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For all of the frenzy over Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s comment that the system worked after the failed bombing on Northwest Airlines Flight

With the construction of a “spaceport” underway in the southern New Mexico town of Upham, NASA has made moves to take advantage of the new flight center by striking a $4.5 million contract agreement with owners Virgin Galactic.

Other White House contenders are all talk, GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlentysaid today during the Ames Straw Poll. The former Governor of Minnesota said

Predictably, the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee swiftly denounced Sen. Barack Obama’s decision to be the first presidential candidate to

Leading members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including co-chair Keith Ellison, are urging President Barack Obama to step up job creation efforts to create three million jobs in 2012. “The size of the federal budget deficit is not keeping the American people up at night ; they’re worried about how to pay for groceries

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ‘s forum meeting in Des Moines was cut short Friday after a fire alarm went off in the Iowa State Historical Building, forcing an evacuation. Romney was in Des Moines Friday to answer questions posed through a forum hosted by iowapolitics.com and the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

If birth control was not “controversial” earlier this week, it is definitely about to be. Today, the Florida Senate budget committee adopted an amendment that strikes family planning, including birth control, from Medicaid bill 1972 . # The amendment removes line 4186 of the Medicaid bill, which provides “family planning services” for low-income families and replaces it with an amendment that says that state Medicaid plans may elect to not provide birth control and other family planning services “due to an objection on moral or religious grounds.” #

Legislation that limits the right of workers to bargain collectively violates international law, the human rights group Amnesty International said today. Under international law, all workers have a human right to organize and to bargain collectively. These rights are an essential foundation to the realization of other rights, and are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, as well as conventions adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO)

On a call with reporters today, a coalition of renewable energy groups called for passage of a renewable energy standard before the August recess as part of an

At its annual meeting yesterday, ExxonMobil rejected 17 measures, including proposals for the company to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in renewable

Dan Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, says Ryan Lizza’s much-talked-about New Yorker story on why the

This week the Occupy Atlanta protesters found a way to protest economic injustice that may build allies within the local law enforcement community. On Monday about two dozen activists with the group moved their tents to the suburban lawn of a home where a local policeman and his family are facing eviction. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that the group mobilized after learning that the five-member family may lose their home because the bank that holds their mortgage has decided to foreclose rather than allow them to refinance.

Sometime this week, the Census Bureau will release figures on poverty in the United States in 2009. The Associated Press asked some demographers to sketch out

Florida is one of a handful states rejecting grants from the federal health care reform law, a key strategy suggested in literature provided at this year’s American Legislative Exchange Council conference, a conference many Florida legislators attended. # The Legislative Exchange Council (referred to as ALEC ) is a conservative nonprofit made up of state legislators and business leaders that writes model bills and resolutions aimed at helping businesses and weakening government entities

SEARSBORO — A summer rainstorm wasn’t enough to prevent a few hundred of Iowa’s most active gun enthusiasts from gathering on the grounds of the Big Springs Range Complex Saturday for a small trade show, firearms training, range shooting and speeches from state and national lawmakers.

According to new data, the Affordable Care Act helped 1 million additional young adults obtain health insurance in 2011. The National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today reports that “in the first quarter of 2011, the percentage of adults between the ages of 19 and 25 with health insurance increased by 3.5 percentage points, representing approximately 1 million additional young adults with insurance coverage compared to a year ago.” In all other age groups, the rate of uninsured stayed statistically the same .

Dana Goldstein points out that the White House has its new site up, complete with a blog!

As Daphne has written this week, the residents of Standish, Mich., are starting to turn against a proposal to send terrorism detainees from Guantanamo Bay to

Residents of Benton Harbor should not lose their democratic rights or their city parks just because the city is poor, Rev. Jesse Jackson said yesterday, and he called for people to speak out against Michigan’s Emergency Manager law. In an op-ed to the Chicago Sun Times Jackson wrote: Benton Harbor’s finances are a mess

While journalistic accolades can come in many forms — awards, peer recognition, a paycheck — here’s a new one to us: A bull calf born during Tuesday’s snowstorm was named after Minnesota Independent Senior Reporter Andy Birkey. According to rancher Barbra Peterson, who has a 92-head herd in Sandstone, Birkey’s reporting on reproductive health and social justice issues prompted the move

Former Vice President Al Gore is publicly urging President Obama to deny a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, arguing that the increased greenhouse gas production from the use of tar sands oil will only make the planet’s climate problems worse. On his blog, Gore says : The leaders of the top environmental groups in the country, the Republican Governor of Nebraska, and millions of people around the country—including hundreds of people who have bravely participated in civil disobedience at the White House—all agree on one thing: President Obama should block a planned pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico. The tar sands are the dirtiest source of fuel on the planet.

Well, at least there are bales of hay in the background. But the scariest thing about this vaguely Halloween-themed rally in Columbus, Ohio, wasn’t anything

Thirty years into the epidemic, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday launched the first ever congressional HIV/AIDS caucus. According to the National Minority AIDS Council , “the Caucus will examine methods by which the United States can maintain global leadership in the response to this 30 year epidemic.” Given the “estimated 56,000 new HIV infections each year,” the Minority AIDS Council said the HIV/AIDS caucus will monitor the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and seek financing for HIV/AIDS programs

Dr. Howard Fuller, a longtime advocate for school choice options in inner cities who recently came out against aggressive voucher expansion in his home state of