Flake to announce Senate run  —  Rep. Jeff Flake will announce on Monday that he is running for the Senate seat being vacated by Jon Kyl, who said last week that he is retiring and will not seek reelection in 2012.  —  Flake, who like Kyl is a Republican, is expected to make his announcement …

Obama Budget Pivots From Stimulus to Deficit Cuts  —  WASHINGTON - President Obama, pivoting at midterm from costly economic stimulus measures to deficit reduction, on Monday released a fiscal year 2012 budget that projects an annual deficit of more than $1 trillion before government shortfalls decline to …

Word and Lyric, Giffords Labors to Speak Again  —  PHOENIX — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an eloquent speaker before she was shot in the head last month, is relearning the skill — progressing from mouthing words and lip syncing songs to talking briefly by telephone to her brother-in-law in space.

MAYBE MCCAIN FIGURED OUT WHO'S ON THE ‘RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY’.... I really have retired my ongoing count of John McCain's Sunday show appearances.  I'm sure folks have gotten the point — Sunday show bookers continue to be obsessed with McCain, and they shouldn't be.

The hard choices: President Obama's 2012 budget  —  Long on tough choices, short on final answers, President Barack Obama's new 2012 budget goes to Congress on Monday in what many hope is only an opening bid before he and Republicans come to the table on a bipartisan deficit reduction plan.

Would Women Support Newt Gingrich for President? … It's November 2012 and voters have a choice between President Barack Obama and former Speaker Newt Gingrich.  Given the gulf between their personal lives, what's a social conservative to do?  More to the point, what would moderate and independent women do?

Eat The Future  —  On Friday, House Republicans unveiled their proposal for immediate cuts in federal spending.  Uncharacteristically, they failed to accompany the release with a catchy slogan.  So I'd like to propose one: Eat the Future.  —  I'll explain in a minute.

All hail the ‘Blog-Father’: Waiting for trial in 6 murders, ‘Tommy Shots’ takes to Web  —  Call him the blogging crime boss: Reputed Colombo kingpin Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli has set up a behind-bars blog to portray himself as a good guy - not a wiseguy - and rant about everything …

Democrats claim political victory from CPAC  —  Democrats and President Obama gathered the most momentum from this past weekend's gathering of conservative activists, the party claimed Monday.  —  The Democratic National Committee (DNC) sought to spin the now-concluded Conservative Political …

Jihadi 7/7 trainer free after five years  —  Exclusive: Release prompts claim Islamist was US informant while assisting London terrorist  —  An American jihadist who set up the terrorist training camp where the leader of the 2005 London suicide bombers learned how to manufacture explosives …

Journalists angry over the commission of journalism  —  Over the weekend, The Los Angeles' Times James Rainey mocked CNN's Anderson Cooper for repeatedly using the word “lie” to describe the factually false statements of Egyptian leaders.  Though Rainey ultimately concluded that …

At Media Companies, a Nation of Serfs  —  Some of the fizz, if not a great big bubble, seems to have returned to media, depending on how you define “media.”  —  There have been reports in The New York Times and elsewhere that Facebook is now valued at $50 billion, and The Wall Street Journal reported …

Rising China Bests a Shrinking Japan  —  By CHESTER DAWSON in Tokyo and JASON DEAN in Beijing  —  China passed Japan in 2010 to become the world's second-largest economy after the U.S., a historic shift that has drawn mixed emotions in the two Asian powers: resignation tinged with soul-searching …

How to win the podium  —  After two years as Vice President Joe Biden's low-profile communications director, Jay Carney steps into the klieg lights this week in the White House briefing room as President Barack Obama's press secretary.  It's a job fraught with risk — a misplaced word can spark an international crisis.

Boehner on birthers: 'It's not my job to tell the American people what to think'  —  House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Sunday that while he believes President Obama is an American citizen and a Christian, Americans have a right to think otherwise if they so choose.