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• On Tuesday, there was Weiner again, making a public mea culpa for a newfound sexting scandal that erupted amid the mayoral run he hopes will rewrite his political future. But the Democrat was there to stay in, not bow out -- and Abedin was by his side.
• "I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him," and the sexting matter is "between us," she said, a message that could prove important to shaping voters' views as they digest his latest admission.
• After the gossip website The Dirty posted X-rated text messages and a crotch shot that it said the former congressman exchanged with an unidentified woman, Weiner acknowledged sending such messages as recently as last summer, more than a year after he resigned from the House because of similar behavior with at least a half-dozen women. With Abedin smiling at his side, he said at a news conference that "this is entirely behind me," and both made it clear they were moving ahead with his campaign.
• "I want to bring my vision to the people of the city of New York. I hope they are willing to still continue to give me a second chance," a collected Weiner said. Then he went on to talk policy at a candidate forum on gay men's issues, where he was warmly received.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House and congressional backers of the National Security Agency's surveillance program warn that ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack.
• With a high-stakes showdown vote looming in the House, White House press secretary Jay Carney issued an unusual, nighttime statement on the eve of Wednesday's vote. The measure by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., would cancel statutory authority for the secret program, a move that Carney contended would "hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism tools."
• Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, made a last-minute trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to reject the measure in separate, closed-door sessions with Republicans and Democrats. Seven Republican committee chairmen issued a similar plea in a widely circulated letter to their colleagues.
• An unlikely coalition of libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats

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