Govt tells Christian ministers: Perform same-sex weddings or face jail, fines  —  Officials threaten to punish senior citizen couple - both ordained pastors - if they decline to officiate same-sex ceremonies  —  COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit …

Black Vote Seen as Last Hope for Democrats to Hold Senate  —  WASHINGTON — The confidential memo from a former pollster for President Obama contained a blunt warning for Democrats.  Written this month with an eye toward Election Day, it predicted “crushing Democratic losses across the country” …

The Virus of Cynicism  —  WE have no clue at this point how far Ebola could spread in the United States — and no reason for panic.  —  But one dimension of the disease's toll is clear.  It's ravaging Americans' already tenuous faith in the competence of our government and its bureaucracies.

CNN Host Grills Cruz About Ebola And GOP Opposition To Surgeon General (VIDEO)  —  CNN host Candy Crowley on Sunday challenged Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) while asking him how Republican decisions may have negatively impacted the United States' ability to address Ebola.

Warren in Minnesota: ‘The game is rigged’  —  NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) brought her populist message Saturday to this small college town to rev up the final weeks of Sen. Al Franken's reelection campaign, but also to claim the mantle of the modern liberal movement's political godfather.

Mental Health Issues Put 34,500 on New York's No-Guns List  —  A newly created database of New Yorkers deemed too mentally unstable to carry firearms has grown to roughly 34,500 names, a previously undisclosed figure that has raised concerns among some mental health advocates that too many people have been categorized as dangerous.

Serena Williams hits back at Russian official  —  SINGAPORE (AP) — Serena Williams says comments by the head of the Russian Tennis Federation referring to her and older sister Venus as “brothers” were bullying, sexist and racist, and that she supported the one-year suspension imposed by the WTA against the official.

Drunk Michigan Woman Arrested When She Mistakes Jail For A Bar  —  PAW PAW, Mich. (AP) — One is a building with bars.  The other is a building with a bar.  A very drunk woman apparently had trouble telling them apart and ended up in a southwestern Michigan jail cell.

Poor kids who do everything right don't do better than rich kids who do everything wrong  —  Source: Data from Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill  —  America is the land of opportunity, just for some more than others.  —  That's because, in large part, inequality starts in the crib.

Romney Leads Scattered 2016 GOP Field, Clinton Still Dominates the Democratic Race  —  Hillary Clinton continues to hold a commanding lead in the potential Democratic field for president in 2016, while the GOP frontrunner in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll is a familiar figure …

Where's the empathy for Ebola's African victims?  —  The Ebola epidemic … (CNN) — The world's response to Ebola is its own sort of tragedy.  —  Two facts make the point clear:  — The United Nations has asked for $1 billion to fight the spread of the virus.