Breaking News

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick (Pic by MilitaryHealth, via Flickr) Kaiser Health News reports that states all over the country, including Florida, are moving toward Medicaid managed care and are looking “to private health plans for help closing budget gaps.” According to Kaiser : State officials expect the trend to continue in the state-federal program for the poor, according to a survey released today by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. Officials in 27 states (of 45 responding) reported that they expect to lean more heavily on managed care in the near future. Ten states, including California, Florida and Texas reported that they have specific plans to expand managed care to new geographic areas or groups of patients, such as the elderly

Senator Michael Bennet today signed on as a co-sponsor of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

While it might seem logical, given the nation’s latest job numbers, that when Congress returns after an August recess its members will be focused on the economy, unemployment and the national deficit, at least one federal lawmaker from California is hoping to switch the conversation to gays and lesbians in the military. Duncan Hunter U.S

In the fall of 2009, a Cotter Corp. representative attended a Montrose County hearing on the proposed Piñon Ridge uranium mill in the Paradox Valley, asking officials to approve the facility so that mines his company still owns and operates in western Colorado will have a much closer processing facility. Now the General Atomics subsidiary is being held up as the poster child for improper toxic waste storage, overly cozy relationships with state regulators, and a culture of delay and litigation that has stymied cleanup efforts at its defunct Cotter Mill near Cañon City

Togo West and Vernon Clark, the co-chairmen of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s Fort Hood commission, have been beaten up all morning in the Senate Armed

In a letter released today, the Senate Ethics Committee admonished Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) for actions and statements reflecting unfavorably upon the

Gov. Rick Scott (left) with Florida Senate President-Designate Don Gaetz, R-Destin (Pic via flgov.com) The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports today that an immigration enforcement bill is one of several items Gov. Rick Scott has on his “controversial legislative agenda.” The Sentinel adds that during the 2011 legislative session, “Scott and the House wanted to require companies to use the federal E-Verify program to check employees’ immigration status and require cops to check the legal status of anyone being investigated for a crime.” Scott recently said at RedState Gathering 2011, an event for conservative politicians and organizations, that he “tried to get an bill passed last year.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hasner appeared on a Sarasota conservative talk show today, echoing previous comments on the dangers of Sharia in the Sunshine State by saying there is a “civilizational jihad” underway across the country and in Florida. Audio after the jump

Eugene Volokh points out an interesting feature on the website of the Public Advocate for the City of New York: a list of major corporations’ stands on using

The original Deepwater Horizon fire (Pic by Deepwater Horizon Response, via Flickr) A new report issued by The National Academy of Engineering , a government-created nonprofit, concludes that the lack of regulation and ineffective safety management practices that led to BP’s catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have not been fully remedied — leaving communities in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and Louisiana potentially vulnerable to another oil spill. The blowout and explosion of BP’s Macondo well killed 11 workers and led to the largest oil spill in U.S

In the heated race for Colorado Republican Party chair last month, GOP legal counsel Ryan Call won in an unexpectedly lopsided first-round vote. High-profile party figures like Attorney General John Suthers and state Senator Shawn Mitchell said they endorsed Call because he was the kind of down-the-middle conservative the party needed to attract moderate and independent voters. On Wednesday, Call hosted his first major Party function.

As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to speak to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, TWI is publishing a trove of photographs documenting the summer’s uprising against the disputed election has emerged, thanks to a dedicated network of digital smuggling.

It’s all but official now that Democrats won’t reach 60 votes on today’s cloture vote on the DISCLOSE Act. Fox News reported that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)

Mac and Lynne Hammond; Source: LWCC.org Pastor Mac Hammond announced Sunday that he has been asked to join Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign as the chairman of her national Faith and Family Council.

The first GOP presidential primary debate is behind us.

A screenshot from the new video. The presidential campaign of U.S. Rep.

The House Republican leadership says it will delay approving the creation of a statewide health insurance exchange, in part to await the outcome of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of the health care reform law which mandates the creation of the exchanges. Rep

The Connecticut independent’s support for the Iraq war and his tireless campaigning for McCain made a lot of enemies in his former party. But when Democrats are close to a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, bygones will be bygones.