A top official of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation who was involved in the controversy over the group’s funding of Planned Parenthood resigned Tuesday. Karen Handel, vice president for public policy, acknowledged that she had supported Komen’s decision to pull funding for Planned Parenthood in a resignation letter obtained by The Atlanta Journal Constitution. However, she said the decision-making process began before she joined the organization last year, and the policy change was thoroughly vetted at every level within the organization and unanimously agreed to by the board at a November meeting. Read full article > >

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Komen vice president Karen Handel resigns

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation announced Friday that it would revise a new policy that barred the organization from funding Planned Parenthood, a move that had thrust the cancer foundation into a national controversy. Read full article > >

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Komen Foundation revises funding policy

Forget the whole kerfuffle in which the Susan G. Komen Foundation stopped its donations to Planned Parenthood , an organization that provides 4 million breast exams annually . I’m sure it had good reasons for that. Good, non-political reasons, having to do with the way the organization was “evolving,” or something. This decision is not transparently political in any way. Read full article > >

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Alexandra Petri: Komen Foundation’s lamentable choice

Romney has the organization, money and history to crush opponents in the Silver State.

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Mitt Looks Good In Nevada

The success of the British drama “Downton Abbey” prompted the organization to change its programming and marketing tactics, and aim at viewers more attuned to HBO and Showtime.

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PBS Shifts Tactics to Reach Wider Audience

Crude oil prices sagged Wednesday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided to boost its official production quotas to 30 million barrels a day, about where the group’s actual output has been running. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of the benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell to $94.90 a barrel, down more than 5 percent. Read full article > >

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Oil prices drop as OPEC decides to raise quotas

European countries need to act now to tackle measles outbreaks, the World Health Organization warns.

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WHO issues Europe measles warning

Twenty games into the 2011-12 NHL season, “accountability” is still the Washington Capitals ’ chief buzzword. The mantra that has been trumpeted by the organization’s ownership, management, coaches and players since mid-summer has been tested early, but Coach Bruce Boudreau has stood his ground as the Capitals close out the second month of the regular season. Read full article > >

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Capitals still stressing accountability, but have the stars accepted it?

A blogger who pioneered the practice of collecting news about journalism and the media industry resigned from his job Thursday after his editor publicly questioned his own journalism standards — in particular, whether he was giving proper attribution to the news sources mentioned in his daily posts. Jim Romenesko, whose daily blog on the nonprofit site Poynter.org has been a must-read for thousands of journalists, quit the organization after his editor, Julie Moos, posted a column questioning his methods. Read full article > >

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Media blogger Jim Romenesko resigns from Poynter

NEW YORK — The board of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted Monday to admit Palestine into the organization as its newest member, and the United States promptly responded by cutting off funding for the agency. Acting under a legal requirement to cut U.S. funds to any U.N. agency that recognizes a Palestinian state, the State Department on Monday announced that the United States has stopped funding UNESCO because of the vote. Department spokesman Victoria Nuland told reporters that the Obama administration would not make a planned $60 million payment to the agency due in November. Read full article > >

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UNESCO votes to admit Palestine; U.S. cuts off funding

Georgian negotiators said Thursday that they had accepted a Swiss compromise that would clear Russia’s path to join to the World Trade Organization, but Russian negotiators made no immediate comment.

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Georgians Suggest World Tade Organization Deal Is Near for Russia

Over at the New York Times’ Economix blog, Catherine Rampell digs up an unexpected chart showing that Americans enjoy some of the shortest commutes in the developed world. As much as we might hate our grinding trips to the office, we have it easy compared to Italy or Japan: But why is this? Isn’t the conventional wisdom that Americans have brutally long, soul-crushing commutes? Part of the trick here is that “average commute times” can obscure a lot of variation. Looking through the most recent census data , the basic pattern in the United States seems to be that people who live in big cities have longer commutes, and people who live in small towns and rural areas can get to work more rapidly. New York City and Washington have average commutes of about 34 minutes, which is near the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average. By contrast, Decatur, Ill., sports an average commute time of less than 17 minutes. Great Falls, Mont.? Just 14 minutes. Read full article > >

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Americans have some of the quickest commutes in the developed world

NPR on Sunday named Gary Knell, who has headed the organization that produces “Sesame Street,” as its new chief executive and president. Knell replaces Vivian Schiller , who left NPR in March after a succession of controversies that started with the firing of commentator Juan Williams last fall and ended after conservative activists secretly taped two NPR fundraisers appearing to make disparaging remarks about conservatives. Since then, the company has been run by an interim CEO, Joyce Slocum , while the organization’s board searched for Schiller’s replacement. Read full article > >

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NPR names Gary Knell, head of nonprofit behind ‘Sesame Street,’ as chief executive

NPR on Sunday named Gary Knell, who has headed the organization that produces “Sesame Street,” as its new chief executive and president. Knell replaces Vivian Schiller , who left NPR in March after a succession of controversies that started with the firing of commentator Juan Williams last fall and ended after conservative activists secretly taped two NPR fundraisers appearing to make disparaging remarks about conservatives. Since then, the company has been run by an interim CEO, Joyce Slocum , while the organization’s board searched for Schiller’s replacement. Read full article > >

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NPR names Gary Knell, head of nonprofit behind ‘Sesame Street,’ as chief executive

In previous summers, it was unusual to see more than a handful of players on the ice at the Washington Capitals ’ practice facility with more than a week to go before the official start of the training camp. On Tuesday, though, a group of 15 that included Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom , two of the team’s three highest-paid players, went through a workout that included rigorous, timed skating drills. It’s not much to read into, but it’s the earliest on-ice example of the more focused tone that many within the organization have said is a necessity this season if the Capitals want to achieve greater success. Read full article > >

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Washington Capitals look more focused ahead of start of training camp