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.

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.

Republican Race Tightens Nationally; Clinton Still Solid  —  PPP's newest national poll finds the race on the Republican side tightening considerably in the wake of Donald Trump's surprise loss in Iowa on Monday night.  Trump's lead has fallen to just 4 points- he's at 25% to 21% each …

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 …

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.

Clinton blasts Wall Street, but still draws millions in contributions  —  Even as Hillary Clinton has stepped up her rhetorical assault on Wall Street, her campaign and allied super PACs have continued to rake in millions from the financial sector, a sign of her deep and lasting relationships with banking and investment titans.

Effect of Removal of Planned Parenthood from the Texas Women's Health Program  —  BACKGROUND  —  Texas is one of several states that have barred Planned Parenthood affiliates from providing health care services with the use of public funds.  After the federal government refused to allow …

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:

The Great GOP Realignment  —  Ted Cruz and Donald Trump may herald an historic working-class Republican revolt against the party establishment.  —  JoshuaGreen  —  A few days before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, Brad Martsching was barreling down a Pennsylvania highway, hoping to unload …

Sheldon Adelson tightens grip on Review-Journal  —  After a brief spell of normalcy seemed to return to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, all bets are now off.  —  A new publisher has appeared overnight at the paper, a new editor will be installed as soon as Friday, and, sources tell me …

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.