Breaking News

The Florida Department of Children and Families testified before a state House committee Tuesday about the implementation of new drug screening requirements placed on Temporary Assistance for Need Families (aka TANF) applicants. So far, the department reports that about 2.7 percent of temporary assistance applicants were denied because they tested positive for illegal drug use. Pete Digre, who briefed the committee on behalf of the department, said that “very, very few people are testing positive.” Digre told the committee that one of the more interesting numbers the department has seen so far was the 563 applicants who started an application but failed to “show up” for the drug test. Some members of the committee alluded to the possibility that this meant the law was deterring drug users from applying for cash assistance

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (Pic by US Mission Geneva, via Flickr) A women’s health advocacy group plans to reopen a legal fight to challenge the federal government’s decision to overrule a request from the FDA to expand access to the morning after pill, also called Plan B, to women under the age of 17. Since U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced her decision , reproductive health advocates have expressed disappointment and claim that the decision was based on political calculations, and not on scientific research

Via Dave Weigel, FreedomWorks (which he terms the most media-savvy of the Tea Party groups) is stepping up its own efforts to pressure Republican senators to

Last week I urged people to watch Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Reps. David Obey (D-Wis.) and Jack Murtha (D-Pa) for barometric

The Washington Post has an interview with Attorney General Eric Holder in which Holder, for the first time, appears to give himself breathing room to abandon

<p>Here’s an environmentally-friendly way to keep out the aliens, harking back to the days of medieval castles: build a moat. <br

Former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, appearing on Bryan Fischer’s radio program on Wednesday to talk up his new book, said that if he’s elected president, he’ll reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers. Fischer works for the American Family Association, a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center named a hate group in November for spreading falsehoods about Muslim and LGBT Americans

Just posted to the Senate’s site: 20 Democrats -- mostly from rural, low-population states -- voted in favor of the gun amendment. Two Republicans, Sens. George

Yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama went after subsidies to wealthy farmers as a prime example of the abusive federal spending he hopes to rein in from

The district is the sort of largely white, largely pro-life, conservative area where reporters once found Reagan Democrats, and the sort that needs to flip if Republicans are to take back the House.

Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, will leave the Obama administration in July, making him the first cabinet-level

Former GOP Arkansas governor, Fox News host and presumed presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is in Israel and he tweets: I’ll be in Israel this week and touring

Following former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s endorsement of Mitt Romney for president, the Romney campaign has said it’s willing to contribute fundraising muscle to pay down Pawlenty’s campaign debt.

Laura Rozen at Politico beat me to this, but today Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released letters he sent to

Over the past year, Democrats in Congress have fought three times to reauthorize federally extended unemployment benefits, which provide up to 99 weeks of

Late in 2008, Mike McConnell, then the director of national intelligence, issued a directive instructing CIA officials at overseas outposts directly responsible

I’ve been unable to use Twitter all day, and I’ve foolishly blamed it on a DNS attack. Fred Thompson has another theory: Thompson, the former