Farm Bill's Failure Poisons Well in House  —  Updated 6:23 p.m. |  The House's stunning defeat of the farm bill Thursday dealt another blow to Speaker John A. Boehner's leadership and set off a poisonous round of partisan finger-pointing that raised questions about the ability of the chamber …

Revealed: top secret rules that allow NSA to use US data without a warrant  —  Fisa court submissions show broad scope of procedures governing NSA's surveillance of Americans' communication  —  • Document one: procedures used by NSA to target non-US persons

The Last Mystery of the Financial Crisis  —  It's long been suspected that ratings agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's helped trigger the meltdown.  A new trove of embarrassing documents shows how they did it  —  By  —  W  —  hat about the ratings agencies?

FAA to Relax Rules for Gadgets in Flight  —  Airline passengers irritated at having to turn off their devices could soon see some reprieve, with regulators set to allow wider use of gadgets in flight.  —  The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to relax the ban on using some types …

The top 9,486 ways Jay Carney won't answer your questions (interactive)  —  Jay Carney doesn't have an answer for that.  He hasn't discussed that subject with the president.  He will refer you to the Department of [insert agency here].  He refuses to speculate on that.  He'll have to get back to you.

Obama hits a wall in Berlin  —  The question of whether Barack Obama's second term will be a failure was answered in the affirmative before his Berlin debacle, which has recast the question, which now is: Will this term be silly, even scary in its detachment from reality?

Hundreds Of Texans Stand Up Against Sweeping Anti-Abortion Bill, Block It From Coming To A Vote  —  Protesters projected “End the War on Women” onto the building where the hearing on SB 5 was held.  (Credit: @TaneneAllison)  —  Texas lawmakers are currently rushing an omnibus anti-abortion bill through …

On the left, Howard Dean open to presidential bid  —  San Jose, California (CNN) - Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor who electrified anti-war liberals during the 2004 presidential race, said Thursday he would consider another run for the White House - a statement that will surely be met …

Revealed: Bush ancestor was heavily invested in kidnapping Africans into slavery  —  Thomas “Beau” Walker, the great-great-great grandfather to U.S. President George W. Bush, was a notorious slave trader who either personally led or heavily invested in expeditions to kidnap Africans …

Russ Tice, Bush-Era Whistleblower, Claims NSA Ordered Wiretap Of Barack Obama In 2004  —  Russ Tice, a former intelligence analyst who in 2005 blew the whistle on what he alleged was massive unconstitutional domestic spying across multiple agencies, claimed Wednesday that the NSA had ordered wiretaps …

WikiLeaks says Michael Hastings contacted it just before his death.  Are they implying he was murdered?  —  WikiLeaks just threw some gasoline onto the conspiracy fire.  On Wednesday night, they Tweeted: “Michael Hastings contacted WikiLeaks lawyer Jennifer Robinson just a few hours before he died …

George Zimmerman trial: Jury selected, opening statements begin Monday  —  SANFORD - A jury has been seated and sworn for the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, after more than a week of intensive jury selection in the high-profile case.

Chelsea Clinton Laments: My Great Grandmother Did Not Have Access to Planned Parenthood  —  New York, NY (CFAM) — From the stage at the recent Women Deliver conference, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's daughter Chelsea revealed that her much-admired maternal grandmother …

Aaron Hernandez Arrest Warrant Prepared on Obstruction of Justice Charge, Sources Say  —  New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez is now the subject of an arrest warrant drawn up on obstruction of justice charges based on the possible destruction of evidence in connection with the shooting death …

Gov. Cuomo was death ray target of Ku Klux Klansman  —  Nutty Glen Crawford, an industrial mechanic at General Electric, and Hudson man Eric Feight have been accused of building a deadly radiation-emitting device, which Crawford planned to use it on Gov. Cuomo, sources say.

White House Offers Stealth Campaign to Support Immigration Bill  —  WASHINGTON — The hide-out has no sign on the door, but inside Dirksen 201 is a spare suite of offices the White House has transformed into its covert immigration war room on Capitol Hill.  —  Strategically located down the hall …

Inside the border deal that almost failed  —  Sen. Chuck Schumer spent Tuesday privately urging President Barack Obama and the entire Democratic caucus to just be patient — a border security deal they could accept was still within reach.  —  But after a testy, 45-minute call that night …

Icelandic Businessman Has Jet Ready For Snowden  —  REYKJAVIK, June 20 (Reuters) - An Icelandic businessman linked to WikiLeaks said he has readied a private plane to take Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who exposed secret U.S. surveillance programmes, to Iceland if the government grants him asylum.

Experts: Tough to stick perjury to Holder  —  Legal experts say Republicans don't have much of a chance at making perjury charges stick to Attorney General Eric Holder.  —  “Perjury is a very tough charge to prove because you have to show that the statement he made was a false statement …

This is why global markets are freaking out  —  Around the world, markets were frazzled by the latest out of the Fed.  (Kin Cheung/AP)  —  A wave of selling washed across the financial world Thursday, driving the stock market down, interest rates up, and bringing new tremors of concern …

The Incarceration Epidemic  —  About one-fourth of all incarcerated people on Earth is in the U.S. That constitutes a public health problem.  —  The U.S. incarceration rate has more than quadrupled since 1980.  It's now the highest in the world, just ahead of Russia and Rwanda.

FEDERAL NULLIFICATION EFFORTS MOUNTING IN STATES … JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Imagine the scenario: A federal agent attempts to arrest someone for illegally selling a machine gun.  Instead, the federal agent is arrested - charged in a state court with the crime of enforcing federal gun laws.