Anthony Weiner courts NYC voters: ‘It’s a second-chance city, man!’

Mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner made his first appearance on Thursday since declaring his candidacy, apologizing again for his bizarre, Internet-only infidelity scandal that forced him out of Congress nearly two years ago. "There may be people who will never vote for me, and I respect that," Weiner told the phalanx of reporters who surrounded him [...]

How many students from your school take out loans?

Every school that participates in the federal loan program reports figures like these to the Department of Education. The following interactive plots every school with at least 1,000 undergraduates by two values: Net cost of attendance after grants and the percentage of students with loans.

Questions for Obama on drones, Guantanamo before his counterterrorism speech

President Barack Obama will defend his counterterrorism policies in a speech at National Defense University on Thursday afternoon, looking to reassure Americans concerned about his hugely controversial targeted assassination strategy with drones and revive efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for suspected extremists. Obama’s remarks come as key lawmakers have begun debating whether to [...]

Photos: What Obama looked like on prom night

With a trio of scandals swirling around the White House, President Barack Obama could use some good press. Time magazine did its best to deliver just that on Thursday, releasing some vintage photos of a then 17-year-old Obama on prom night. The magazine obtained the photos from Kelli Allman (née McCormack), Obama's classmate at Punahou [...]

What’s next for the immigration reform bill?

It's been a good week for proponents of immigration reform. The sweeping bill that seeks to legalize most of the country's 11 million unauthorized immigrants was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday night, after five full days of debate and amendments that did little to significantly change the original compromise. So, what's next [...]

IRS' Lois Lerner Takes Fifth, Shuns Congress

Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service’s director of Exempt Organizations who is at the center of the controversy after the agency targeted conservative organizations for gratuitous scrutiny, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination today at a congressional hearing examining the scandal. Lerner quietly took...

IRS 'Blemish' Prompts Scorn From Senators

Douglas Shulman, the former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, said today he was “dismayed and saddened” that his agency had improperly targeting conservative groups, but declined to offer a direct apology and dismissed suggestions that he mislead Congress. The testimony from Shulman, who was...

Christie Stars in NJ Tourism Ads, Dems Cry Foul

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and his family are starring in television commercials that are part of a publicly funded $25 million tourism campaign to encourage people to visit the Jersey Shore after Superstorm Sandy, but Democrats say they are simply taxpayer-funded campaign ads. The...

GOP Lieutenant Governor Candidate in Va. Compares Planned Parenthood to KKK

This weekend, Virginia Republicans found their candidate for lieutenant governor in E.W. Jackson, a Chesapeake, Va. pastor who has compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and also suggested that black Americans are being enslaved by the Democratic Party. “It is time to end...

Republicans Informed of IRS Investigation Last Year

Much has been made of the fact that senior Treasury Department officials were told about the investigation into the treatment of tea party groups in June 2012 — months before last year’s the Presidential election. Republicans who requested the investigation were also told about it...

Pritzker's ties to thrift, tax haven eyed

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of commerce is facing scrutiny in the Senate for her ties to a subprime mortgage lender that failed in 2001 and as a beneficiary of family offshore trusts in the Bahamas.

House backs variable rate student loans

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House says student loans' interest rates should be pegged to the financial markets.

US, Israel raise hopes for Mideast peace restart

JERUSALEM (AP) — The United States and Israel raised hopes Thursday for a restart of the Middle East peace process, despite little tangible progress so far from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's two-month-old effort to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.

Obama to address drones, Gitmo in security speech

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is set to at least partially bring out into the open some of the U.S.-directed drone program, a key component of counterterrorism strategy, as he outlines the contours of the continuing threat to American security.

Between economy and trouble, Obama approval steady

WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy is recovering, the White House is dealing with multiple controversies, and President Barack Obama appears generally unaffected either way.

Today Is the 150th Anniversary of Black Regiments in the Military

Crowds packed the streets of Boston to watch the newly minted soldiers march toward the Statehouse for inspection. The throng roared as the regiment passed by, many of them cheering "more enthusiastically than ever they had done before," according to one Boston Journal reporter.

RNC Chairman Shows How Obama Scandals Can Backfire on GOP

If you wonder whether (and how) the IRS scandal and related White House shenanigans could backfire on Republicans, watch Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus.

