grades …

The conservative evasion on guns  —  President Obama spoke some of the most important words of his tenure last week in response to the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. “This is something we should politicize,” the president said.  “It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic.”

Enemies of the Sun  —  Does anyone remember the Cheney energy task force?  Early in the George W. Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney released a report that was widely derided as a document written by and for Big Energy — because it was.  The administration fought tooth and nail …

To be blunt  —  She was the waspish PA in The Devil Wears Prada who recently made headlines after disparaging remarks about her new US citizenship.  Next up, she's the boozy Brit in The Girl on the Train.  Meet Emily Blunt  —  For many reasons, Emily Blunt has been top on my list of fantasy friends for years.

First on CNN: L.A. set to pay $3M to family of victim who died in police custody  —  Los Angeles (CNN)The city of Los Angeles is poised to pay nearly $3 million to the family of a 56-year-old grandfather who died in police custody after a Los Angeles Police Department jail guard placed him in a chokehold, according to court records.

‘Workers’ or slaves?  Textbook maker backtracks after mother's online complaint  —  Mothers of teenagers are used to getting frustrating text messages, but the one that Roni Dean-Burren received from her 15-year-old son last week wasn't about alcohol, dating or money for the movies.  —  It was about history.

Ben Bernanke: More execs should have gone to jail for causing Great Recession  —  WASHINGTON — This season, Ben Bernanke was able to sit through an entire Nationals game.  —  During the financial meltdown in 2008, the then-chairman of the Federal Reserve would buy a lemonade and head …