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The Sunlight Foundation has a rundown of new rules (PDF) the U.S. Department of Justice recently proposed for Freedom of Information Act requests. Key parts

Gov. Rick Perry’s affiliation with the American Family Association for his prayer event next month has already drawn protest plans from several faith-based

Calculated Risk picks up today on an overlooked outrage we’ve been writing about for a while now -- the way banks handle their inventories of foreclosed homes.

The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force yesterday released its comprehensive preliminary strategy for long-term restoration. The strategy, which will be presented to President Obama at the end of a period of public review and feedback, aims to address long-standing issues contributing to the decline of the gulf ecosystem. According to a press release, the strategy “builds upon on-going efforts underway in the Gulf Coast states includes specific steps for on-the-ground action and represents the Task Force’s commitment to putting Gulf coastal restoration on an equal footing with other national priorities.” “Even before last year’s oil spill, the Gulf of Mexico endured decades of decline that threatened the environmental and economic health of this region

A group of 28 scientists from 22 universities have sent a letter to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu criticizing his picks for a DOE panel that is studying the safety and promise of hydrofracking, saying that the board is heavily tilted toward gas industry interests. The letter follows a similar letter sent to Chu on July 13 by 109 community and environmental organizations that also criticized the one-sided composition of the panel

Arizona voters, polled after last week’s election, said they voted to recall Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce because of his divisiveness and because they want Arizona’s legislature to focus more on the economy and job creation and less on immigration. “Our research clearly shows that Arizona voters want their politicians to work together to focus on practical solutions for improving the state’s economy,” said Jill Hanauer, President of Project New West , which conducted the poll. “Russell Pearce’s decision to focus on extremist immigration policies played a role in his defeat, and could do so for more Arizona Republicans if they continue to ignore the priorities of voters.” Among voters who did not support Pearce, 38 percent cited either his divisiveness, fanaticism, rigid ideology, or issue platforms

In a surprise, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided to call today’s vote to end debate on Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) just announced that she will block the nomination of Jack Lew to be the Obama Administration’s new Office of Management and Budget

Via Wonkette, which is going to war against a PUMA (the Party Unity My Ass anti-Obama Democrats) blog, I see that Harriet Christian wants to be appointed to

Oh, Daphne. How right you were. How wrong this post was. Julian Barnes at The Los Angeles Times reports: The Obama administration will announce Friday that it

Senator-elect Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is among the most forthright of conservative deficit hawks when it comes to straight talk about cutting spending, but in his

Fresh out from the Department of Defense: word of the first units deployed to Afghanistan as part of the extended surge. It’s a whole lot of Marines and the

James Bopp, Jr., the conservative First Amendment lawyer who argued Citizens United and is also representing the National Organization for Marriage in a number

The governor of Nebraska said Monday that he will call a special session of the Nebraska legislature to take up the matter of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would cut through that state and cross over the Ogalala aquifer, which supplies nearly all the fresh water for the state.

Bowing to the banking industry, House Democrats yesterday weakened legislation empowering bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of primary mortgages to prevent

One year and one day after the Bush administration first offered to rescue GMAC, the Obama White House has announced a $3.8 billion bailout for the struggling

Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- currently in the lead, according to Gallup, to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012 -- signed (PDF) on Wednesday the Susan

The state of Ohio is moving toward implementing regulations on the air pollution caused by the practice of hydrofracking to mine natural gas deposits deep within the earth. Companies drilling for oil and natural gas in shale formations in Ohio might soon face air pollution limits on new wells. The practice of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in pursuit of gas can require multiple wells on a single site, creating a concentration of equipment that can leak hazardous airborne compounds, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

The 2012 ballot isn’t the only place where a raging debate on same-sex marriage is taking place in Minnesota. Three same-sex couples filed an appeal in July in their bid to overturn Minnesota’s Defense of Marriage Act, and groups on both sides of the issue have filed paperwork with the court offering strongly worded arguments on the issue of marriage equality. A Hennepin County district court judge dismissed a suit by the couples — Duane Gajewski and Doug Benson, Lindzi Campbell and Jesse Dykhuis, John Rittman and Tom Trisko– in March.

Former Denver Post editor Gil Spencer died in New York this morning at the age of 85.

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (Pic by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons ) GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s recent call for a humane path to immigration enforcement makes him the most recent conservative voice calling for solutions that encompass something more than the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Color Lines , a daily news site “in service to racial justice ,” writes today that Gingrich’s”remarks were a reminder of how far the right has moved on immigration, and how twisted the immigration debate has become for both parties. It’s too soon to say, but Gingrich’s remarks could be a sign that Republicans are ready to heed growing calls from within their own party to temper the anti-immigrant rhetoric and stop alienating Latino voters.” At last week’s CNN GOP presidential debate focused on national security, Gingrich said, “I don’t see how the — the party that says it’s the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century.

According to a new international report, the United States is falling behind most of the developed world in the well-being of mothers and children. The U.S. was ranked 31 out 164.