Nancy Pelosi the hawk tells President Obama to act on Syria  —  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pressed top administration officials Thursday night to take military action to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad in response to reports that he used chemical weapons in his nation's ongoing civil war.

David Miranda was carrying password for secret files on piece of paper  —  A journalist's partner who was detained carrying thousands of British intelligence documents through Heathrow airport was also holding the password to an encrypted file written on a piece of paper, the government has disclosed.

White House, Republican senators give up on budget talks  —  The Obama administration and a group of Republican senators abandoned efforts Thursday to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a showdown over the national debt, saying they had failed to resolve their long-standing dispute over taxes.

DNI Clapper Directs Annual Release of Information Related to Orders Issued to Telecom Providers Under National Security Authorities  —  August 29, 2013  —  In June, President Obama directed the Intelligence Community (IC) to declassify and make public as much information as possible …

What ‘The Butler’ gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race  —  Steven F. Hayward, Paul Kengor, Craig Shirley and Kiron K. Skinner are Ronald Reagan historians.  —  One cold evening in Dixon, Ill., in the early 1930s, a young man known as Dutch Reagan brought home two African American teammates from his Eureka College football team.

Federal Judge Strikes Down Law Barring Same-Sex Couples From Receiving Veterans' Benefits  —  “Title 38 is unconstitutional under rational basis scrutiny.”  —  Tracey and Maggie Cooper-Harris.  —  Courtesy Kathleen Perrin  —  WASHINGTON — A federal judge in California on Thursday found that …

Poverty Has Same Effect On The Brain As Constantly Pulling All Nighters  —  The mental strain of living in poverty and thinking constantly about tight finances can drop a person's IQ by as much as 13 percent, or about the equivalent of losing a night of sleep, according to a new study.

Kerry: Syrian Regime Planned for Chemical Attack  —  Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. knows based on intelligence that the Syrian regime carefully prepared for days to launch a chemical weapons attack.  —  Kerry says Syrian regime personnel were at the site of the attack for three days beforehand, making preparations.

Leading Democrats, de Blasio Has Broad Support as Primary Nears  —  Frustration with New York City's unaffordability and its aggressive police tactics is elevating Bill de Blasio, once dismissed as a left-leaning long shot, into the lead of the Democratic mayoral primary field …

New Neighbor's Agenda: White Power Takeover  —  LEITH, N.D. — The bearded man with thinning, gray-and-bleach-blond hair flapping down his neck first appeared in this tiny agricultural town last year, quietly and inconspicuously roaming the crackly dirt roads.

Global Warming Slowdown Data Sought in Leaked UN Climate Report  —  U.S. and European Union envoys are seeking more clarity from the United Nations on a slowdown in global warming that climate skeptics have cited as a reason not to “panic” about environmental changes, leaked documents show.

Conservatives ready another try to unseat Lindsey Graham  —  SOUTH CAROLINA 2014 ELECTIONS LINDSEY GRAHAM  —  ANDERSON, S.C. — On a Monday night in late August, Sen. Lindsey Graham was traveling with a congressional delegation in Africa when the three Republicans who are challenging …

How the Senate Exploits Unpaid Interns  —  Barely a third of U.S. senators pay their interns — and embarrassingly for Democrats, a party focused on workplace welfare, most of them are Republicans.  —  If you walk into any of the 100 Senate offices spread across Capitol Hill, there is one consistent element.

Seamus Heaney, Irish Poet of Soil and Strife, Dies at 74  —  Seamus Heaney, the Irish poet whose lyrical beauty and ethical depth won him the Nobel Prize in 1995 and gave him a prominence far beyond literary circles, died in Dublin on Friday after a brief illness, according to a statement issued on behalf of his family.