Ted Cruz isn't just surging — he's winning  —  Every show has an end.  Just like “The Apprentice” — gripping the first few few seasons, tired and contrived in the last — Donald Trump's campaign is aging toward death, one reckless outburst at at time.  Although the casual political junkie …

Republican Billionaires Just Can't Seem to Buy This Election  —  Money has poured into the political system.  And yet spending the cash haul effectively has never been more difficult. … You'd think buying an election would be easy.  This is, after all, the rough pitch …

What The Hell Happened To Mickey Kaus?  —  Mickey Kaus was sitting at Superba Food + Bread in Venice Beach, California, an expensive coffee place where an expensive-looking person was yelling at the counter staff about a housefly on a cookie.  —  Kaus was sorry about the location …

2015 Sportsperson of the Year: Serena Williams  —  Real life?  For Serena Williams that's the easy part now.  That's how it works when you zoom—beyond tennis, beyond $74 million in prize money, beyond one of the greatest late-career runs in sports history—into celebrity hyperspace.

Plumber's old truck spotted in ISIS video  —  A Texas plumber who was flooded with threats after his old truck — still emblazoned with his company's name — was seen driven by ISIS thugs in Syria has armed himself and is suing a Ford dealer.  —  Mark Oberholtzer of Mark-1 Plumbing …

The Siege of Miami  —  The city of Miami Beach floods on such a predictable basis that if, out of curiosity or sheer perversity, a person wants to she can plan a visit to coincide with an inundation.  Knowing the tides would be high around the time of the “super blood moon,” in late September …

The Kochs' war on poverty  —  The political operation created by the billionaire conservative mega-donors Charles and David Koch is quietly investing millions of dollars in programs to win over an unlikely demographic target for their brand of small-government conservatism ― poor people.

Santorum super PAC ad warns ‘WWIII is upon us’  —  The super PAC supporting Rick Santorum has a warning: “World War III is upon us.”  —  That message comes in the form of a radio ad from the pro-Santorum Working Again PAC, which is beginning to air the spot statewide in Iowa this week.

The Mystery of Missing Inflation Weighs on Fed Rate Move  —  U.S. near full employment, but inflation hasn't risen as predicted; Fed officials can't figure out why  —  Federal Reserve officials this week are expected to raise interest rates for the first time in nine years on the expectation …

Americans Name Terrorism as No. 1 U.S. Problem  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — After the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, Americans are now more likely to name terrorism as the top issue facing the U.S. than to name any other issue — including those that have typically topped …