President Barack Obama declared Friday that Sony “made a mistake” in shelving a satirical film about a plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader, and he pledged the U.S. would respond “in a place and manner and time that we choose” to the hacking attack on Sony that led to the withdrawal.

When the CIA sought permission to use harsh interrogation methods on a captured al-Qaida operative, the response from Bush administration lawyers was encouraging, even clinical.

New racial profiling guidelines being announced by the Obama administration would restrict the ability of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to take into account religion, national origin and other characteristics during investigations.

The grand jury that declined to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson was focused on whether he might have acted in self-defense when he shot and killed unarmed, 18-year-old Michael Brown.

A Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict a policeman for the killing of Michael Brown illustrates the difficulty of bringing criminal charges against officers in fatal shootings and points to the likelihood of a similar outcome for a federal civil rights probe of the case.

As local authorities in Missouri near the end of their investigation in the Ferguson shooting, a broader federal civil rights review could hold a greater potential to refashion the police department and bring long-lasting change.