Government Assessment of the Syrian Government's Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013  —  The United States Government assesses with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21, 2013.  We further assess that the regime used a nerve agent in the attack.

In News Coverage and Editorials on Syria, How Much Skepticism in The Times?  —  Many Times readers are looking at recent news coverage of Syria, and editorials on the same subject, through the lens of another international conflict: the United States invasion of Iraq.

Ginsburg will be first justice to officiate at same-sex wedding  —  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will become the first Supreme Court member to conduct a same-sex marriage ceremony Saturday when she officiates at the Washington wedding of Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser.

Liz Cheney: ‘I am not pro-gay marriage’  —  Wyoming Senate hopeful Liz Cheney said bluntly on Friday that she is “not pro-gay marriage.”  —  Cheney, who is mounting a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), made the remark in a statement, which is posted on her website.

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.

Standing Together for Greater Transparency  —  To followers of technology issues, there are many days when Microsoft and Google stand apart.  But today our two companies stand together.  We both remain concerned with the Government's continued unwillingness to permit us to publish sufficient data relating …

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.

Some News and Thanks  —  I will soon pass the Twitter General Counsel torch to Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya).  Vijaya has been managing Twitter's corporate and international legal work, and I've gotten to know her well over the last fourteen years.  I couldn't be happier with her appointment as General Counsel of Twitter.

Alabama Republican Wants to Ban Toni Morrison's ‘The Bluest Eye’ from Schools  —  Bowing to Tea Party pressure, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw said this week that he thinks The Bluest Eye, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's novel about a little black girl who wishes for blue eyes, should be banned in schools.

Sex between students and teachers should not be a crime  —  Betsy Karasik is a writer and former lawyer.  —  There is a painfully uncomfortable episode of “Louie” in which the comedian Louis C.K. muses that maybe child molesters wouldn't kill their victims if the penalty weren't so severe.

Ted Nugent's wife forgot her gun was in her bag at DFW Airport, lawyer says  —  FORT WORTH — The wife of rock guitarist Ted Nugent was “embarrassed” and apologetic after being arrested Thursday for carrying a handgun into a terminal at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, her lawyer said.