Mark Memmott

The first of two days worth of hearings about the problems plaguing HealthCare.gov got going Tuesday with an apology for the botched rollout from Marilyn Tavenner — administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. As It's All Politics noted earlier, she heads the agency ...

Bipartisan concern on Capitol Hill about data from Americans' phone and Internet records being vacuumed up by the National Security Agency has led to an unusual alliance involving a prominent House Republican and a veteran Senate Democrat.

NPR's Larry Abramson writes that:

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, ...

The 16-day partial shutdown of the federal government and the wrangling in Washington over the nation's finances combined to shake consumers' confidence sharply in October, the private Conference Board reported Tuesday morning.

Its widely watched consumer confidence index dropped to 71.2 from 80.2 in September.

How consumers are ...

Complaints from nearby residents about "burning eyes, irritated throats and headaches" have led the city of Irwindale, Calif., to ask a judge to order the company that makes Sriracha hot sauce to suspend production.

According to the Los Angeles Times, city attorneys "filed suit in Los Angeles County ...

This morning's provocative stories about the spying that the National Security Agency has been doing in recent years include this attention-grabber from the Los Angeles Times:

"The White House and State Department signed off on surveillance targeting phone conversations of friendly foreign leaders, current and former U.S. ...

The headline from Monday night is that the Boston Red Sox beat the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 3-1 to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven World Series.

Game 6, which could make the Red Sox the world champions, is Wednesday night in Boston. It ...

See if you agree with Gawker that "there's something oddly satisfying about watching this guy kill pumpkins."

Four the fourth year, Tennessee's "Hickok45" has posted clips of various "pumpkin killing methods." They're something of an offshoot (pardon our pun) from his usual fare:

...

That mansion in Limburg, Germany, where about $40 million was spent on renovations for the since-suspended cleric now known as the "bishop of bling" may soon be "turned into a refugee centre or a soup kitchen for the homeless," according to reports from The Independent and other European ...

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan and others from the GOP have spoken with NPR in recent years about why they believe the federal debt is the nation's "No. 1" problem.

And in Ryan's view, as he told us in 2011, lawmakers have "a moral obligation ... to put up ...

Conrad Murray, the physician convicted two years ago in the death of pop star Michael Jackson, was released from a Los Angeles jail at 12:52 a.m. local time Monday.

The 58-year-old Murray ended up serving about half of the 4-year sentence he received for, as The ...

Spain's El Mundo newspaper is reporting that a document leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden shows that the NSA scooped up data from 60 million phone calls made in Spain over a four-week period in late 2012 and early 2013, The ...

The forecast doesn't make it sound as severe as the storm that dumped a couple feet of snow on the northern Rockies and some Plains states earlier this month, but the National Weather Service is warning that people in those regions should be ready for a ...

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

• The Guardian has published "In a Field," the last known poem by the Irish poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney before his death in August. Inspired by Edward Thomas' 1916 poem, "As ...

The score Sunday night was:

Boston Red Sox 4; St. Louis Cardinals 2.

Which means the World Series is:

Tied at two games apiece.

The big moment Sunday:

Came in the sixth inning, when Boston outfielder Jonny Gomes hit a three-run homer.

A BBC interview with comedian/actor Russell Brand is getting attention today because, it's said, he speaks for many younger adults who are fed up with politics and politicians.

Brand, who seems almost proud to say he's never voted, makes the case that "the lies, treachery and deceit of ...

Sports talk shows and news outlets have been all over the story of a Texas parent who filed a complaint about bullying after his son's high school football team lost a game last week by the score of 91-0.

If you haven't heard about what happened during that game, here's ...

While it is been "one of the more poorly kept national security secrets in Washington and Islamabad" that Pakistani leaders privately endorse U.S. drone strikes aimed at terrorists in their country, The Washington Post says that:

"Top-secret CIA documents and Pakistani diplomatic memos" it has obtained show ...

There were 350,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance filed last week (the period ending Oct. 19), down 12,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration said Thursday.

A broader measure — the "4-week moving average" — rose by 10,750, to 348,250. That gives a sense of ...

The score was:

Boston Red Sox 8; St. Louis Cardinals 1.

St. Louis was awful:

NPR's Mike Pesca calls the Cardinals' performance "classically-inept."

The Associated Press says the Cardinals "wrecked themselves with just their second three-error game of the season."

Boston was ...

We could do another World Series preview, like Eyder's "Sox Vs. Cards: 5 Things To Know About The World Series" post from Monday.

We could simply remind everyone that Game 1 of the series between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals is set for tonight (Wednesday), ...