Lanny Davis Jr., a onetime crisis manager in former President Clinton's White House operation, doesn't give President Obama's communications team high marks.

A bill making its way through the Louisiana Legislature would let Cajun citizens celebrate their ancestry by customizing their driver's license, adding the phrase "I'm a Cajun" below their photograph.

The IRS is under fire for directing additional scrutiny toward conservative groups seeking 501(c)(4) status. But the controversy reveals a question with no clear answer: Precisely what are so-called social welfare organizations allowed to do in electoral politics?

Groups that focused on issues such as government spending, taxes and making America "a better place to live" were given extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status, according to news reports. That's in addition to the "tea party" and "patriot" groups the IRS has apologized for singling out.

In a new book, former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe explores how to fix the gridlock in Congress. Earlier this year, the Republican from Maine left the Senate out of frustration with the partisan stalemate. "It has to change, for the country," she says. "People deserve ... better representation."

Automatic budget cuts have pushed Air Force bases to slash their flying budgets even though it means grounding pilots and reducing readiness. The cancellations are boosting the arguments of those who want the military excepted from sequestration cuts.

The targeting by IRS workers in Cincinnati of the filings of conservative groups for added scrutiny was an innocent mistake, said an agency official who apologized. But President Obama's critics see more nefarious motives in the action.

Women on the Senate and House Armed Services committees are leveraging their clout in response to the problem of sexual assaults in the military.

White House press secretary Jay Carney says the only changes to the talking points used by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice were to wording describing the Benghazi mission.

During the 2012 campaign, some organizations complained they were being unfairly scrutinized. A top IRS official said groups that included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in applications for tax-exempt status were subjected to additional reviews.