Ed Kilgore is a special correspondent for The New Republic.

Jeffrey H. Anderson was the senior speechwriter for Secretary Mike Leavitt at the Department of Health and Human Services.

President Obama repeatedly insists that the debt ceiling must be raised by at least $2.4 trillion. Why this particular amount, rather than, say, an even $1 trillion or $2 trillion? Because $2.4 trillion is Obama's estimate for what it would take to get him through the next election without needing to deal with another debt ceiling battle. In other words, $2.4 trillion is a politically generated figure.

As the United Nations escalates its dire warnings about what's happening in the Horn of Africa, declaring today that drought and famine in southern Somalia threaten millions of people, NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports from a refugee camp in Kenya that an area straddling Somalia, Ethiopia and northern Kenya has been dubbed "the triangle of death."

Are organic foods all they're cracked up to be?

Saying it's the "largest aircraft order in aviation history," American Airlines just announced that it plans to buy at least 460 fuel-efficient "narrowbody" passenger jets between 2013 and 2022.

The purchases are to be split between Boeing and Europe's Airbus, the company says:

There was a surprising text message sent to reporters in Afghanistan today from a cell phone number that has been used by the Taliban's public relations office, NPR's Quil Lawrence reports from Kabul.

It reported the death of Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

But Taliban spokesmen claim Omar is alive and "told NPR their phones and website had been hacked," Quil says. They "accused western forces of psychological warfare."

British Prime Minister David Cameron defended a former aide embroiled in a major phone-hacking and bribery scandal but told Parliament on Wednesday that in "20/20 hindsight" he would not have hired the tabloid editor as his communications chief.

In a special session before the House of Commons, Cameron rebuffed catcalls from the opposition to defend Andy Coulson, who is one of nearly a dozen people arrested in an investigation of phone hacking and corruption at the now-shuttered News of the World.

In 2009, Michael D. Rivers parked at a meter in Springfield, Mass., and received a $25 parking ticket. Rivers said he put 50 cents in the meter, which was broken. He chose to fight it in court, representing himself. Two years and hundreds of dollars in filing fees later, a judge threw out the ticket.

This week marks 100 years since the city got its "H" back. A federal agency had stripped Pittsburgh of its silent, final letter. It wanted a standard for all cities ending in berg.

There's a remarkable scene playing out right now in the British Parliament, where Prime Minister David Cameron has been laying out a defense of his — and his staff's — actions related to the "hacking scandal" and the leader of the opposition has accused Cameron of ignoring warnings about some of the News Corp. executives hired to work for the government.