The Supreme Court could rule this week on a wrenching adoption case that sent a baby girl back to her biological father after she spent the first 27 months of her life with an adopted family because she is 3/256 parts Cherokee.

The race for Virginia’s lieutenant governor draws mostly yawns, even in Virginia, because the office is largely symbolic, with a limited ability to affect legislation. Candidates often have their eye on the governor’s chair.

President Barack Obama promised to run the most “open” and “transparent” administration in history, but his administration has developed a reputation for investigating leaks far more aggressively than even the Bush administration. President Obama admitted last month that since 2009, his administration has filed six criminal prosecutions for leaks under the 1917 Espionage Act, which was designed to punish spies and traitors, not whistleblowers. That’s double the number of all other administrations combined.

Colleges and universities across the country could soon be forced to adopt a definition of “sexual harassment” so broad critics say it leaves almost every student vulnerable to punishment and violates their First Amendment rights.

Rejecting calls for the GOP to be more “moderate” after the party's poor showing in the 2012 presidential election, Virginia Republicans nominated on Saturday in Richmond a trio of very conservative candidates. Heading the GOP’s ticket this fall are current Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli for governor, state Sen. Mark Obenshain for attorney general, and Chesapeake minister Bishop E.W. Jackson for lieutenant governor.

They begin a statewide three-day campaign tour today.

The gap between the sticker price for private college tuition and what students actually pay has hit a record high, according to a new study, suggesting that private colleges are losing the ability to raise prices at will after years of steady increases that vastly outpaced inflation.

The Virginia Board of Health voted 11-2 last month to finalize regulations requiring abortion centers in the state to adhere to the same health and architectural standards as new outpatient surgical centers.

Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell is expected to sign off on the regulations, which the state legislature originally passed in 2011. The finalization was delayed by a two-year process that saw the Board of Health reverse itself twice.