The scandal involving General David Petraeus, his lover Paula Broadwell, and the woman vying for his attention, Jill Kelley has expanded into a sort of love pentagon. Elisabeth Bumiller is a Pentagon correspondent for our partner The New York Times, and Thom Shanker, is The Times' Pentagon and national security correspondent.

The big issue facing Congress as it gets back to work is the so-called 'fiscal cliff.' To that extent, nothing is going to get much of a look in unless a deal is reached on a range of laws which, if unchanged by the end of the year, will result in tax increases and massive spending cuts. Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, explains.

Newly passed ballot initiatives in Colorado and Washington decriminalize the use of recreational marijuana — and raise a host of complicated legal questions. Kevin Sabet, former senior adviser to the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, explains some of the conflicts the new legislation poses.

The legalization of recreational marijuana use in Washington and Colorado has raised a number of big questions about the social, legal, and economic implications. What are people saying on the ground in these states? And how has this change already altered attitudes toward marijuana? Dominic Holden a newsweekly editor in Seattle, and Bonnie Dahl, a head ship owner, explain.

Yesterday, it came to light that Kevin Clash, the Sesame Street muppet captain who’s played Elmo for nearly thirty years, was accused of having a relationship with a sixteen-year-old. Clash admits to a prior relationship with the accuser, but insists it was consensual, and when the accuser was of age. He is taking a brief leave of absence from Sesame Street to deal with the accusations. Mark Sussman, a puppeteer and professor at Concordia University in Montreal, explains the impact of the accusations.

Apart from a question on assault weapons in the second presidential debate, President Obama and Mitt Romney rarely discussed gun rights or gun control in the 2012 campaign. Despite the lack of presidential rhetoric on the issue, the gun control and gun rights debate continues, especially in the wake of the Aurora shooting last July. Will conservatives and liberals ever find common ground on gun control? Author Craig R. Whitney says yes, and explains how in his new book, "Living with Guns: A Liberal's Case for the Second Amendment."

Kid Rock shot to fame in the late 90s with hits like "Bawitaba" from his album "Devil Without a Cause," winning fans with a sound somewhere between country and hip hop. Kelefa Sanneh recently followed Kid Rock to a football game, a barbecue, and into the recording studio and wrote a lengthy profile of the musician in this week’s New Yorker.