Obama administration to reject Keystone pipeline  —  The Obama administration will announce this afternoon it is rejecting a Canadian firm's application for a permit to build and operate a massive oil pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, according to sources who have been briefed on the matter.

SOPA blackout leads co-sponsors to defect  —  Amid online protests that include major websites like Wikipedia blacking out their sites, a few co-sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act in Congress are defecting.  —  Rep. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), originally a co-sponsor of the bill, pulled his name from the list of sponsors on Tuesday.

First Thoughts: Newt-mentum returns?  —  Is Newt-mentum returning?... Even if so, Gingrich faces two challenges: time and math... Romney's wealth and Bain Capital have been THE story in the GOP race for the past 10 days (and counting)... Are the first Obama TV ads going up?

Romney Caricatures Himself  —  Mitt Romney, in all likelihood, is going to walk away with his party's presidential nomination.  Yet from the standpoint of positioning himself for the general election, the primary season has been a disaster for him.  Romney's campaign has worked hard …

Editor's Note of the Day  —  This was attached to the end of a nauseating Boston Globe article celebrating the amorous relations between Occupy protesters: … Oops.  —  The Boston Herald called out the Globe for its lazy vetting: … Bias?  What bias?  Congrats, Boston Globe.

G.O.P. in Congress Gets Blame for Gridlock  —  The public is not assigning blame equally between President Obama and Republicans in Congress for the partisan gridlock over key legislation.  —  In the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, 60 percent say Mr. Obama is attempting to work …

Julian Assange: The Rolling Stone Interview  —  Under house arrest in England, the WikiLeaks founder opens up about his battle with the ‘Times,’ his stint in solitary and the future of journalism  —  It's a few days before Christmas, and Julian Assange has just finished moving to a new hide-out deep in the English countryside.

Bill Clinton: Someone We Can All Agree On  —  Even his staunchest enemies now regard his presidency as the good old days.  He has become the rare consensus figure in a country that has lost all sense of consensus.  So we talked to him about where it went, and how we might get it back.

Recess appointments might not hold  —  Some legal experts, including those who have sided with President Obama on other constitutional issues, think there is a good chance the courts could overturn his recent recess appointments.  —  Legal experts said courts could invalidate Obama's appointments …

Chris Christie: Mitt Romney should release tax returns  —  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Wednesday that Mitt Romney should put out his tax returns “sooner rather than later” but added that the former Massachusetts governor has already started speaking about the tax rate he pays.

Why Does Buffalo Pay for Its Teachers to Have Plastic Surgery?  —  How a broken collective bargaining system has kept a ridiculous, multimillion-dollar perk alive.  —  In Buffalo, New York, the heart of the American rust-belt, the public school system pays for its teachers to get plastic surgery.