Your stories from the Washington Examiner

» Congress ducks military authorization vote, for now

House and Senate lawmakers dodged a vote on a broad military authorization for President Obama to go after Islamic terrorists in the Middle East, guaranteeing a heated debate over the issue when Congress returns after the November election.

» Women hold the keys in Senate races

Joni Ernst could be the first woman to represent Iowa in Congress, but she’ll need to convince women voters to support her first.

» Obama readies vetoes as Republicans eye the Senate

The emboldened new Senate Republican majority will likely pass a flurry of bills aimed at dismantling Obama’s signature healthcare law, environmental regulations aimed at climate change, and executive orders on subjects both big and small.

» Broken culture, risky reforms leave unethical VA execs on public payroll

Nobody at the Department of Veterans Affairs linked to phony appointment logs or patient deaths has been fired, despite a hastily passed new law designed to make it easier to oust corrupt and inept federal managers.

» Michael Barone: Immigration reformers should learn from history

The problem, says British-born, California-based historian Gregory Clark, is that upward mobility is something of a myth, in America and elsewhere.

» Top brass weighs on Pentagon

The U.S. military is more top-heavy than it ever has been, after decades of adding generals and admirals while the enlisted ranks shrank and budget cuts forced many lower-ranking officers out of the service.

» Absent Obama will play starring role on campaign trail anyway

President Obama will likely never run for office again, but for many in Congress, his name might as well be on the top of the ballot this fall.

» Editorial: Why Wisconsin won’t become Illinois

Anyone who doubts the wisdom of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s union bargaining reforms — and the self-interested short-sightedness of the public union bosses — need only look southward to neighboring Illinois.

» Obama relies on wishful thinking to avoid debt troubles

Given the realities of the global environment, it is a far safer bet to assume that the U.S. will be required to spend something closer to the post-war average on national security than the historically low amounts built into Obama administration budget plans.

» The other candidate in Michigan’s Senate race lays low

Gary Peters is no wallflower, but in the race for Michigan’s open Senate seat, he’s clearly been overshadowed by his colorful Republican opponent.

» New bank rule would be costly for cities, states

The liquidity coverage rule would require banks to hold enough safe, liquid assets that would be sellable even in a crisis to fund their operations for at least 30 days.

» Philip Klein: Jindal says hospitals are shortsighted on Medicaid expansion

The fact that a number of Republican governors have reluctantly agreed to some form of a Medicaid expansion through President Obama’s healthcare law is in no small part due to the efforts by state and national lobbyists for the hospital industry.

» After Ferguson, interest in demilitarizing police has ‘exploded’

Johnson spent his August and early September working with Republicans to try to win their support and talked with the Washington Examiner about the experience.

» Improving job market complicates push to renew unemployment benefits

“In December, it was an open-and-shut case” to continue the program, said Michael Strain, an economist at the right-of-center American Enterprise Institute. “At this point, it’s a much harder call to make.”

» Drizzle forecast for Obama’s climate parade at the UN

Some 120 heads of state, including President Obama, will gather in New York for the United Nations climate summit, but their meeting is not expected to generate momentum and is not a formal part of the negotiating process.

» Op-Ed: Fiscal and human costs of the ’94 crime bill

The Omnibus Crime Bill caused the number of increase by more than 45 percent — the number of inmates in American prisons and jails grew from 1.01 million in 1994 to 2.3 million today.