From the Washington Examiner

No lessons learned from last year's Obamacare debacle - One would expect the bureaucrats who run healthcare.gov to be more transparent about any issues they expect this time around, but apparently that won't be the case.

New polls: A GOP midterm wave? A new batch of polls from Fox News shows five Republican Senate candidates in top-tier races across the country pulling ahead of their Democratic opponents. If accurate, these polls could signal the beginning of a midterm wave for the GOP.

Democrats on defensive over role of government - Things are spinning out of control. Out of control, at least, by government, and by the United States government in particular.

GOP candidate in Massachusetts gubernatorial race takes biggest lead yet - Republican businessman and Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker has managed to pull ahead of his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, leading her in the polls 45-39, according to a new Emerson College/WGBH poll.

Paulson admits he saw the big banks as indispensible - Here's an important and underappreciated aspect of the Wall Street bailout, and of the tenures of Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke: They believed that the Big Banks were an indispensable part of the U.S. economy.

Auto lenders try to steer regulators away from 'bubble' fears - Auto lenders are worried that federal regulators are trying to crack down on them in an effort to prevent a subprime bubble they say doesn't exist.

EEOC says its background checks irrelevant - The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told a District Court that it should not have to reveal its own policies regarding criminal background checks because that information is not relevant to the discrimination cases it files against private companies.

Don't expect energy boom to uproot global oil politics - The U.S. energy boom has caused crude oil prices to fall over the last month, but its effect on broader geopolitics -- such as waylaying the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- is expected to be far more muted over the long term.

EPA sends smog rule to White House - The Environmental Protection Agency sent a proposed rule to limit smog to the White House on Wednesday, a move that will set off fresh battles in what has been an intense, five-year fight over the regulation.

Obama: Congress should 'work with us' to avoid sequestration cuts to defense - President Obama on Wednesday called on Congress to work with his administration to avoid up to $50 billion in annual cuts to defense spending required by a 2011 law designed to reduce the federal budget deficit.

Obama announces new climate change initiative - The White House on Thursday announced new executive orders and private sector partnerships to boost natural infrastructure, such as wetlands and forests, to mitigate and defend against the effects of climate change.

HHS secretary: There may be other cases of Ebola in the U.S. - "We had one case and I think there may be other cases, and I think we have to recognize that as a nation," Sylvia Burwell said at a media breakfast.

House approves money to combat Ebola in Africa - The House on Thursday gave the green light for President Obama to spend an additional $700 million to combat the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa, but a Republican is blocking the money in the Senate.