How the latest controversies in Washington affect Obama's second-term agenda, creating an infrastructure of care, and more recommended reading from around the web.

The Congressional Budget Office’s annual update of its 10-year fiscal forecasts should – though it’s not clear it will – shape congressional deliberations on taxes and spending. But the numbers don't always speak for themselves, so here are three takeaways.

A Senate panel approved a change to the immigration bill that lawmakers said would close a security loophole exposed by the Boston Marathon bombings.

The Internal Revenue Service used “inappropriate criteria” to review applications from tea party and other groups seeking to qualify as tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations, according to a government watchdog report that offers the clearest picture to date on a practice that began at least as early as 2010.

Acting IRS Commissioner Steven T. Miller offered his fullest explanation to date for the agency’s scrutiny of conservative groups seeking non-profit status, saying that the IRS was not trying to target any particular group.

Attorney General Eric Holder answered reporters’ question at a press conference Tuesday. Here is an edited transcript.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General James Cole, who made the decision to subpoena phone records from the Associated Press, said the Justice Department didn’t take the action until after it had exhausted other efforts to investigate a leak of classified information, including hundred of interviews.

With multiple controversies weighing on the White House, President Obama's chief spokesman spent the better part of an hour distancing the White House from an IRS investigation and lashing out at a Republican-led probe into Benghazi.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that department civilians would be furloughed for 11 days under the budget sequester.

Two Republicans who helped craft a plan to overhaul the immigration system resisted major changes to their bill offered by a GOP colleague as the Senate Judiciary Committee considered the legislation on Tuesday.

Russia's Federal Security Service released a photograph of a letter that allegedly contains instructions on spying for the U.S., that the FSB says was found on the U.S. employee.

Regulators’ longstanding policy of allowing Wall Street firms to settle lawsuits without requiring them to admit to wrongdoing may undercut the regulators’ ability to crack down on financial fraud, Sen. Elizabeth Warren warned Tuesday.

The Navy’s prototype drone, the X-47B, successfully catapulted off a carrier Tuesday -- an important step toward the goal of eventually fielding drones on all Navy carriers.

The real danger for the Obama White House this week, writes Jerry Seib, is that the storms passing overhead play into the picture conservative critics have been trying to paint of the administration as one that has ushered in an era of big government.

In a rare outburst of bipartisanship, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Tuesday commiserated about the injury of Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper, who crashed into the wall during a game Monday night in Los Angeles.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R., N.H.) is receiving some much-needed support in the form of an ad paid for by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s PAC.

The latest on controversies in Washington and a review of how Obama is handling them, and more recommended reading from around the web.

Two timelines have become central to the story of IRS targeting of tea party groups and other conservative groups. They show how IRS employees used a range of criteria to identify conservative groups for extra scrutiny as they applied for tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status.

The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing Friday to look into allegations the IRS staff had targeted groups based on their political leanings, capping a day as outraged lawmakers called the news “troubling” and “completely inappropriate.”

Obama and Cameron met Monday to discuss the conflict in Syria, the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and the strengthening of economic ties. Here is the transcript of the press conference that followed the meeting.