Breaking News

Today, Kate Sheppard reports at Mother Jones, Kevin Costner -- actor of Dances with Wolves fame, favored heartthrob of my mum -- took to the Hill to argue for

Keystone I, the first phase of TransCanada’s pipeline system that brings tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to southern Illinois, has shut down once again after mechanical problems. Reuters reports that there is “no word yet on the extent of the problems affecting the 591,000 barrel a day pipeline.” This comes as controversy continues to grow over the approval process for the second phase of the project, Keystone XL, which will continue the line all the way to the Gulf Coast of Texas. Keystone I has been in operation for less than two years.

Food for thought: According to comments he made yesterday to The Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes, Sen. John McCain is willing to consider either former

Two Iowa groups are calling on The Family Leader to return $2.2 million in federal taxpayer funds it received over a period of years to provide marriage counseling in the wake of reports that portions of the money were used to pay various salaries and organizational expenses. As reporter Andy Kopsa first noted for The Iowa Independent more than one year ago, the Iowa Family Policy Center, now under the umbrella of The Family Leader organization, received more than $3 million in federal funds for its Marriage Matters programming. Although organizational leaders indicated following The Iowa Independent’s report that they would refuse future money for the program, it was actually several months later that the money was refused, and only recently — following public disclosure of financial documents to the press — it came to light that an overlap existed in use of those taxpayer funds by IFPC

If circumstances have put you in a car on a long drive in the very, very early morning, you’ve probably heard Coast to Coast AM host George Noory dish with

The officers’ involvement signals the debate has moved past a rigid choice between expansive counterinsurgency missions and narrowly tailored efforts to find and kill terrorists.

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report today that finds income declined and poverty rose in the United States from 2009 to 2010. According to the “Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010″ (.pdf) report: Real median household income in the United States in 2010 was $49,445, a 2.3 percent decline from the 2009 median.

Here’s another interesting tidbit from The Wall Street Journal: The Obama Administration is expected to unveil new incentives today to encourage servicers to

In a recent radio interview, Mississippi Lt. Gov. (and gubernatorial candidate) Phil Bryant said that he wholeheartedly supports the fetal personhood movement

A Boulder-based conservation group is pushing for much stronger language in a draft rule by the state of Colorado requiring oil and gas companies to disclose chemicals used in the controversial drilling practice called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Western Resource Advocates (WRA) officials said on Wednesday that the new rule contains “a significant loophole” that would allow companies to withhold information by claiming an exemption for chemicals they consider trade secrets. A natural gas rig at the entrance to Battlement Mesa in Garfield County on Colorado’s Western Slope (David O.

The sun rose today and its gravitational force kept the planet twisting around it through the void, so naturally Fred and Kim Kagan, the neoconservative wing of

Today, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate fell in 34 states from March to April, did not change in 10 states and rose in six. That

When the question arises of whether Texas’ imminent voter ID law will pass U.S. Department of Justice muster, GOP lawmakers routinely point to the existing law

If you watch local TV news in different cities around the country, and we’re not suggesting you do so, you see that a small number of stations have political beat reporters, but most do not. Why? “Most stations where politics is a beat with a dedicated reporter happen to be in places where politics is part of the culture,” says Deborah Potter, who writes about television news for the American Journalism Rewiew

On Monday, just hours after Vice President Dick Cheney announced from Baghdad that the war in Iraq has been a successful endeavor, 10 Democrats vying for

Clovis High School may end all non-curricular clubs rather than allow a gay-straight alliance to form at the eastern New Mexico high school, the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico claims. The school superintendent told the Albuquerque Journal that a vote Tuesday night on whether to disband all non-curricular clubs is unrelated to an attempt to form a gay-straight alliance at the school.

Local government officials are asking the governor not to sign a new bill that blocks communities from restricting the areas where mines can be placed. The bill, which cleared the Legislature in just two weeks at the end of the session, amends the Michigan Zoning Act to block zoning ordinances that prevent the extraction of natural resources if someone could make a profit by extracting them unless “very serious consequences” would result. The measure would overturn a 2010 Michigan Supreme Court decision that held that Leelanau County’s Kasson township may restrict gravel mining through zoning

In 2008, Oklahoma passed HB 1804 (RTF), a law attacking residence and employment of undocumented immigrants in the state. One provision specifically repealed an

A 37-year-old Afghan prisoner known only as Inayatullah held at Guantanamo Bay committed suicide yesterday according to the U.S.

Republicans might be marching lockstep in their opposition to President Obama in Congress, but the same cannot be said of GOP candidates on the campaign

The drone attacks that killed Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen have sparked renewed talks of due process for U.S. born citizens alleged to have been involved in terrorist activity.