The government safety net was created to keep Americans from abject poverty, but the poorest households no longer receive a majority of government benefits.

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Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It

Almost half of the country lives in households that receive benefits, like Medicare.

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<img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/multimedia/icons/interactive_icon.gif" alt="Interactive" width="9"…

The small airport that houses what some here call Smithfield’s “dirty secret” lies just beyond the town’s outskirts, where tobacco warehouses and car dealerships give way to pine forests and then, abruptly, an imposing 10-foot-high fence. Read full article > >

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Ten years later, CIA ‘rendition’ program still divides N.C. town

How is Donald Trump NOT perfect for D.C.? He’s got the persistence of a lobbyist, the family money of a past president or two, the shamelessness of a scandal-plagued senator, the marital track record of at least one former House speaker (ahem) and the self-promotional drive that draws so many of America’s student council presidents to the nation’s capital. Read full article > >

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Donald Trump will fit right in on Pennsylvania Avenue

The story of David and Barbara Beers’s effort to renovate their mid-century modern home can be boiled down, ultimately, to THE windows. A squat, airy, contemporary confection built in 1964 in Montgomery County, the house needed serious updating. But the Beerses were determined to maintain its clean, modern lines — and that meant keeping its 80-some windows free of details and embellishment, even as the glass and frames were replaced. Read full article > >

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For owners of ’60s-era Carderock Springs house, renovation ordeal was worth it

The story of David and Barbara Beers’s effort to renovate their mid-century modern home can be boiled down, ultimately, to THE windows. A squat, airy, contemporary confection built in 1964 in Montgomery County, the house needed serious updating. But the Beerses were determined to maintain its clean, modern lines — and that meant keeping its 80-some windows free of details and embellishment, even as the glass and frames were replaced. Read full article > >

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For owners of ’60s-era Carderock Springs house, renovation ordeal was worth it

The story of David and Barbara Beers’s effort to renovate their mid-century modern home can be boiled down, ultimately, to THE windows. A squat, airy, contemporary confection built in 1964 in Montgomery County, the house needed serious updating. But the Beerses were determined to maintain its clean, modern lines — and that meant keeping its 80-some windows free of details and embellishment, even as the glass and frames were replaced. Read full article > >

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For owners of ’60s-era Carderock Springs house, renovation ordeal was worth it

A scaled-back ethics bill headed toward likely passage in the House on Thursday despite complaints from senators that Republican leaders had jettisoned several key provisions that won overwhelming Senate support last week . Read full article > >

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Scaled-back ethics measure moves toward approval in House

The speaker said House Republicans would push to change the administration’s rule that religious institutions must offer insurance plans that cover birth control.

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Boehner Vows to Fight Contraception Rule

Washington was poised to become the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage, with the State House expected to give final passage on Wednesday night.

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Washington State Set to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

The House of Delegates voted 59 to 39 Wednesday in favor of a bill that would allow Virginia’s tens of thousands of home-schooled students to play sports at their local high schools. The “Tebow bill” — named for Tim Tebow, the starting Denver Broncos quarterback who was home-schooled in Florida but was allowed to play football at his local high school — will now be sent to the Senate . Read full article > >

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‘Tebow’ bill to let home-schoolers play high school sports passes Va. House

A father suffocated his six-month-old son before hanging himself at a house in Lancashire, an inquest hears.

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Baby son was suffocated by father

More than you wanted to know? A new book shares explicit details about a 50-year-old presidential sex scandal between JFK and a White House intern. “Once Upon a Secret: My Affair with President John F. Kennedy and Its Aftermath,” by Mimi Beardsley Alford , chronicles the 18-month relationship that ended when Kennedy died in 1963. The memoir is getting a lot of advance buzz — including a prime-time NBC interview Wednesday with Meredith Vieira — because of Alford’s credibility and her graphic descriptions of encounters with the dazzling Womanizer-in-Chief, whom she always called “Mr. President” and never kissed on the lips. Read full article > >

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JFK intern Mimi Alford shares story of her affair with Kennedy in new book. Relevant? Historian Robert Dallek says yes

Three days after House Republicans presented a plan for transportation funding, the bill had weathered a hail of criticism, including charges that it would gut the funding guarantees on which mass transit has relied for 30 years. Read full article > >

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House Republicans’ transportation bill survives a beating in committees

A Republican fund-raising advantage among outside groups has led the White House to change course and use surrogates to encourage donations to a “super PAC.”

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With a Signal to Donors, Obama Yields on ‘Super PACs’