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Today's Super Tuesday primaries may or may not give the ultimate boost to a Republican seeking the party's presidential nomination. But the extended primary fight has led to the passage of at least one more political milestone: Spending by super PACs aligned with presidential candidates has now surpassed spending by all super PACs in 2010.

By JONATHAN ALLEN | 3/1/12 9:16 PM EST Authorities are investigating possible ties to a "green vehicle" earmark the lawmaker sought. By JUANA SUMMERS | 3/1/12 4:17 PM EST By JENNIFER HABERKORN and KATE NOCERA | 3/1/12 8:22 PM EST The 51-48 vote is a blow to Republicans.

Back in the 1940s, when there was no pretense of equality among the races and, instead, a benign acceptance-if not, among some, a certainty-that inequality was in fact the way things should be, my mother, then a college student, journeyed 200 miles from her family's home in north Georgia, through the slash pines and wiregrass, to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in a settlement called Keysville.

TORONTO -- Even after his amazing week, this one took Linsanity to a whole new level. Against Toronto on Tuesday, it was Lin for the win! Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with less than a second to play to cap his finishing flurry of six straight points and New York rallied to beat the Raptors 90-87, extending its winning streak to six games.

February 2, 2012 10:55 AM ET A candlelight vigil in Minneapolis for the victims of gay bullying. © Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Minneapolis Star Tribune/ZUMApress.com Every morning, Brittany Geldert stepped off the bus and bolted through the double doors of Fred Moore Middle School, her nerves already on high alert, bracing for the inevitable.

By Jake BergPublished: February 15, 2012Posted in: Bar Reviews, Featured, Interviews, News, Opinion Last week, Tommy Hunter, the Washington, DC representative for Flying Dog, tweeted that his brewery had lost a draft line to Pilsner Urquell, a brand owned by Miller Coors.

Amid the hue and cry on Wall Street that the Volcker rule goes too far to restrict banking activities, the former CEO of one giant bank thinks that the Volcker rule doesn't go far enough because it's not sufficiently tough to prevent firms from sneaking their way around the rule.

Linsanity may now be considered a bona fide cultural moment, if for no other reason than the response it has provoked: It has generated its very own backlash. The boxer Floyd Mayweather caused a stir on Twitter on Monday when he dismissed Jeremy Lin, the sensational Knicks point guard and the first Asian-American to play in the National Basketball Association, as the product of racial favoritism.

Super PAC quick finder: Priorities USA Action | Restore Our Future | Winning Our Future | Red, White and Blue Fund | Revolution | Citizens for a Working America | Strong America Now | Leaders for Families | Endorse Liberty | Santa Rita | Cain Connections | Make Us Great Again | Our Destiny | 9-9-9 Fund | American Crossroads | Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow Candidate totals and super PAC total raised through 2011.

An Indiana woman recently came home from a night of playing Bingo to a man police said had broken into her apartment, cooked himself some food and done several household chores. "He cooked some chicken and onions in a pan, folded my clothes up and swept my floor," Ashley Murray, of South Bend, told WNDU.

Donations Tie Michigan Republican to Drugmakers, Utilities, Telecom Firms Since 1987, Fred Upton, 57, has represented Michigan's 6th Congressional District, which spans the southwestern corner of the Wolverine State. The grandson of Whirlpool co-founder Frederick Upton, Upton has long been viewed as a moderate in his party, voting with House Republicans most of the time, but breaking ranks on such issues as the 2007 Iraq War troop surge, which he opposed.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry told Jon Karl that he's very likely to run again for president in 2016. He also had some unsolicited advice for Mitt Romney: "Governor you gotta stand up in front of the American people and say what you did on health care in Massachusetts was wrong.You need to stand up and clearly distance yourself from the biggest issue that's out there with this president."

Mitt Romney writes in a Detroit News op-ed that President Obama should have let automakers go into a "managed bankruptcy" instead of using a federal bailout with taxpayer money. "Managed bankruptcy may sound like a death knell.

In November, when lawmakers were discussing the defense budget, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a dire warning: In a letter to Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, he wrote that a threatened deep reduction - about $1 trillion over the next decade - would create "an unacceptable risk in future combat operations."

Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting finalists named The 2012 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting finalists are: Brian Ross, Anna Schecter and the ABC News Investigative Team ABC News 20/20"Peace Corps: A Trust Betrayed" Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley Associated Press"NYPD Intelligence Division" Jim Morris, Ronnie Greene, Chris Hamby and Keith Epstein, Center for Public Integrity andElizabeth Shogren, Howard Berkes, Sandra Bartlett and Susanne Reber, National Public Radio"Poisoned Places: Toxic Air, Neglected Communities" Mark Greenblatt, David Raziq and Keith Tomshe KHOU-TV (CBS Houston)"A Matter of Risk: Radiation, Drinking Water, and Deception" Danny Hakim and Russell Buettner The New York Times"Abused and Used" Dafna Linzer and Jennifer LaFleur ProPublica (co-published with The Washington Post)"Presidential Pardons" The press release is after the jump.

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The very strong reaction to NY Times' public editor Arthur Brisbane's ill-considered question about whether the New York Times should act as a "truth vigliante" (yes, it does sound Onion-esque) was a welcome one, reflective of a changing journalistic landscape in which the gatekeeper media is now accountable in unprecedented ways to a sharp, demanding, public readership.

Fred Thompson, who made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination during the 2008 election cycle, endorsed Newt Gingrich in this year's GOP primary race on Monday night. Thompson declared his support for the former House Speaker during an appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News program.

In his State of the Union address this week, President Obama said very little about health care reform, but what he did say was a reminder of how tight a grip the insurance industry has on the U.S. health care system -- and will continue to have if the Affordable Care Act is not implemented as Congress intended.