Budget Deal: Republican congressional leaders and President Obama have reached a tentative two-year budget agreement that would increase spending, trim some major social programs, and raise the federal borrowing limit. If it succeeds, it represents compromise and a break in …

Tonight’s Feature: Four Democratic presidential candidates will be looking to knock Hillary Clinton off her perch as the frontrunner tonight on CNN in the party’s first presidential debate in Las Vegas. The challenge for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will be …

Drachma Drama: About a third of Greece’s ATM’s ran out of money yesterday after Greeks rushed to the banks in response to the latest developments in the country’s credit crisis. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for a quick national …

The Bomber: At his formal death sentencing yesterday, Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apologized for the first time saying, “I am sorry for the lives that I’ve taken, for the suffering that I’ve caused you, for the damage that I’ve …

Stars and Bars: The movement to cast out the Confederate flag is quickly growing. So far the big retailers Walmart, Sears, Amazon, eBay and Etsy all say they won’t sell the flag or merchandise that features it. In Charleston yesterday …

Stars and Barred: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley yesterday called for the Confederate flag to be taken down from its mast on the capitol grounds. “We are not going to allow this symbol to divide us any longer. The fact …

Stars and Bars: Last week’s racist massacre in a Charleston, SC church produced the usual calls for gun control, but louder voices might be for taking down the Confederate flag from the statehouse. Its defenders say the Stars and Bars …

Charleston: Relatives of the Charleston church shooting victims spoke emotionally yesterday at the bond hearing for 21-year-old Dylann Roof, who is charged with nine racially motivated murders. Felicia Sanders, the mother of 26-year old Tywanza Sanders, who was killed, said …

Nation: A 21-year-old avowed racist is expected in court today to face charges that he massacred nine people at a black church in Charleston, SC. Dylann Roof, of Lexington, SC, was grabbed during a traffic stop yesterday in North Carolina. …

The Lead: Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz officially announced he’s running for president this morning at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, the Christian college founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. “It is the time for truth. It is the time …