Breaking News

Just hours after President Obama reiterated his plans for overhauling the nation’s health care system to trim costs and cover the 46 million people estimated to

To build on Daphne’s post about bogus numbers of terrorist Guantanamo parolees, The New York Times carries a kind of silly story about a former Guantanamo

Harmful, smog-causing emissions from the natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, should be curtailed as swiftly as possible by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), conservation groups argued at an EPA meeting in Denver on Wednesday. “Addressing air emissions from fracking operations is essential,’’ National Wildlife Federation regional outreach coordinator David Ellenberger said in a release

Five Republican presidential hopefuls have signed a pledge promising to ”not just check off the pro-life box but show true pro-life leadership if elected president.” Only three of those asked to sign — former Massachusetts Gov.

With a GOP-controlled House on the horizon, I’ve been looking at a few policy proposals made by conservatives and pro-enforcement groups to see which ideas

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (Pic via myfloridalegal.com) In a Monday court filing, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam, Attorney General Pam Bondi and a slew of industry representatives filed their opposition to EPA-mandated water pollution standards for the state. Arguing that “federal intervention was and remains unnecessary,” they ask the court to invalidate the January 2009 determination that required that the standards be implemented. That determination followed litigation brought on by Florida environmental groups that alleged the state wasn’t meeting the requirements of the Clean Water Act. Pollution brought on by failing septic tanks, home fertilizers, utility companies and agricultural interests often leads to large-scale algal blooms and fish kills — occurrences that wouldn’t be so frequent, say some, if Florida had stricter water pollution rules.

A look at polling numbers illustrates how muddled the GOP presidential contest presently is, compared to the outlook at this point in the 2000 White House

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson will be allowed to participate in Thursday’s Fox News debate in Orlando, Fla., among Republican presidential candidates, The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz reports : The former New Mexico governor won the right to participate, according to Fox sources, by cracking 1 percent in the latest five national polls in which he was included—Fox News, CNN, McClatchy-Marist, ABC, and Quinnipiac—which was the criterion the network had set for inclusion. Talking Points Memo reports Johnson has yet to receive final notification that he will participate in the debate, though he told TPM, “It would be good news if we get it.” Johnson is a self-identified libertarian who differentiates himself from Rep.

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.) waited until today to announce her retirement from Florida’s 5th District, giving potential successors no time to file the

According to the May 30. 2005 Bradbury memo, the CIA has used “enhanced techniques to varying degrees in the interrogations of 28 detainees. The CIA

A new report has renewed the call among gun-control advocates for tighter firearms laws, but such reforms face tough opposition from the powerful gun lobby and its congressional supporters.

Most legislators continue to collect their salaries while the state is shutdown, but Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL-Minneapolis) is putting his July salary to good use.

Following dismissal of his lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration for security measures like mandatory pat-downs, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura told reporters Friday that he hasn’t ruled out a run for higher office.

As if we need another example of the Bush administration’s outward contempt for the legislative branch, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House

FreedomWorks’ campaign to pass school voucher legislation in Pennsylvania has now launched a robocall that allows supporters to connect directly with House

Beginning today, a band of liberal Jews intends to transform the terms of the American debate over Israel -- among the most delicate, controversial and

Several Democratic senators are staging a media stakeout at the U.S. Capitol today to voice their concerns over the role of complicated finance speculation in

When people from around the state announced their intention to converge on Benton Harbor during the Blossomtime parade to protest the takeover of that city’s government under the new Emergency Manager law that he’d sponsored, state Rep. Al Pscholka (R-Stevensville) dismissed them as hired guns

Gov. Rick Scott signed his budget this afternoon, but not before wielding his “favorite pen” to strike what he said were $615 million in line-item vetoes

Gov. Rick Scott’s recently signed budget includes a long list of vetoes — many of which amount to a loss of thousands of state jobs and cuts to the disabled, elderly and children.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s crackdown on public union rights is now rippling through conservative strongholds in the state. Politico reports that distaste

The Obama administration sent BP and other parties deemed responsible for the Gulf oil spill (Transocean, Andarko) a $62.6 million bill for the cleanup effort