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

Tim Pawlenty told ThinkProgress on Saturday that shutting down the federal government is “an option I think Republicans have to consider.” It’s far different rhetoric than what the then-governor offered in 2005 when a budget standoff with the DFL led to the Minnesota’s first and only government shutdown. He said that the shutdown on his watch didn’t have a big impact on the state, but before it happened he warned it’d wreak “havoc” and be “unsettling and unfortunate and inconvenient and problematic” for thousands of Minnesotans. Further, a strategy he now sees as an option for the GOP he characterized as a “cynical political strategy” by the DFL in 2005 — and one that would have effects “far in the future.” Pawlenty spoke with ThinkProgress at the Tea Party Patriots Policy Summit in Arizona on Saturday.

Here’s a glimpse of what it’s like inside a North Korean labor camp -- of the sort that American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee will have to endure now

The bailout bill’s provision capping pay for executives of financially troubled companies is full of loopholes. Legal and political experts say it does little to limit compensation -- even for companies that benefit handsomely from the taxpayers’ generosity.

The longtime CNN anchor has targeted illegal aliens for years now, publicly blaming them for everything from violent crime to failing schools to drug gangs

Sam Stein catches up to the former Attorney General at CPAC: In an interview with the Huffington Post at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the

From Reuters: Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in a U.S. court on criminal charges related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, lost a bid on Monday to

Herman Cain made it very clear how he feels about Occupy Wall Street demonstrators and how they should be handled by the Obama administration and lawmakers. Obama should, according to Cain, “tell them to go home and get a job.” Speaking this week on the Hugh Hewitt radio show, Cain responded to a question on what he would say to the ‘occupy’ demonstrators if given an opportunity.

This morning, amid a women’s health rally in Washington, D.C., hosted by Planned Parenthood, the “Black Genocide” movement made a small appearance in front of House Speaker Rep. John Boehner’s office . # Christian Defense Coalition Director Rev.

A concentrated oil burn in the Gulf of Mexico, conducted in May 2010 (Pic by Deepwater Horizon Response, via Flickr) The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force on Wednesday released its comprehensive preliminary strategy for long-term restoration. Next Tuesday, the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and COMPASS (Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea) will host a roundtable discussion to further delve into the strategy, and discuss what can be done on a policy level. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will be sponsoring the event. According to a press release, the roundtable discussion will address specific scientific and economic issues regarding effective restoration in the Gulf of Mexico, including “What role can science play in identifying what the linked ecological and economic goals of ecosystem recovery are in the Gulf?” “Restoring economic vitality to the Gulf will depend on a foundation of sustained coastal health,” reads a press release for the event

DES MOINES — A bill approved by the U.S. Senate’s education committee will replace No Child Left Behind with legislation that’s less “prescriptive and punitive” and allows school districts more freedom in deciding how best to educate and evaluate children, says U.S

In the wake of last weekend’s spill of around 1,000 barrels of oil into the Yellowstone River in Montana, Rep. Fred Upton’s House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold hearings later this month on pipeline safety.

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., today lauded Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for sticking to his guns on the issue of categorical exclusions that allow oil and gas companies to skirt environmental regulations for drilling operations on federal lands.

At Economist’s View, Mark Thoma brings up a subject no one seems to want to talk about anymore - helping people with modest incomes buy homes. In the housing

Miami-Dade’s legislative delegation yesterday discussed immigration reform — another signal that the controversial issue will be important in Florida’s

Lots of states now employ a system of ballot initiatives, but California’s propositions remain the most visible, often inspiring copycat political action and

If former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former CIA Director Mike Hayden and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan weren’t enough,

A new law would require inmates entering the Michigan Department of Corrections to give a DNA sample when they are first put into the system. Currently inmates have to submit to a DNA sampling upon leaving lockup. The new law would require inmate sampling within the first 90 days of being in the jailhouse, reports Examiner.com

Environmental groups are concerned that the appointment of Rep. Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to the

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a policy watchdog group, has gotten its hands on an early draft of the Democrats’ plans to bailout Detroit’s automakers, and

David Espo of the Associated Press says that the part of President Obama’s jobs bill that includes another extension of federal unemployment benefits is likely to pass the U.S. House while other parts will be shot down. Congress will almost certainly approve the parts of President Barack Obama’s jobs bill that extend the payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits