The Washington of conventional wisdom and the real Washington are two entirely different places. The Washington of conventional wisdom is overrun by well-paid insiders — lobbyists, lawyers, publicists — who systematically manipulate government policies to benefit corporations and the rich, defying the “will of the people.” The real Washington has government paid for by the rich and well-to-do. Benefits go mainly to the poor and middle class, while politicians of both parties live in fear that they might offend the “will of the people” — voters. Read full article > >

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Here’s what Washington really does

Says he’s a man of the people, unlike Romney.

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Newt Gingrich: Populist Hero?

When things got tough, the people of this Southside hamlet made a hard decision. They welcomed into their midst the Mecklenburg Correctional Center , a sallow-trimmed building filled with murderers and rapists that promised to pump jobs and revenue back into the ailing economy. Read full article > >

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Town struggles to survive close of prison

They’re hiring field directors, setting up phone banks, building get-out-the-vote teams and crafting a message strategy worthy of a presidential candidate. But the “they” in this instance isn’t a national campaign; it’s the people behind a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich . Read full article > >

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Pro-Gingrich super PAC builds shadow campaign

About the daters … Happiest when … Will:  When I’m in [a] fun place with a large group of friends or people I like. Shaw:  I just love being with the people I love, with no worries to distract us. Unless we are at a sporting event, where me and my friends tend to get a bit nuts. Read full article > >

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Date Lab: Blind daters go where the wild things are

Newsbeat’s Dominic Byrne looks back at some of the people that made him smile during 2011, in a festive Odd Box.

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VIDEO: Festive Odd Box: Fun people

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria , which underwrites AIDS treatment for about half the people getting it in developing countries, announced Wednesday that it will make no new grants for the next two years because of the worldwide economic downturn. The Geneva-based organization says it will continue to support about 400 AIDS treatment and prevention programs in more than 100 countries for now, but it will not pay for them to add patients or increase services. Read full article > >

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Fund halts new grants for AIDS,TB and malaria treatment in poor countries

“Over half of the people who would be taxed under this plan are, in fact, small-business people.” — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Nov. 6, 2011 “The question is whether the federal government ought to be raising taxes on 300,000 small businesses in order to send money down to bail out states for whom firefighters and police work.” Read full article > >

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Boehner’s and McConnell’s new claims on millionaires and small businesses

You may have noticed that the people in college football are the tiniest bit obsessed with money, from light-fingered bowl executives to numb-voiced university presidents droning about “impermissible benefits” while pocketing seven figures. Alabama’s $4 million coach, Nick Saban, looks like he should be cruising on a yacht sipping Bacardi to the soft throb of a marine engine. No wonder players are preoccupied with compensation, and the answer to every NCAA scandal or controversy lately amounts to, “Pay us.” Read full article > >

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College athletes deserve respect more than money

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — Last Halloween, the opposition here put together a daring demonstration , portraying Vladimir Putin as Count Dracula and President Dmitry Medvedev as Frankenstein. Lesser officials were turned into a collection of werewolves and mummies, and licking their lips they boiled and drank the people’s blood — in the form of cranberry juice. Read full article > >

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Russia clamps down on opposition before elections

The arrival ceremony, the good china, the wonk mixed with the pomp (the womp!), the Sensible Shoe People mixed with the Famous Celebrity People mixed with the people who are at these things because they are always at these things, who know better than to try to wear a hanbok, elegant as the garment might look. Read full article > >

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Dinner at America’s table: How a White House rite evolved

Some of the people camped out Zuccotti Park for the Occupy Wall Street protest want to End the Fed. Others want to tax Wall Street. One woman assured me that “very few” of the top one percent live in New York, or even in the United States. “They’re in gated communities all around the world,” she said. Someone else saw this as a cultural revolution. When I arrived, the crowd seemed almost entirely under-30. By the time I left, it was considerably less homogenous. Read full article > >

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A tipping point for Occupy Wall Street

We all suspected that Verizon iPhone users would experience fewer dropped calls than those of us on the AT&T network. Now, the research is beginning to trickle out — and it turns out that Verizon’s network really does do a better job of keeping you connected to the people you’re talking with.

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Chart: Verizon iPhone Users Really Do Experience Fewer Dropped Calls

Six days into an international bombardment of Libyan military targets, one thing is becoming clear on the ground: There are still some loyal holdouts for Col. Muammar Gaddafi. Even one rebel leader admitted that “75 percent of the people are against…

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Many Libyans Still Support Gaddafi

Prince William offers condolences to the people of Japan, while paying tribute to victims of last month’s earthquake in New Zealand.

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William attends NZ quake memorial