First on CNN: Key social conservatives secretly meet to stop Romney in Iowa  —  Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) — Representatives for leading social conservative groups in Iowa held a secret meeting Monday as part of an effort with one main goal: find and support a Republican presidential candidate who can stop Mitt Romney in Iowa.

CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL  —  Full Transcript of CNN NATIONAL SECURITY DEBATE, 20:00-22:00  —  THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.  —  WOLF BLITZER, DEBATE MODERATOR AND CNN LEAD POLITICAL ANCHOR: Live from Washington, DC, for the Republican National Security Debate.

Pepper Spray's Fallout, From Crowd Control to Mocking Images  —  Some women carry it in their purses in a pink, lipstick-shaped container.  Hikers use it to deter bears.  People in most states can buy a small canister of it on a quick-release key ring on Amazon.com for $7.07.

“Disastrous” bond sale shakes confidence in Germany  —  (Reuters) - A “disastrous” German bond sale on Wednesday sparked fears that Europe's debt crisis was even starting to threaten Berlin, with the leaders of the euro zone's two biggest economies still firmly at odds over a longer-term structural solution.

Romney's Mormon Faith Likely a Factor in Primaries, Not in a General Election  —  Many Americans continue to see the Mormon faith as unfamiliar and different.  Half say they know little or nothing about Mormonism, half say it is a Christian religion while a third say it is not …

Demonstrators Plan to Occupy Retailers on Black Friday  —  Some demonstrators are planning to occupy retailers on Black Friday to protest “the business that are in the pockets of Wall Street.”  —  Organizers are encouraging consumers to either occupy or boycott retailers that are publicly traded …

New Trove of Stolen E-Mails From Climate Scientists Is Released  —  The anonymous hacker who shook the world of climate science two years ago by posting a trove of stolen e-mails delivered a new batch on Tuesday, stirring up climate-change contrarians a little more than a week before global negotiations …

The GOP needs a brokered convention  —  New rules mean Romney's rivals can save the party from an unpopular nominee  —  Mitt Romney and the candidates of the Not Mitt Romney movement (Credit: Chris Keane / Reuters)  —  It has been a tumultuous year for those eager to handicap the 2012 GOP race for president.

Man catches 881-pound tuna, seized by feds  —  A Massachusetts fisherman pulled in an 881-pound tuna this week only to have the federal authorities take it away.  It sounds like a libertarian twist on the classic novella by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, but for Carlos Rafael, the saga is completely true.

Fallon apologizes to Bachmann  —  (CNN) - TV show host Jimmy Fallon apologized to GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann via Twitter Tuesday for a song played as the presidential candidate walked on stage for her Monday interview on NBC's “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.”

Visions of LoLo, a Neighborhood Rising From Landfill  —  New Yorkers are fond, perhaps overly so, of assembling ever-creative names for newly hot neighborhoods, from NoMad (north of Madison Square Park) to SoBro (the South Bronx) to BoCoCa (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens).  —  Multimedia

Senate Democrats ready to move $400 billion in new legislation  —  After failing to reach a deal to reduce the deficit, the Senate will move next month to take up legislation that could add more than $400 billion to the deficit.  —  All of the proposals, such as the extension of the payroll tax cut …

Despite Threat of Cuts, Pentagon Officials Made No Contingency Plans  —  WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has painted such an apocalyptic vision of America's national security under $500 billion in automatic defense budget cuts that Pentagon officials said Tuesday they were pushing …

Medvedev: Russia may target missile defense sites  —  will deploy new missiles aimed at U.S.  —  missile defense  —  sites in Europe if Washington goes ahead with the planned shield despite Russia's concerns,  —  President Dmitry Medvedev  —  said Wednesday.

James Murdoch quits the boards of Sun and Times  —  James Murdoch has dramatically resigned as a director of the companies that publish The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun.  —  The surprise move, which has seen Rupert Murdoch's son quit a string of directorships at News International …

Wall Street's Recession Cost 1.5 Million Times More Than The Cost Of Securing Occupy Protests  —  Wall Street cost America much more than protesting Wall Street has.  —  Today, the Associated Press (AP) has a story where it estimates the costs of police securing for the various ongoing protest occupations across the country.

The chutes and ladders of The Chicago Way  —  While Obama climbs high, his onetime pal Rezko is slip-slidin' away  —  The federal sentencing hearing for convicted influence peddler Antoin “Tony” Rezko — once a friend and personal real estate fairy to President Barack Obama— had just begun in Chicago.

Cross removed at base in Afghanistan  —  A large cross that had been prominently displayed outside a chapel on an isolated military base in northern Afghanistan was taken down last week, prompting outrage from some American service members stationed there.  —  “We are here away from our families …

Occupy protests cost nation's cities at least $13M  —  NEW YORK (AP) — During the first two months of the nationwide Occupy protests, the movement that is demanding more out of the wealthiest Americans cost local taxpayers at least $13 million in  —  and other municipal services, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

Republican Might Quit Labor Board  —  The National Labor Relations Board, the subject of particularly intense partisan sniping this year, could soon be completely paralyzed.  —  The labor board's sole Republican member, Brian E. Hayes, has threatened to resign to deny the N.L.R.B …