Ben Carson slashes staff as funds dry up  —  CONCORD, N.H. — Ben Carson, the famed neurosurgeon whose bid for the Republican presidential nomination has struggled to keep pace with rivals, will cut more than 50 staff positions on Thursday as part of an overhaul and downsizing of his entire campaign.

Last Slide  —  Once again the world is laughing at Iowa.  Late-night comedians and social media mavens are having a field day with jokes about missing caucusgoers and coin flips.  —  That's fine.  We can take ribbing over our quirky process.  But what we can't stomach is even the whiff of impropriety or error.

Why Mike Bloomberg Can Win  —  Record numbers of voters are independents—who won't be satisfied with Clinton, Trump or Cruz.  —  As the results from the Iowa caucuses rolled in Monday, it became more clear than ever: If former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran for president as an independent …

Condoleezza Rice Aides, Colin Powell Also Got Classified Info on Personal Emails  —  The State Department's Inspector General has found classified information sent to the personal email accounts of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the senior staff of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, NBC News has learned.

Obama to propose $10-a-barrel oil tax  —  President Barack Obama is about to unveil an ambitious plan for a “21st century clean transportation system.”  And he hopes to fund it with a tax on oil.  —  Obama aides told POLITICO that when he releases his final budget request next week …

After Texas stopped funding Planned Parenthood, low-income women had more babies  —  Antiabortion activists rally outside the Texas Capitol in Austin.  A new study links the defunding of Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics in the state with a rise in births among low-income women.

In honor of Friends Day, we've recalculated the classic ‘Six degrees of separation’ statistic for everyone who uses Facebook and determined that the number is actually 3.57.  Each person in the world (at least among the 1.55 billion people active on Facebook) is connected to every other person by an average of three and a half steps.

Hair tourniquet?  Dad shares photo of baby's swollen toe to warn parents of common hazard … WICHITA, Kansas — A Kansas father has a warning for all parents after finding something strange on his infant daughter's foot.  —  He shared a photo on Facebook to warn other parents.

Family finds spider crawling inside bag of salad  —  (Feb. 4, 2016) - You definitely don't want to see something crawling inside your bag of lettuce, but that's exactly what happened to an Australian family.  —  Zoe Perry posted a video of the creepy encounter to Woolworths' Facebook page with the following message:

Lottery ‘destroyed’ his winning $63-million Lotto jackpot, man claims  —  A lottery ticket worth $63 million was sold at a 7-Eleven in Chatsworth.  The ticketholder has until 5 p.m. Thursday to claim the prize.  —  With just hours remaining before California Lottery officials declare …

GOP strategist threatens Trump with lawsuit  —  The script has been flipped on Donald Trump.  —  Trump and his team are well known for threatening lawsuits, but on Thursday, the celebrity mogul and his campaign manager were the ones on the receiving end of a legal threat.