Obama Returning to Capital to Seek Fiscal Deal  —  KAILUA, Hawaii — President Obama was planning to cut his Christmas vacation short and return to Washington to make a last-ditch push for a compromise on a tax and spending dispute that remains stubbornly unresolved.

FreedomWorks tea party group nearly falls apart in fight between old and new guard  —  The day after Labor Day, just as campaign season was entering its final frenzy, FreedomWorks, the Washington-based tea party organization, went into free fall.  —  Richard K. Armey, the group's chairman …

Benghazi penalties are bogus  —  The four officials supposedly out of jobs because of their blunders in the run-up to the deadly Benghazi terror attack remain on the State Department payroll — and will all be back to work soon, The Post has learned.  —  The highest-ranking official caught …

Give Chuck a Chance  —  In case you haven't heard, President Obama is considering appointing Chuck Hagel, a former United States senator from Nebraska and a Purple Heart winner, as the next secretary of defense — and this has triggered a minifirefight among Hagel critics and supporters.

Let's Come Together, America  —  Posted by Howard S., Starbucks chairman, president and chief executive officer  —  There are moments in our lives when we have an opportunity to ignite tremendous positive change—not just in the lives of the customers and communities we serve every day, but in our country.

Frank Luntz: NRA not listening to public  —  Pollster Frank Luntz, who has studied attitudes about gun control, said on Wednesday that he doesn't “think the NRA is listening” to the American public in the wake of the massacre of 20 children at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.

Police: NBC asked to use high-capacity clip  —  Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy  —  During an interview with NRA Chief Wayne LaPierre on “Meet the Press,” David Gregory held up a high-capacity ammunition magazine.

Virginia embodies GOP's woes  —  RICHMOND, Va. — Look no further than Virginia to catch a glimpse of the GOP's national dilemma.  —  As the Old Dominion becomes a firmly centrist state, more closely resembling the rest of the country demographically and politically, Virginia Republicans are shifting rightward.

Look beyond the Capitol for the next speaker  —  Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of “It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.”

Nigeria gunmen ‘kill at least five Christians’  —  Gunmen in the northern Nigerian state of Yobe have shot dead at least five Christians, a human rights worker in the area has told the BBC.  —  He said that a church in Peri village near Potiskum, the economic capital of Yobe, was set on fire in an attack late on Christmas Eve.