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The old Florida capitol (Pic by Diligent Terrier, via Wikimedia Commons) On Thursday, legislators learned that Florida could face a $2.25 billion shortfall in 2012, leading Gov. Rick Scott and other legislative leaders to direct state agencies to identify ways to shave 10 percent off their budgets for fiscal year 2012-13. For the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, those cuts could mean eliminating law enforcement positions and reducing the amount of invasive species control

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are set to answer

President Obama’s 2012 campaign has a new senior adviser — and he is a former lobbyist for the Keystone XL pipeline, according to the environmental group Friends of the Earth . The campaign hired Broderick Johnson of the lobbying firm Bryan Cave LLP, which lobbied on behalf of TransCanada, the owners of the proposed pipeline.

“My claim status says my claim is being reviewed, yet no one can tell me when or what stage it is in. If there are 45,000 claims in this stage am I number 15 or 41,000 in the line? one claimant wrote to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.

Don’t miss Wired’s amazing story about an Iraq-stationed Army specialist, Bradley Manning, who was arrested two weeks ago for leaking Wikileaks a gruesome video

Several states — but not New Mexico — have received warnings from the Department of Justice over their medical marijuana programs, leading them to reassess their programs, according to the Associated Press . The “ominous-sounding letters” have gone to the states in recent weeks. The letters — sent to Colorado and Washington , among other states — are perhaps a signal that the federal government is further abandoning its stated hands-off approach to medical marijuana in the states.

Ben Smith calls Judge James Robertson’s memo dismissing Hollister v. Soetoro a birther smackdown, and he’s right. The suit, which — as the more racist

Less than two weeks after Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) became the first Senate Democrat to announce her opposition to the labor-friendly Employee Free Choice

Former New Mexico Republican Gov.

Obama doesn’t care what Arianna Huffington thinks of his decor. Hillary Clinton visits a statue of Bill in Kosovo. Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown disagree on

President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he plans to use an executive order to ease student loan debt for millions of Americans.

How did prison guards at Guantanamo overlook three men hanging from nooses in their cells for more than two hours, in what was supposed to be a super-high

The song and video of O.T.P. - One Term President by Wolverines has been making the rounds -- the fate of all eyebrow-raising conservative rap, I suppose.

Several companies integral to Iowa’s agricultural economy have been named as defendants in a lawsuit brought by three sugar producers who are upset by a new marketing pitch for high-fructose corn syrup that labels the product as “corn sugar.” Those companies named as defendants are Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM), Cargill Inc., Corn Products International Inc., Penford Products Co., Roquette America Inc., Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas Inc. and the companies marketing and lobbying organization, the Corn Refiners Association Inc.

The American Independent is in a period of transition. David Bennahum, CEO and founder of the American Independent News Network (AINN), our parent company,

After following a long road to completion, the GOP’s Pledge to America is finally being announced today in Sterling, Virginia, and almost everybody thinks

At the end of last week, the Obama administration reportedly told Senate Democrats to drop the $50 billion liquidation fund -- often referred to as a bailout

Well, it won’t be all doom and gloom here today. Consumer confidence -- an important bellwether of increasing household spending -- shot up last month. The

Workers protest for the extension of the TANF Emergency Fund. (Flickr/JobsWithJustice)

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) just agreed to postpone committee votes on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan and Deputy Attorney

A local news channel in Atlanta reports that three Teach for America instructors confessed to participating in the district-wide cheating scandal that involved