Lois Lerner invokes Fifth Amendment in House hearing on IRS targeting

The head of the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt organizations office, faced with allegations of improper targeting of conservative groups, told a House committee Wednesday that she has done nothing wrong but declined to answer questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Read full article >>

Lerner taking Fifth undermines confidence in IRS

Like plaids with stripes, federal employees wearing the Fifth Amendment don't look good.We all have the right to wear clothes that clash. And everyone in this country has the right not to provide testimony that could be used against them. Read full article >>

Jay Carney's charm initiative

Maybe it was a birthday resolution. Or perhaps a survival strategy.Whatever the case, embattled White House press secretary Jay Carney, who turned 48 on Wednesday, struck a different tone with reporters during his daily briefing. Gone was the combative and, at times, dismissive Carney who had mockingly referred to a reporter as "petulant" a day earlier. Read full article >>

Damascus student, who says she faced harassment, wants to discuss reform with officials

A Montgomery County student, who said she was harassed for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, said the apology she received from her principal wasn’t enough. She still wants to meet with district officials and Superintendent Joshua P. Starr. Read full article >>

Fluoridation fails in Portland by 20-point margin

For any avid readers who have read our coverage of thefluoride wars, we now have results on the latest battle: Portland has rejectedfluoridated water by a 20-point margin, with 60 percent of voters against and 40 percent in favor. Read full article >>

After 37 years, the Senate could finally revamp the nation's chemical-safety laws

The current U.S. law on chemical safety is 37 years old, riddled with exceptions, and widely seen as ineffective — so much so that the federal government hasn't even tried to restrict an unsafe chemical since an asbestos ban was overturned in courts in 1991. Read full article >>

You ask, we answer! Can employed people get Obamacare subsidies?

_Welcome to Health Reform Watch, Sarah Kliff's regular look at how the Affordable Care Act is changing the American health-care system — and being changed by it. You can reach Sarah with questions, comments and suggestions here. Check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon for the latest edition, and read previous columns here._ Read full article >>

Lois Lerner didn't say anything today. Why that's a bad thing for the Obama Administration.

Oh Lois Lerner,you say it best when you say nothing at all.As expected, Lerner, the head of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt office,pled the Fifth Amendment rather than testify today in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committeeabout her role in the targeting of conservative groups. Read full article >>

Jena McGregor: Abercrombie & Fitch's big, bad brand mistake

On the Internet, words never die. Abercrombie & Fitch's CEO Mike Jeffries learned that the hard way in recent weeks as the company's brand has been battered online and on television for comments he made seven years ago. Read full article >>

Hagel directs Pentagon to seek new software for health records

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on Wednesday directed the Pentagon to seek new healthcare management software that would better integrate military health care records with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Read full article >>

Rubio knocks making key lime the official pie: Is the idea really so ridiculous?

Ridiculousness may be in the eye — or tastebuds — of the beholder.Wednesday, Sen. Marco Rubio held up the idea of making key lime pie the official pie of the United States as an example of a laughable idea (unlike his desire to exclude the debt limit from budget talks, which he argued was perfectly reasonable). Read full article >>

James Dale: Boy Scouts' 'compromise' on gay members is dead wrong

At 19, the Boy Scouts of America expelled me for being gay. I was overwhelmed with sadness, grief and anger. Never before had I come face-to-face with institutional discrimination. A group that once taught me self-respect was now telling me that there is something wrong with who I am. Read full article >>

Iran paves over suspected nuclear testing site despite U.N. protests

Iran has begun paving over a former military site where its scientists are suspected to have conducted nuclear-weapons related experiments, according to a new U.N. report, a move that could doom efforts to reconstruct a critical part of Iran’s nuclear history. Read full article >>

Anthony Weiner announces bid for New York City mayor in video

Anthony Weiner formally announced that he will run for mayor in New York City in a video late Tuesday, reports Aaron Blake: _The former congressman asks for “a second chance” and prominently features his family, including wife Huma Abedin._ Read full article >>

Group wants special court to release ruling on unlawful U.S. surveillance

A civil liberties group is set to file a motion Thursday asking a special federal court to allow the release of a classified opinion that found the government engaged in unlawful surveillance on Americans. Read full article >>

What today's 'nuclear option' fight means for filibuster reform

Democratic threats to reform the filibuster in the Senate are a part of of a "culture of intimidation" that includes the targeting of conservatives at the Internal Revenue Service, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) alleged Wednesday morning. Read full article >>

Everything you could possibly need to know about student loan budgets (with gifs!)

