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Bill Smith, the teenage medical marijuana patient whose quest for an education The Colorado Independent has chronicled over the past month, made the TV news again last night in Colorado Springs. Click on photo for video.

Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) visited one of his favorite punching bags today, appearing in Washington, D.C., as part of a national tour for his new book, Fed Up!:

In his party’s push to curb collective bargaining rights among public employees in Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker (R) let police and firefighters off the hook

“If that bill passes, we will be sued immediately. That’s the purpose of the bill,” said Texas state Rep. Leo Berman. “The ACLU, La Raza, the Justice Department -- someone will sue us for the bill.”

Voters in Kalamazoo approved a controversial amendment to the city’s charter which makes possession of a small amount of pot for those 21 years of age older a “lowest possible law enforcement priority.” The measure was approved with 4,649 for it and 2,416 against it, reports The Kalamazoo Gazette. Louis Stocking, who led the petition drive of the Kalamazoo Coalition for Pragmatic Cannabis Laws to get the measure before voters, said the vote was unsurprising.

Despite turning down money for state programs because of their disagreement with federal health care reform, Florida officials accepted more than $2.5 million made available by the Affordable Care Act to fund its abstinence-only sex education grant program. # The Florida Legislature has faced controversy over its refusal to accept money for dozens of programs that would aid the state as it faces steep budget cuts. State legislators turned down millions in grants for child abuse and neglect prevention, as well as pregnancy prevention for teens

On the same day GOP presidential contender Jon Huntsman’s campaign manager resigned, the leader of the anti-abortion rights policy group the Susan B. Anthony

When two African trials last year showed that circumcised men were 60 percent less likely to become infected with HIV than those with foreskins, the World

New narrative alert: Sen. Barack Obama will win this election -- in a landslide. But wait, weren’t all the experts and pundits worrying about Obama’s demise

I don’t want to write too much that steps on the toes of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s forthcoming confirmation hearing to head the State Department, but take a

True fact: talk to the advisers to Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s 60-day strategy review on Afghanistan and they say that they’re attuned to an erosion of support

In the South Carolina GOP presidential primary, no endorsement is considered more important than that of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Slate and former Washington

Private prison companies lost the possibility of a big profit last week when one of the largest known government privatization campaigns in the country was

When most East Coasters could no longer follow the returns from sheer exhaustion, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) had fallen behind challenger Ken Buck (R) in his

Despite relatively good news on revenue coming into the state’s general fund, a spokesman for Gov. Terry Branstad says the administration’s goals of cutting the cost of government by 15 percent won’t change. But Democratic leaders say recent budget data should change the budget discussion in the Iowa Legislature.

Marcy Wheeler at Firedoglake has an interesting take today on the most recent summary of classified documents that the government turned over to the American

Recent Supreme Court rulings require cases pass a new plausible test to be heard in court.

Tim Pawlenty made a splash at the Tea Party Patriots American Policy Summit on Saturday in Arizona.

Perception becomes reality so appearance is everything, says Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), reminding everyone of the Clinton Foundation controversy. That

Following the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, independent groups are largely playing the role once occupied by the party committees. The balance of power is likely to shift even further in the future.

In the wake of a controversial donation to MN Forward that riled LGBT activists and sparked boycotts cross-country, Target has changed its process for making corporate independent expenditures. The retail giant will now run its political donations through a policy committee that would determine if the donations “advance issues that are important to our business.” But will the change be enough for LGBT community members still hurt by Target’s 2010 donations? In July, Target gave $150,000 to MN Forward , an independent expenditure campaign that produced and distributed ads in support of Republican Tom Emmer, a gubernatorial candidate who opposed marriage for same-sex couples