President Barack Obama said Sunday that the science on vaccinations is "indisputable" and urged parents to vaccinate their children, as officials tried to contain one of the worst measles outbreaks in years.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday seized on a Boston Globe report about Jeb Bush's prep school days to criticize the former Florida governor's "hypocrisy" on marijuana policy.

Longtime New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) announced his resignation from his leadership post Friday as other top Democrats jockeyed for the job in the wake of Silver's arrest on federal corruption charges.

Thanks to the Boston Globe, we know what it's like to get high with Jeb Bush.

Fox News panelist Stacey Dash knows something the rest of the political world doesn't: Mitt Romney's Friday announcement to supporters that he would not launch a third Republican presidential bid is actually a clever front.

One recent poll showed that a huge majority of New Jersey residents couldn't have cared less that Gov. Chris Christie (R) pledged allegiance to the Dallas Cowboys football team.

But one New Jerseyan, who happens to be a sports radio host, cared very much.

Mitt Romney is expected to tell his supporters whether he's actually planning to run for President a third time on a Friday conference call, according to media reports.

Legislation filed last week in Texas would allow teachers to use deadly force in order to protect school property, the Houston Chronicle reported.

How quickly the mighty fall: less than a week after longtime New York state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) was arrested on federal corruption charges, his fellow Democrats have decided to replace him.

Although the criminal complaint from U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara's office hit at the very top of the legislature's food chain, Silver was merely the latest in a long line of state lawmakers who have been whacked with federal corruption charges. Bharara's office has convicted at least a dozen elected officials in recent years and is in the process of prosecuting even more.

Which all begs the question: Just how did New York state get so damn corrupt?

Some people have acknowledged the state's propensity for bad behavior. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) made ethics reform a key part of his first term, creating a new body tasked with investigating corruption that was named the Moreland Commission. But Cuomo's goals were ultimately reduced to a bargaining chip in budget negotiations with, among other people, Silver.

As the New York Times reported last year, Cuomo eventually shuttered the Moreland Commission in March 2014 in exchange for the legislature agreeing to a scaled-back version of his ethics package. The irony is that Cuomo's closing of the commission is now also reportedly being investigated by Bharara.

TPM talked to some people who know New York politics to find out how the state got this way. Here are five points to know about the mess:

The social conservative group American Family Association distanced itself Wednesday from several of evangelical radio host Bryan Fischer's statements on religious freedom and gays, but said it was still going to let him keep his radio show for the sake of "diversity."