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New Mexico is one of four states, and the District of Columbia, that cut Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) block grant money, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities . The cuts “will carry a heavy human cost,” the policy organization reports. New Mexico has cut the TANF benefits from $447 per month for a family of three to $380 per month, or 15 percent

In an August 2001 speech given during a border summit, Gov. Rick Perry delivered a stirring endorsement of a law that passed through the Texas Legislature

“The turnaround has been insufficient, Christina Romer, the exiting chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, said this week. The economy is growing, but not fast enough to create the hundreds of thousands of jobs each month needed to return employment to its pre-crisis level.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., are cosponsoring a bill requiring all employers to use E-Verify, a federal program that allows companies to verify if a job applicant is authorized to work in the U.S.

Lawmakers will vote Wednesday on legislation to allow Michigan to proceed with plans to develop the New International Trade Crossing between Detroit and Windsor. The Detroit News reports: The Senate Economic Development Committee, which is considering legislation to create a public authority to take bids on the new bridge, will hold hearings Tuesday and Wednesday and vote on the two bridge bills at the end of Wednesday’s session, said Mike Murray, chief of staff to committee chairman Sen. Mike Kowall, R-White Lake

The Detroit News on Friday published a commentary by Jay Ambrose of the Scripps Howard News Service about hydrofracking that contained a couple of easily falsified claims. Addressing the issue of contamination by fracking liquids he writes: For that to happen, as you can learn from several articles, much-diluted chemicals used in tiny amounts would have to rise thousands of feet and pass through solid rock without the benefit of fracking to reach the aquifers above.

<p>Without much notice, something strange has happened to the intelligence community during the second term of President George W. Bush. The leaders of

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Republicans have spent the better part of the last year and a half railing against a government stimulus package they often blame for crowding out more jobs

The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s national trade organization, criticized the Obama administration today -- and the Environmental

Marc Ambinder reports that -- surprise! -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is not going to be doing any media interviews in the near future: A senior McCain campaign

The American Airlines logo (Pic via planebuzz.com ) AMR Corporation — the parent company of American Airlines, which provides a large number of South Florida jobs — filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 today. According to The Miami Herald : Unable to cut costs enough to fend off creditors, American and its parent company, AMR Corp., filed for Chapter 11 protection Tuesday morning while it tries to lower its debt and reorganize its business. American is one of the five largest private employers in Miami-Dade County, with about 9,000 workers.

Can Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) make two improbable comebacks in one election season? Some internal polls released last week indicated that he was closing the gap

2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney (Pic by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr) GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced the members of his Social Conservatives Statewide Steering Committee today; the list includes prominent anti-gay rights and anti-abortion rights activists in Florida’s Christian right circles. According to a press release from the campaign posted by The Miami Herald : Each member has been an active voice in state politics and an advocate for conservative causes and issue campaigns. The Romney campaign will utilize this coalition to perform voter outreach and coalition building for Get Out the Vote efforts

Maybe it’s something in the water, but Colorado lawmakers are increasingly leading the charge on the wave of bipartisanship that’s sweeping Washington. Whether it will continue – or result in any substantial change in what many deem a badly broken system – remains to be seen. Fresh off of his co-mingling effort at Tuesday’s State of the Union speech by President Obama , Democratic Sen

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued new guidelines last week designed to help health care providers counsel patients and determine if taking powerful antiretroviral medications will be an effective prevention strategy. The new guidelines come just months after a major study found that daily use of tenofovir plus emtricitabine, called Truvada, reduced the potential of infection for high risk men who have sex with men by 44 percent

The U.S. State Department’s long-awaited final Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL pipeline seems to overlook some of the lessons from last

Via Adam Serwer, the Atlantic’s Chris Good notes a correlation between church attendance and support for torture in a new Pew study: A combined 54 percent of

Because sometimes when your pants are down around your knees, it’s easier to step away from the window than it is to pull up your pants, the now infamous Scott Gessler/Larimer County GOP fundraiser will be closed to the media. Problem solved.

Domestic auto sales in February were up 27 percent over the same month a year ago, led by a staggering 46 percent increase for General Motors. Ford posted gains of 10 percent while Chrysler jumped 13 percent. The annualized sales were 13.4 million vehicles, far surpassing analysts’ expectations.

Opponents of SB 1070, Arizona’s much-contested immigration law, got a boost Friday when a federal judge ruled against the state’s efforts to block a lawsuit

Occupy Wall Street and its many spinoffs may be on its way to getting at least one billboard. EpicStep will donate a billboard if at least 20,000 people go online and vote for a design and a city to place it in