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The National Park Service and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) have announced a new partnership to construct the nation's first bicycle High Occupancy/Toll Express Lanes on the Mount Vernon Trail between Rosslyn and Mount Vernon.

Full title: Trump Lead Grows Nationally; 41% of His Voters Want to Bomb Country From Aladdin; Clinton Maintains Big Lead PPP's newest national Republican primary poll finds Donald Trump holding his largest lead yet in the wake of Tuesday night's debate. He's at 34% to 18% for Ted Cruz, 13% for Marco Rubio, 7% for Jeb Bush, 6% for Ben Carson, 5% for Chris Christie, 4% each for Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee, 2% each for John Kasich and Rand Paul, 1% each for Lindsey Graham and Rick Santorum, and less than 1% each for Jim Gilmore and George Pataki...

Almost one-third of Republican primary voters would support bombing the fictional kingdom of Agrabah, according to a report released by Public Policy Polling on Friday. In its poll, Public Policy Polling asked the 532 Republicans: “Would you support or oppose bombing Agrabah?” While 57% of responders said they were not sure, 30% said they supported bombing it. Only 13% opposed it.

PPP (D) 2016 GOP Nomination Poll Donald Trump 34% {26%} [27%] (29%) {19%}Ted Cruz 18% {14%} [7%] (6%) {4%} [8%] (10%) {16%} [5%] (9%) Marco Rubio 13% {13%} [13%] (7%) {10%} [13%] (13%) {6%} [3%]  Jeb Bush 7% {5%} [10%] (9%) {12%} [15%] (11%) {17%} [17%] (17%) Ben Carson 6% {19%} [17%] (15%) {10%} [12%] (12%) {10%} [18%] (15%) Chris Christie 5% {3%} [2%] (2%) {3%} [4%] (5%) {4%} [5%] (7%) Carly Fiorina 4% {4%} [6%] (8%) {4%} [5%]  Mike Huckabee 4% {4%} [4%] (5%) {8%} [11%] (12%) {6%} [10%] (9%) John Kasich 2% {3%} [4%] (6%) {3%} Rand Paul...

National Survey Results.

According to a new poll by Public Policy Polling, Donald Trump continues to be the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. The billionaire businessman has 26% support among Republican voters. He's followed by retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson with 19%. In PPP's last poll from early October, Carson had 17% and Trump 27%. This is a positive development for those who want Trump to fail, but it's a far cry from the inevitable Trump collapse many experts predict. If one thing is clear, it's that he certainly has staying power. That doesn't mean he will actually win, but he certainly has a...

The only one of the declared presidential candidates that Americans have positive feelings for overall isn’t a frontrunner and has never held public office before. According to a poll released Thursday by Public Policy Polling, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson is the sole presidential candidate whose favorability rating is higher than his or her unfavorability rating. When asked about Carson, 41 percent of the respondents in the national poll reported that they felt favorably about him, compared to 30 percent who have an unfavorable view. That puts him well ahead of all the other candidates in the field, though 29 percent...

Tonight, Public Policy Polling gave the Rachel Maddow Show a sneak peek at their results of their August 28-30 poll to be released tomorrow. While the findings at the top of the poll are what we've come to expect from the Republican field - Donald Trump and Ben Carson - securing the top spots - what is more surprising is to find beltway-favored candidates Chris Christie and Rand Paul floundering at the bottom with barely any support. The poll also shows the tea party character of the Republican Party, with strong birther views and a dubious grasp of some key...

... A new survey from Public Policy Polling finds that one-third of Republicans believe the Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theory that “the government is trying to take over Texas,” and another 28 percent of GOP voters haven’t made up their minds yet about the matter ...

PPP's newest Republican national poll finds that Ted Cruz has the big momentum following the official announcement of his candidacy last week. His support has increased from 5% to 16% in just over a month, enough to make him one of three candidates in the top tier of GOP contenders, along with Scott Walker and Jeb Bush. Walker continues to lead the field with 20%, although that's down from his 25% standing a month ago. Bush continues to poll at 17%, followed by Cruz at 16%, Ben Carson and Rand Paul at 10%, Marco Rubio and Mike Huckabee at 6%,...

Mitt Romney’s not running for President again, telling supporters that it’s time for the Republican Party to look to other leaders for its future. Democrats may wonder whether they have to tell Hillary Clinton the same thing. In a PPP poll taken this week, Hillary Clinton can’t get to 50% against any Republican challenger paired against her, even Romney: The automated poll of nearly 900 registered voters, conducted last week by Public Policy Polling, found that 48 percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, compared to 43 percent who viewed the former secretary of State favorably.While Clinton...

PPP's newest North Carolina poll finds Kay Hagan continuing to grow her lead over Thom Tillis as the legislative session drags on. Hagan now has 41% to 34% for Tillis and 8% for Libertarian Sean Haugh. Her lead is up from 2 points in May and 5 points in June. The protracted legislative session with Tillis at the helm of it can't be doing him any favors. Only 19% of voters approve of the job the General Assembly is doing to 57% who disapprove, and legislative Republicans specifically have a 31/52 favorability rating. Those things are working together to help...

Opponents of immigration reform seized on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s shocking primary defeat Tuesday night as a clear referendum against a sweeping overhaul – particularly one that includes so-called “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants. Not so fast – at least according to one new poll. Democrats are making the case that it was Cantor himself – not immigration – that dealt a powerful blow to the one-time rising Republican star’s political career. And they are releasing new data on Wednesday to back up their argument. About 72 percent of registered voters in Cantor’s district polled on Tuesday said they either...

It looks like Michigan will remain solidly in the blue column if Hillary Clinton runs for President in 2016. She leads her potential Republican opponents in the state by anywhere from 9 to 12 points: it's 46/37 over Chris Christie, 48/39 over Rand Paul, 49/38 over Jeb Bush, and 50/38 over Mike Huckabee. Republicans are split a lot of different ways when it comes to who they'd like as their nominee in 2016. 16% want Rand Paul, 15% each support Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee, 11% are for Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush is at 9%, Paul Ryan and Scott Walker...

Conservative Republicans are not happy with Sen. Lindsey Graham’s liberal voting record. Monday night, Lexington County GOP voted overwhelmingly to censure Lindsey Graham on 29 counts of violating the SC GOP party platform. See resolution here. Passing a censure resolution to rebuke the Senator for abandoning the Party’s platform hasn’t been easy though.

PPP's newest Colorado poll finds that the Senate race remains very competitive, although not that much closer with Cory Gardner in the race than it was with Ken Buck. Our last poll of the state, in early December, found Mark Udall leading Buck by 4 points. Udall starts out with a 2 point lead over Cory Gardner at 42/40. Gardner starts out the race with just under 50% name recognition, and voters with an opinion about him are pretty evenly divided. The close division mirrors how voters feel about Udall's job performance- 41% approve and 40% disapprove of him, almost...

CVS Caremark is kicking the habit of selling tobacco products at its more than 7,600 drugstores nationwide as it focuses more on providing health care. The nation's second-largest drugstore chain said Wednesday that it will phase out cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco by Oct. 1, a move that will cost about $2 billion in annual revenue but won't affect its 2014 earnings forecast. CVS Caremark leaders say removing tobacco will help them grow the company's business of working with doctors, hospitals and other care providers to improve customers' health.

PPP’s newest national survey finds that in the wake of the shutdown, Republican voters now view Ted Cruz as their party’s leader. 21% picked Cruz to 17% for Chris Christie, and 15% for John Boehner. Cruz finished well ahead of the other GOP Senators we tested- Rand Paul got 9%, John McCain 7%, and Mitch McConnell only 4%. Mitt Romney at 8% and Sarah Palin at 4% were the other people we tested. Numbers PPP will release next week show Ted Cruz would be an exceedingly weak Presidential candidate in the general election. The good news for the GOP is...

Public Policy Polling is the latest to take the temperature of 2013′s only competitive gubernatorial race, and by their measure, Democrat Terry McAuliffe currently has a four-point lead over Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, via Politico: The survey by Democratic firm Public Policy Polling has McAuliffe at 41 percent, compared with 37 percent for Cuccinelli and 7 percent for libertarian candidate Robert Sarvis. Fifteen percent said they’re undecided.McAuliffe also leads among self-described independents, 40 percent to 33 percent. Twenty percent of independents are undecided.The poll, shared early with POLITICO, also finds both McAuliffe and Cuccinelli with underwater favorability ratings: 32 percent...

PPP's final poll of the special election in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District finds a race that's too close to call, with Republican Mark Sanford leading Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch 47-46. The 1 point lead for Sanford represents a 10 point reversal from PPP's poll of the race two weeks ago, when Colbert Busch led by 9 points at 50-41. Sanford has gotten back into the race by nationalizing it and painting Colbert Busch as a liberal. A plurality of voters in the district- 47%- say they think Colbert Busch is a liberal compared to 43% who characterize her as...