Domenico Montanaro

Updated at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Arne Duncan will step down as President Obama's education secretary in December, a White House official confirms to NPR.

Obama has selected Deputy Education Secretary John B. King Jr. to replace Duncan. King is a former New York State education commissioner. (President Obama is making ...

Ben Carson, notably the only black man running for president, made a joke Wednesday afternoon about running away from the cops as a kid.

"Throwing rocks at cars, I really liked that," he said, describing his childhood. "Sometimes, the police would come, always in unmarked cars. And, they'd be chasing ...

Republicans are pushing to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding. The organization's popularity has held steady, highlighting a risk for the GOP. But there's danger for Democrats, too.

Jack Dorsey, the Twitter co-founder who has led the company since June on an interim basis, will officially become the company's new CEO, according to reports. Dorsey is also the CEO of mobile payment company Square; it's uncertain whether he will try to hold both jobs.

Dorsey "is expected be ...

The fight to replace John Boehner is on.

California Republican Kevin McCarthy announced Monday he is running to replace Boehner as House speaker.

"If elected Speaker, I promise you that we will have the courage to lead the fight for our conservative principles and make our case to the American ...

Some people do drink holy water, hoping for a little extra help from above.

But no one steals the pope's.

That is, no one, except Rep. Bob Brady. The Pennsylvania Democrat, a Roman Catholic, apparently eyed the glass atop the lectern next to Pope Francis during his address to Congress. ...

It's a new day, and it might not be the same again.

"My, oh my, what a wonderful day..." House Speaker John Boehner sang as he took to the podium in the Capitol Friday to announce his intention to resign as speaker of the House at the end of October.

...

Pope Francis speaks his mind, and he did that again in his address to a joint meeting of Congress on Thursday morning. But, in the vein of the best Jesuit teachers, Francis praised America, its rich political history and its ideals before delicately delivering some things its political leaders might, ...

Donald Trump went and gave a speech Tuesday night on the deck of a battleship, the appropriately named USS Iowa. Reporters were expecting a policy speech. What followed was not that at all.

But that's really not the point.

Toward the end of the 13-minute speech, Trump said 178 words ...

Gentlemen, start your spending.

Jeb Bush and the superPAC supporting him have raised the most money of any campaign so far. And now, post-Labor Day, the superPAC is about to put that money to use.

Right to Rise superPAC, which has raised more than $100 million, is going up with ...

His candidacy has floundered, so the Wisconsin governor is going back to what made him a hero to Republicans — taking on labor unions. But his sweeping efforts will likely run into stiff resistance.

Howard Dean didn't just go away in 2004. And it wasn't "The Scream" that did him in. Remember, that came in his speech after losing the Iowa caucuses.

It took Democratic candidates attacking him on the campaign trail and in debates to bring concerns about his record — and whether ...

Five months have passed since we first fact checked Hillary Clinton's arguments defending her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. The controversy has not gone away, and the Clinton campaign, hoping for a post-Labor Day reset, is ramping up its defense.

It posted ...

Che faccia brutta!

Between catcalls and "Ciao, Bellas," it's a refrain heard in Italian piazzas in hushed, and sometimes not so hushed, side conversations between men scoping out women.

It's usually coupled with Shakespearean dramatization with one guy putting his hand to his stomach while he's bending over like he's ...

Everyone should be on notice to look out for the unexpected this year in politics.

What usually happens might not be the case this time around.

The rise of anti-establishment candidates, non-prototypical politicians, like Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Ben Carson is evidence of a clear anti-establishment sentiment. As the ...

NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. On Fridays, we highlight some of the best stories.

This week, we bring you three ...

NPR political editor Domenico Montanaro joins Arun Rath to recap the latest developments with the 2016 presidential hopefuls.

Hillary Clinton has spent much of the summer fending off questions about her private email account during her time as secretary of state. Bernie Sanders is gaining on her in the polls. And there's a looming possible challenge from sitting Vice President Joe Biden.

That's a far cry from the ...

Alaska is on the "bucket lists" for a lot of people, but for President Obama it's on his famous list of things that rhyme with bucket.

Obama will become the first U.S. president to head to the Arctic Circle Monday as part of a multi-day trip intended to draw ...

When a wispy-haired, septuagenarian senator from Vermont with a Larry David-style and a life-long passion for talking about income inequality decided to run for president, not many took him seriously.

That's especially true, considering that senator, Bernie Sanders, was going up against the New York Yankees of Democratic politics — ...