How White House Reporters Can Reclaim Their Beat  —  Tips to “flip the script” and seize control from presidents, CEOs, and leaders of other institutions.  —  Paul Farhi of The Washington Post writes today about a trend at the White House—and throughout journalism—that threatens the quality …

John McCain: Arizona execution ‘torture’  —  A botched execution in Arizona on Wednesday amounted to “torture,” said the state's senior senator John McCain.  —  The longtime Republican lawmaker, who experienced years of torture while being held in captivity by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War …

Behind the Scenes in Putin's Court: The Private Habits of a Latter-Day Dictator  —  The President wakes late and eats shortly after noon.  He begins with the simplest of breakfasts.  There is always cottage cheese.  His cooked portion is always substantial; omelette or occasionally porridge.

Patrick: I'm not ‘pals’ with Hillary  —  Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who raised eyebrows earlier this year by questioning the sense of “inevitability” around Hillary Clinton's potential presidential candidacy, emphasized Thursday that he's worried Clinton's inner circle will perpetuate an …

Michigan GOP Mayor Compares Atheists To Nazis, KKK  —  The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and two other groups on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the mayor of Warren, Mich., who banned an atheist group from setting up a station alongside one run by a prayer group in the city hall atrium.

David Gregory: Dead Head Talking?  —  NBC News' chief White House correspondent, Chuck Todd, and Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski are jockeying to replace the moderator of Meet the Press.  —  Whenever he got around to reading the unpleasant item in the Page Six column on Wednesday …

Texas gun nuts' scary ritual: How hatred of a president turned profane  —  The “open carry” crew is now spouting right-wing conspiracy theories and waving guns in the worst place imaginable  —  Three weeks before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a concerned citizen from Dallas named …

U.S. Considering Refugee Status for Hondurans  —  Hoping to stem the recent surge of migrants at the Southwest border, the Obama administration is considering whether to allow hundreds of minors and young adults from Honduras into the United States without making the dangerous trek through Mexico, according to a draft of the proposal.

Glenn Beck's audacious defense against Boston Marathon bombings defamation suit  —  On April 15 of last year, a thin kid with a bright smile named Abdulrahman Alharbi decided he would stop and watch the Boston Marathon for a few minutes.  A Saudi Arabian studying English in Boston …

BuzzFeed Editor Caught Lifting Text From Yahoo! Answers  —  Yahoo! Answers, one of the great artifacts of Internet history, is intently studied at viral news website BuzzFeed, where its trove of half-literate questions (and even less literate answers) has supplied material for at least fifty different posts and listicles.

Obsessing About Gaza, Ignoring Syria (And Most Everything Else)  —  The responses to what I write about the Hamas war fall into several categories.  My least favorite sort of response is the kind that invokes Hitler in some way.  Here is an e-mail that is representative: “I hope Hitler kills you and your family.”

Conservatives Hone Script to Light a Fire Over Abortion  —  It was not on the public schedule for the Republican National Committee's spring meeting at the stately Peabody Hotel in downtown Memphis.  But inside a conference room, a group of conservative women held a boot camp to strengthen …

Obama Campaign Vets: Pay Us $5,000 To Learn — And Work On A Campaign  —  Started by top Obama campaign vets, 270 Strategies' new training program has drawn skepticism from Democrats and progressives on the campaign trail.  —  Darren Hauck / Reuters  —  WASHINGTON — Two top veterans …

Tacoma casino cancels Nugent shows, citing racism  —  TACOMA, Wash. — Emerald Queen Casino will cancel two Ted Nugent concerts that were scheduled August 2 and 3 over allegations of racist remarks by the singer.  —  Puyallup Tribe officials said the decision came after learning that Nugent has said racist remarks.

Why Am I Moving Left?  —  I used to be right down the middle.  But America's changed, and so have I.  —  In my late 50s, at a time of life when most people are supposed to be drifting into a cautious conservatism, I am surprised to find myself moving steadily leftward.  —  This is unexpected.

Morning Plum: GOP lawsuit against Obama could play into Dems' hands  —  Democratic leaders are planning an aggressive effort to turn the House GOP lawsuit against President Obama into a political positive in the 2014 elections, with ads and other paid media designed to cast the GOP as extreme …

Ruling Defends Affirmative Action From New Challenges  —  Given the avalanche of world-shaking news since last week, the shrug greeting the latest chapter in the long-running affirmative action saga at the University of Texas is understandable.  Even the usually lively constitutional law blogosphere …

Doubts grow over Isis ‘FGM edict’ in Iraq  —  Doubts are growing about the authenticity of an edict attributed to the Sunni Islamist group Isis controlling the Iraqi city of Mosul about female genital mutilation (FGM).  —  A top UN official quoted from a statement saying that Isis wanted …

Senate NSA compromise likely to come next week  —  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is close but not yet ready to unveil a negotiated measure to rein in government surveillance.  —  Despite reports that the bill could be unveiled this week, Leahy will unveil …

VA reform hits stalemate  —  When revelations surfaced earlier this summer that the Department of Veterans Affairs provided poor health care to veterans — leading to some deaths — a genuine scandal erupted and Congress promised to impose big changes.  —  But staring down the August recess …