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In the wake of the Great Depression, a Congressional panel known as the Pecora Commission investigated Wall Street’s actions and set the stage for financial

New unemployment claims this week dropped to 409,000 according to the latest Department of Labor report , but that’s still too high to allow any serious progress in reducing the unemployment rate. The four-week average of 439,000 is the highest since November of last year.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum , of Pennsylvania, will seek the White House in 2012, he announced this morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Perhaps channeling 2008 Hillary Clinton in Des Moines, Santorum said, “We’re going to be in this race and we’re in it to win it,” before launching into extensive criticism of President Barack Obama on foreign policy.

In his first interview since being appointed to lead the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, Herschel Vinyard spoke with The Florida Current about some of Florida’s more controversial proposals, including a stricter set of water pollution standards and a plan that would privatize portions of some Florida state parks.

Megan pointed this out more than a week ago, but today the editorialists at The New York Times are also highlighting the central flaw of the updated foreclosure

This statement just came out from President Obama: Today marks the eleventh Anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya

Another oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. The New York Times reports that the rig is just east of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded in

I’ve cooled off on the birther movement after the forged Kenyan birth certificate debacle killed a lot of their enthusiasm. And one fringe benefit of the

The massive protests at the White House in opposition to the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline continued on Tuesday with 60 people, including actress Margot Kidder, being arrested and taken to jail. The Huffington Post did a video report from the site of the protests, including an interview with protest organizer Bill McKibben.

The Home Affordable Modification Program, HAMP, continues to sputter, converting 26.7 percent fewer trial modifications into permanent modifications in

Erick Erickson (whom, full disclosure, I’d asked about the story earlier today) posts a scorching attack on next month’s Tea Party Convention in Nashville,

A new Greenpeace report finds that the Koch Brothers, via their PAC, contributed $2.51 million since the beginning of the 2006 election cycle to lawmakers’

A report by the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor found a number of problems with the state Pollution Control Agency’s accounting systems, including neglecting to scrub banking data that auditors said could be used to commit fraud.

Following scant debate, the Senate last week approved an amendment to an Indian health care bill that would permanently prohibit the use of federal dollars

Speaking of the Afghan election, Brian Katulis, a foreign policy analyst with the Center for American Progress, is in Kabul to observe the vote, and Politico

A former minister in the reformist government of Mohammed Khatami just posted on Mir Hossein Moussavi’s Website -- which I suppose is unblocked for the moment

Author Frank Schaeffer told MSNBC on Wednesday that Michele Bachmann’s beliefs will be a liability for her with the general public if she gets the GOP nomination in 2012. And Schaeffer knows something about where Bachmann stands: His father, Dr

A representative of an organization whose research on oil shale production has been cited for years testified before Congress Friday that “decisions made by the federal government may have a profound impact on the residents in the northwestern quarter of Colorado …” James T. Bartis of the RAND Corporation testified on Friday (pdf) before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power. He was asked to speak to the alternative fuel provisions in HR 909, the “Roadmap for America’s Energy Future” bill sponsored by Devin Nunes, R-Calif

Rep.

Responding to a Florida Independent report on Florida resident and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s upcoming fundraiser for an anti-abortion group that likens Planned Parenthood’s work to genocide, U.S.