Bidding an emotional farewell to a huge crowd gathered in The Vatican's St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI indirectly acknowledged Wednesday that his nearly 8 years as head of the Roman Catholic Church have not always been easy.

Gavin Newsom, the two-time mayor of San Francisco, and current Lieutenant Governor of California, believes that government must embrace new technology to remain relevant.

This is the subject of his new book, “Citizenville: How to take the town square digital and reinvent government."

I recently caught up with Newsom to discuss this book, and where he sees the connection between citizen engagement and government efficiency.

Once again, race is front and center at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday. And once again, the bull's eye is the 1965 Voting Rights Act, widely viewed as the most effective and successful civil rights legislation in American history. Upheld five times by the court, the law now appears to be on life support.

Apple has agreed to give out more than $100 million in iTunes store credits to settle a lawsuit that alleged it was allowing children to make in-app purchases without the consent of their parents.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The House budget committee has passed a bill that would help shore up Kentucky's underfunded pension system by relying on gambling revenue.

House Bill 416 would take revenues from expanding Kentucky lottery sales and online games, as well as from Instant Racing—if the state Supreme Court upholds the legality of the game—and move the money to the struggling pension program for state employees.

Hours after being roundly condemned by Democrats and Republicans, a liberal super PAC is apologizing to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's wife for a series of controversial Twitter messages.

The group's Tweets accused former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who was born in Taiwan, of moving American jobs to China and that her "Chinese (money)" was buying state elections.

Critics slammed the comments as racially offensive, and a national backlash against the group was ignited.

Progress Kentucky executive director Shawn Reilly says they remain dedicated to educating voters about McConnell's record, but their messages "included an inappropriate comment on the ethnicity" of the former labor secretary.

"We apologize to the secretary for that unnecessary comment and have deleted the tweets in question. In addition, we have put a review process in place to ensure tweets and other social media communications from Progress Kentucky are reviewed and approved prior to posting," he says.

The state Senate has passed a bill that allows Kentucky military personnel to register to vote and receive ballots electronically—but they'll have to use snail mail to send the ballots back.

Senate President Robert Stivers would allow deployed citizens to register to vote and receive their ballots electronically.

Initially, a floor amendment to the bill would have allowed the military members to return the ballots electronically, but the amendment was withdrawn by sponsor Sen. Kathy Stein, a Lexington Democrat.

Wednesday is International Polar Bear Day, and the Louisville Zoo and WFPL are marking the occasion with a panel discussion about wildlife and climate change. The panelists include:

Update at 5:10 p.m. ET. Hagel Confirmed:

After an unprecedented filibuster by Republicans, the nomination of Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense prevailed, Tuesday afternoon.

With a vote of 58 to 41, the Senate acted mostly along party lines to confirm Hagel.