Their conventional occupations as a retired school teacher, emergency room clerk and firefighter don't hint that in their spare time, Ron and Lori Coffey and Howard Hamilton investigate reports of ghost sightings. The trio are members of the Mount Sterling-based Gateway Paranormal Society, one of numerous teams statewide that investigate paranormal activity in private homes, historical sites and cemeteries. The groups say that as the pastime has become more popular, the stigma is beginning to end. Known as ghost hunters, they consider the searches not just a hobby but services to provide help to people.

This is rather odd.

Many media outlets — except the one on which he's supposed to be appearing — are saying that golfer Tiger Woods will be making a "special announcement" of some kind on The Golf Channel at 11 a.m. ET.

We called The Golf Channel's headquarters in Orlando and all we could get out of them was "stay tuned to see." No confirmation, even, of whether Woods will be on.

Mark Schmitt is a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and former editor of The American Prospect.

It's a choice between "kids' safety" and "tax breaks for corporate jets" according to President Obama's clearest explanation of the budget showdown in a press conference last Wednesday. The Republicans' staggering refusal to consider even the most minimal efforts to close tax loopholes — because it would cross the line of their blood-oath to tax lobbyist Grover Norquist — was boiled down to the tangible phrase, repeated six times, "corporate jets."

Good morning

Talks resume at the White House today as President Obama, his fellow Democrats and Republican lawmakers try to strike a deficit-reduction deal that they can sell to rank-and-file members of Congress from both parties. We posted about the latest developments earlier, and we're planning to live-blog at 11 a.m. ET when the president is scheduled to hold a news conference about where things stand.

Rescuers scoured the wide waters of a Volga River reservoir on Monday, searching with dimming hopes for survivors after an aged, overloaded cruise ship sank amid wind and rain. Thirteen people were confirmed dead, but more than 100 remained missing.

The military center that's supposed to lead the effort to find the best ways to diagnose and treat traumatic brain injuries and post traumatic stress disorder is so dysfunctional that it's been hard to carry out its mission, the Government Accountability Office concludes in a new report.

Mark Schmitt, senior fellow at the New America Foundation.

Opinion polls consistently show that the U.S. military is the most trusted institution in America. Republicans have benefited indirectly from that hard-won reputation because since the 1970s they have been seen as the strong, hawkish party, while Democrats have had to fight the stigma that they are weak and dovish. Republicans wouldn't throw away that aura — one of their strongest electoral assets — just to reach a budget deal with President Obama. Or would they?

From The Two-Way:

There will surely be several more "decisive moments" in the seemingly never-ending negotiations between the White House, President Obama's fellow Democrats and Republican leaders over raising the federal debt limit, cutting federal budget deficits and generally putting the nation's fiscal books in order.

The weekend certainly brought its share.

Robert Zeliger is an editor for Foreign Policy.

The implosion of the once mighty tabloid News of the World (NoW) is nothing short of a media tsunami. And the damage doesn't end at Fleet Street — nor even in the halls of the Murdoch News Corp. empire.

It's reaching all the way to 10 Downing Street, where Prime Minister David Cameron is facing a crisis of leadership like none he's experienced so far.

There will surely be several more "decisive moments" in the seemingly never-ending negotiations between the White House, President Obama's fellow Democrats and Republican leaders over raising the federal debt limit, cutting federal budget deficits and generally putting the nation's fiscal books in order.

The weekend certainly brought its share.