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Billions of dollars of stimulus funds created in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act remain in state coffers, Alec MacGillis reports at The

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sent a special investigation team to Entergy’s Palisades nuclear power plant to examine the circumstances around the plant’s latest unplanned shutdown. Palisades 798 MW pressurized water reactor, located about 70 miles southwest of Grand Rapids on Lake Michigan, abruptly powered down on Sunday night when an electrical malfunction took out the power supply to several safety-related valves and switches. “The issue involved plant workers who were performing maintenance activities on an electrical panel when a small metal piece located inside the breaker panel came into contact with another metal piece and caused an arc,” the NRC said Wednesday.

Maybe there’s a way to reduce our gasoline consumption without buying everyone a Prius after all. The Department of Transportation issued new fuel economy

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney plans to forgo the Ames Straw Poll, a political event and Iowa GOP fundraiser that has been previously used to measure grassroots candidate support. During the 2008 presidential contests, the Romney campaign spent in excess of $1 million to claim straw poll victory

The American Civil Liberties Union just won a court order against Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona, who was illegally pre-charging female prisoners hundreds of

Brazen: Deputy Mayor Azizullah Yarmal walked into a mosque in central Kandahar, turned toward Mecca and began to pray to Allah. As he reached the point where

Cue the OH NOES. From Defense Secretary Bob Gates’ testimony on the defense budget today: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates suggested on Thursday that as many

Writing at Slate, Daniel Gross wonders why Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke doesn’t seem to care much about high unemployment: In a speech earlier this month,

Dodd’s financial reform bill centers on a powerful Federal Reserve. For-profits play a major role in earmarks despite restrictions. Ensign’s scandal has

Peter Bergen, the only western reporter to have interviewed Osama bin Laden, reads my post about Obama’s rendition hints and emails: I think the situation

Three veteran FBI interrogators, concerned by Attorney General Eric Holder’s proposal to expand the public safety exceptions in the Miranda warning during

<p>&quot;Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman is the Senate co-sponsor of a little-noticed <a id="xf7r"

The Obama administration has proposed cutting funding for programs that go directly to senior services in the 2012 proposed budget, meaning many older Americans

Latino students in Texas still lag behind their Anglo peers in several important measures involving college completion, according to a new report from a

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded Florida about $1.8 million to help the state sign up more children for health insurance.

An omnibus bill drafted by Legislative Republicans was greatly denounced Tuesday at a public hearing on the eve of the Iowa House’s debate on it. In a two-hour public hearing in the Iowa House chamber, representatives heard mostly pleas from individuals and groups who do not want to see cuts or reduced spending on education, tobacco use prevention and the Health and Human Services budget. The omnibus bill wraps several pieces of legislation into a two-year budget proposal

I just chatted with Raymond Denny, the 64-year-old La Center, Wash., man who received the RNC’s 2009 Future of American Health Survey, which alleged that

The $600 million border security bill signed into law by Obama last week is fully funded through a hike to visa fees for companies that send large numbers of

With home prices spiraling down, the foreclosure crisis spreading and Wall Street paralyzed by a credit crunch, the once-unthinkable notion of a big

No. But the idea is out there. Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas) has proposed requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to verify that everyone receiving a home loan

Advocates of comprehensive immigration reform argue it could reduce the flow of illegal immigration. How? One suggestion is to reform the legal immigration

Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford ruled today that the process by which the Florida Legislature pushed through a plan to privatize prisons in 18 counties was unconstitutional, writing that the Department of Corrections “proceeded without statutory authority and contrary to statutory authority” by implementing the plan. The lawsuit was filed by the Police Benevolent Association, a union that represents corrections officers and prison guards. The Florida Independent’s Travis Pillow outlined the argument behind the union’s lawsuit last month: The union has long questioned the financial benefits of privatization and the calculus behind the 7 percent savings mandated by Florida statutes.