Boehner: The Nation Will Be On ‘The Path’ To Default If Obama Doesn't Accept GOP Demands  —  House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said the nation would default on its debt later this month if President Obama does not agree to GOP's demands to cut spending and change parts of the Affordable Care Act.

In Conversation: Antonin Scalia  —  On the eve of a new Supreme Court session, the firebrand justice discusses gay rights and media echo chambers, Seinfeld and the Devil, and how much he cares about his intellectual legacy ("I don't").  —  a day that just happened to be the 27th anniversary …

Mugged by a Mug Shot Online  —  IN March last year, a college freshman named Maxwell Birnbaum was riding in a van filled with friends from Austin, Tex., to a spring-break rental house in Gulf Shores, Ala. As they neared their destination, the police pulled the van over, citing a faulty taillight.

Russia to monitor ‘all communications’ at Winter Olympics in Sochi  —  Exclusive: Investigation uncovers FSB surveillance system - branded ‘Prism on steroids’ - to listen to all athletes and visitors  —  Athletes and spectators attending the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February will face …

CBS Host Takes Apart GOP's Shutdown Argument  —  Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) was unable to explain why Republicans needed to threaten economic disaster to try to get their way on Obamacare during an interview on CBS's Face The Nation on Sunday.  —  Bob Schieffer, Face the Nation's host …

Where's sense of crisis in a 17% government shutdown?  —  BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL CONGRESS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN  —  Everyone knows the phrase “government shutdown” doesn't mean the entire U.S. government is shut down.  So in a partial government shutdown, like the one underway at the moment …

Cornyn: Obama ‘has been AWOL’ in shutdown, debt ceiling fight  —  President Obama “has been AWOL” as the White House and congressional Republicans continue to square off over the government shutdown and looming debt ceiling fight, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Sunday.

GOP congressman: We stumbled into war over Obamacare  —  BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL OBAMACARE REPUBLICAN PARTY HARRY REID JOHN BOEHNER  —  On Thursday afternoon, as the government shutdown entered its third day, a Republican member of the House sat down with a group of reporters in an office building not far from the Capitol.

Getting Older, Growing Poorer  —  The basic outlines of poverty in America are sadly familiar.  At last count, 46.5 million people were poor — 15 percent of the population.  Women and children, especially in single-mother families, were, as always, hit hardest.

California GOP Reaching Out  —  A reader was telling me this morning about how the California GOP, after a pretty much nonstop 20 year decline, had perhaps hit rock bottom and was turning to some of its more pragmatic or centrist leaders to make it relevant in the state again.  —  And yet ...

U.S. forces strike in Libya, Somalia, capture al Qaeda operative  —  (CNN) — In two operations in Africa nearly 3,000 miles apart, U.S. military forces went after two high-value targets over the weekend.  —  One operation took place early Saturday in the Libyan capital of Tripoli …