On Monday, we wrote a post explaining that "No, the federal government does not profit off student loans" (as the original headline put it). A number of people have pushed back at that conclusion, pointing out that it depends on how you do the arithmetic. Read full article >>

Robert Kaiser on Dodd-Frank: 'This example of Congress working also illuminated why it works so rarely.'

_Almost three years ago, the Dodd-Frank Act was enacted, a sweeping piece of legislation aimed at overhauling regulation of the financial system. And now our colleague Robert G. Kaiser is out with a book reporting the inside story of how the law came to be. Kaiser's "Act of Congress: How America's Essential Institution Works, and How it Doesn't" uses the long battle over Dodd-Frank--and the uni

Some Obama Cabinet secretaries already framed in official portraits, while some Bushies aren’t

When it comes to the official portraits of Cabinet secretaries, it seems some folks get framed faster than others. This spring has seen a mini-flurry of portrait unveilings, including two Obama officials who were still in office when their paintings debuted — and one Bush administration official who’s been out of office for more than four years. Read full article >>

Pr. George’s BOE responds to adding 15 new employees

The Prince George’s County Board of Education released an e-mail statement Wednesday about its decision to hire 15 new employees to work for the school board.The board voted 7-1 on May 9 to approve the emergency measure. School board member Donna Hathaway Beck (District 9) was opposed, and Carletta Fellows (District 7) was absent. Read full article >>

Anthony Weiner Mark Sanford

The comparisons were inevitable: two guys who became a national punchline after being caught in sex scandals make a bid for apolitical comeback from disgrace.But once you get past the astonishment and the snickers, the differences are more significant than the similarities between Mark Sanford, the Republican former South Carolina governor elected in a landslide to his old House seat earlier

Man tied to Boston bombing suspect killed in confrontation with FBI, others

A Chechen man who was friends with one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was shot and killed in Orlando by an FBI agent early Wednesday when an interview with law enforcement officers erupted into a violent confrontation, the FBI said. Read full article >>

Jefferson-Houston in Alexandria to get a fresh start with a new building

Construction of a new building for Jefferson-Houston School in Alexandria got underway with a ground-breaking ceremony that officials used to herald a brighter future for a school that is under tremendous pressure to improve academically. Read full article >>

Oklahoma tornado fatalities included two infants, 10 children in all

Two of the 24 people known to have been killed in the tornado that pulverized a suburb of Oklahoma City on Monday were infants, the local medical examiner’s office announced Wednesday.Case Futrell, 4 months old, and mother Megan Futrell, 29, died of blunt-force trauma, according to an information sheet released by the Oklahoma City medical examiner’s office. A cousin told the Oklahoman newspa

XBox One? What XBox One? -- Microsoft brings cutting-edge tech to Washington

Microsoft Research was in town Tuesday, and there wasn't an XBox One in sight. Instead, the company brought along technology that has yet to — or may never — hit store shelves.All of the technologies on hand were introduced earlier in the year. But every other year, said a public relations representative on hand at Microsoft's Innovation & Policy Center in D.C., the company brings the technol

Who is Eric Garcetti?

Los Angeles will have a new mayor beginning July 1. His name is Eric Garcetti, the city councilman who won a Tuesday runoff and made some history. He'll become the city's first elected Jewish mayor and its youngest in more than a century when he's sworn in. Read full article >>

New IRS boss sends message to workers

With his predecessor facing tough questions from lawmakers, Danny Werfel, the new acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, sent an agency-wide message to employees this morning.Admitting that workers have faced "a difficult last few days," Werfel gave a stern, direct message to the rank-and-file: Read full article >>

The search for the best state based political reporters continues

A few weeks back, we asked the Fix community to nominate the best state-based political reporters in each of the 50 states.The response -- on the blog, on Twitter, on Facebook -- was overwhelming, and we've (papal plural) spent lots and lots of time sorting through the nominees. In some states, we have TONS of great political reporters. But, in some states -- SHAME! -- we don't have a single

Jodi Arias trial brings up issue of capital punishment

Does anyone even care what happens to Jodi Arias at this point?Someone must, or her four-month long trial would not have been televised nor turned into the media circus it has become. Arias herself took the stand in her defense and her testimony lasted 18 days. _Eighteen_ days to explain how and why she had killed former boyfriend Travis Alexander on June 4, 2008 after the two had sex. He was

Anthony Weiner is running for mayor of New York City. But, can he win? And does it even matter?

While you were sleeping,Anthony Weiner was announcing his decision to run for mayor of New York City this year.Now that the debate over whether or not he will run is over, the one question that remains is this: Can Weiner maybe, possibly, holy-cow-are-we-seriously-talking-about-this win? Read full article >>