Breaking News

While Republicans and Democrats in Congress wrangle over a continuing resolution to keep the federal government working, HIV/AIDS activists are bracing for cuts and discussing president Obama’s proposed 2012 budget. # An AIDS Institute press release this week praised Obama’s plan: # The budget President Obama proposed yesterday for fiscal year 2012 maintains his Administration’s commitment to domestic and global HIV/AIDS programs, and proposes increases for domestic AIDS medications and HIV prevention, along with research at the National Institutes of Health

Six GOP presidential candidates will clash Wednesday afternoon in a first-of-its-kind Twitter debate hosted by a national tea party organization. Participating candidates are U.S

Republicans in the Minnesota Senate introduced three bills on Tuesday that aim to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage before voters in 2012. Minnesota law already outlaws same-sex marriage

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that a Las Cruces woman received a bill for $1,122 from Memorial Medical Center for a cavity body search ordered by the Metro Narcotics Agency that turned up no illegal substances. A “reliable source” told the agency that the woman, who has no criminal record in New Mexico, was concealing up to an ounce of heroin.

Religious conservatives reacted sharply to a vote Friday night in the New York Senate to legalize gay marriage. The National Organization for Marriage pledged

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) just gave Eric Holder the chance to preempt the minority questions on Marc Rich, and I think this quote sums up what his talking

It has been a big year for Indiana’s war against abortion. # At the center of attention has been the state’s plan to defund Planned Parenthood , a chain of women’s health clinics, because some of the clinics provide abortion services. The state is now in embroiled in a legislative battle involving the federal government .

Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning took to the airwaves Friday, continuing his defense of a controversial elections bill signed Thursday by Gov. Rick Scott. # During a morning show appearance on WFLA Radio in Tallahassee , he said the measure “does not do anything to truncate” voter registration activities.

Here’s a quick wrap-up of today’s health care news. The White House says that Sen. Mike Enzi’s (R-Wyo.) comments on health care reform might mean the now

Mark Leon Goldberg has a wonderful Daily Beast piece about the Haiti that the U.S. rarely sees: the functioning society that arduously got built in the 1990s

The Senate finance panel just shot down an amendment to the committee’s health reform bill that would have required beneficiaries of Medicaid and the Children’s

The so-called Oracle of Omaha largely shifted the blame from himself and Moody’s, in which Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is a major stakeholder.

Though Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and his supporters were unsuccessful in stripping Planned Parenthood Federation of America of federal funds that go to

Writing in The Hill earlier this week, U.S. Senator and former DPS superintendent Michael Bennet issued a call for education reform. To his voice, we add that of renowned scholar Ken Robinson , who calls for an absolute re-thinking of how we educate kids

2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Pic by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr) Though GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has caught flack for apparent flip-flops on abortion issues, perhaps none are quite as critical of him as “fetal personhood” supporters. The “personhood” movement wants governments to legally define a human being from the moment of conception, and Keith Mason, the head of Personhood USA, is saying that Romney should clarify his stance on the issue. The “Personhood” movement is controversial because of its vague nature

Minnesota House Republicans invited anti-gay preacher Bradlee Dean of You Can Run But You Cannot Hide to give the morning prayer. The prayer was so offensive to many legislators that House leadership brought in the chaplain to redo the prayer. Dean has made many controversial statements as pastor of You Can Run, including advocating the incarceration of gays and lesbians, that the LGBT community is trying to usher in Sharia law in Minnesota , that gay men molest an average of 117 children “before they get caught,” and that Muslim nations that execute gays are more moral than American Christians .

It is my country’s duty to ask for the custody of our detainees, like every country would do, the Yemeni official told TWI.

LEESBURG, Va. -- I’m on the idling Palin press bus, getting ready to head out on a swing through the state and then on to Pennsylvania tonight. Sitting here

Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala, has been playing defense lately. A recent water pollution hearing he sponsored in Orlando has been subject to scrutiny, mainly because he invited a slew of agriculture and industrial interests to testify, and only one environmental advocate (who was invited at the last minute).

House Speaker Ben Luján sent a letter to Democratic and Republican leaders Tuesday outlining plans to form a subcommittee during the special session to investigate allegations against PRC Commissioner Jerome Block, Jr., which would ultimately decide whether to recommend impeachment for the full House. The process of impeachment is just like it is at the federal level: It requires a majority vote in the House and a two-thirds majority in the Senate. Meanwhile, Democrat Brad Gallegos announced his candidacy for Block’s seat on the PRC, bringing the total number of announced Democratic challengers against Block to five.