Ted Cruz's Path From George W. Bush Adviser to Immigration Reform Opponent

In 2000, Ted Cruz was known as a Texas-raised, Harvard-trained domestic policy adviser to the George W. Bush campaign. Bush was a two-term governor from a border state who was determined to fix what he saw as a broken, inhumane immigration system.

Can Obama End the 'Forever War'?

In what is being billed as a major speech Thursday, President Obama is expected to lay out the "next phase" in America's nearly 12-year-old war against al-Qaida, possibly including a plan to clear out the Guantanamo Bay prison by trying or repatriating detainees there. What Obama is less likely to spell out is exactly how he's going to end what the State Department's former legal counsel, Harold K

John Kerry in the Middle East: Eclipse of a Superpower?

Doha, Qatar – Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in the Middle East today with two of the most vexing problems in international affairs at the top of his agenda: a downward spiraling Syrian civil war that continues to draw neighbors into to its bloody vortex and destabilize the entire region; and the slow-rolling death of the two-state solution to an Israeli-Palestinian conflict that remains an

Watch the other hand: Immigration reform advances under cover of scandals

While some of President Obama's most outspoken critics are working overtime to expose details of the various scandals plaguing his administration these days, it seems there are games afoot on Capitol Hill -- specifically, the little-noticed advancement of the "Gang of Eight" immigration reform proposal.

A False Claim of Blame in Mass. Senate Race

Republican Gabriel Gomez falsely claims his opponent in the Massachusetts Senate race blamed him for the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., and compared him to Osama bin Laden: Democratic Rep. Ed Markey did release a TV ad saying Gomez “is against banning high-capacity magazines like the ones used in the … More

Obama's Prom Was Cooler Than Yours

We now know what Barry Obama and his date looked like at prom in 1979 -- and they probably looked better than you. What has become clear as more and more details of Obama's childhood have been unearthed is that Hawaii is the best place ever to be a teenager. Just look at that photo, provided by Obama's prom date to Time magazine. Even their prom fashion is not hideous.

Obama's Forever War Doesn't End Today

President Obama will say he sees a day when the War on Terror comes to an end in a much anticipated speech at the National Defense University on Thursday. That day is not today. Control over drone strikes will move from the CIA to the military, The New York Times' Charlie Savage and Peter Baker report. The transition is expected to take six months, and Obama might not address it explicitly, beca

Harry Reid Has a Not-Quite-Nuclear Plan to Upend the Senate Filibuster

Later this summer, the Senate may at last tackle a highly controversial issue: whether or not it should approve executive branch nominations decisions based on a majority vote. In doing so, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will ironically be taking on the warped new interpretation of Senatorial courtesy.

Jon Stewart and the Ghosts of Presidential Scandals Past

Jon Stewart last night turned his attention to Ronald Reagan "fan fiction" author (and, you know, Wall Street Journal columnist) Peggy Noonan, who is angry at Barack Obama for his recent scandals, but gives her former boss a pass for a little thing like Iran-Contra.

Sen. Ted Cruz Refuses to Play the Game: ‘Let Me Be Clear, I Don’t Trust the Republicans’

"Unfortunately, one of the reasons we got into this mess is because a lot of Republicans were complicit in this spending spree."

New Yorkers Weigh Anthony Weiner's Bid for Political Salvation

Former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, who infamously fled Congress after his sexting and Twitter scandals two years ago, told New Yorkers this week he wants to be their next mayor.

John McCain Is the Latest Senior Senator to Have Had Enough of Junior Ted Cruz

For two days John McCain and Ted Cruz have been fighting on the Senate floor over the rules for negotiating a budget, but, like so many fights, it's also about so much more. Cruz is being annoying about the budget, but worse, he just doesn't get the Senate.

Inside Darrell Issa's Sketchy Legal Rationale Forcing Lois Lerner to Testify

Darrell Issa would like a do-over. The Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, no doubt motivated in part by outrage over his allowing the IRS's Lois Lerner to invoke her Fifth Amendment right during a hearing Wednesday, plans to demand she return to complete her testimony. His argument: Lerner waived her ability to claim that right once she offered an opening statement. Is he right?