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An interesting scene from a health care town hall held by Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), a Democrat who easily won a House seat in 2006 in a district carried by

SANTA FE, N.M. -- A look at how Gov. Bill Richardson handled himself during the months before withdrawing his name for commerce secretary helps explain why, nationally, there was so much confusion and surprise at the news.

Apparently, Sen. John McCain doesn’t like it when he’s on the receiving end of false or misleading attacks. His campaign’s rapid response team kept busy today,

TIFFIN — Speaking before a large gathering of 2nd Congressional District Republicans, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum painted himself as the GOP’s best bet for defeat of Barack Obama in 2012, and continued his ongoing stump speech that defines key pieces of the Declaration of Independence for caucus-goers

You watch, said FreedomWorks spokesman Adam Brandon. This is the idea that’s going to change the election.

Advocates are not accepting explanations Florida legislators are giving for their rejection of federal grant money for a program aimed at curbing child abuse and neglect. # Florida policymakers have recently received scrutiny for rejecting home vising grants from the Affordable Care Act

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, sent a letter to key Obama administration

Officials from the conservative activist group The Family Leader are choosing to stay mum on donation amounts they have accumulated in recent weeks in light a protest petition against their leader Bob Vander Plaats , but say the overall amount is “unprecedented.” Bob Vander Plaats “I can tell you that we have received unprecedented support, but we’re not going to release any amounts or the names of our donors at this point in time,” Julie Summa, director of marketing for The Family Leader, told The Iowa Independent Wednesday afternoon.

State officials have ordered a review of the finances of the Highland Park School system, which has lost more than half its students in the last four years and is facing a $19.9 million deficit. Under Michigan’s Emergency Manager law, financial review is the first step in a process that can result in take over of a school system.

Matthew Yglesias reports that Mancow, the libertarian/conservative shock jock, had himself waterboarded as a stunt to prove that the practice was not torture.

Undocumented workers make up large proportions of the nation’s chefs, cooks and dishwashers, and as the Obama administration shifts much of its immigration

Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ statements yesterday that he expects the United States will have to transfer up to 100 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to the

Joining Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who announced that she could no longer attend the National Tea Party Convention being held in her own state, Rep.

Our sister publication, The Florida Independent, has a great story this morning on industry lobbying against the Environmental Protection Agency’s water quality

One of the more sensational aspects of the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 review is that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s name was inconsistently spelled by State

My colleague Luke Johnson got some reaction from the Sierra Club on Kendrick Meek’s rejection of the environmental group’s endorsement. Meek rejected the

The American Independent News Network and the Michigan Messenger are taking the day off to celebrate Presidents Day. Originally a celebration of George Washington’s birthday on Feb. 22, it is now viewed as a celebration of his and Lincoln’s birthday, which was Feb

A new report from the National Employment Law Project shows that many states, faced with serious budget problems, have passed laws limiting access to unemployment insurance benefits — including Michigan, of course. State lawmakers enacted a range of policies in 2011 to amend their unemployment insurance (UI) programs, most of them motivated by insolvent state trust funds. Most notably, six states passed unprecedented cuts in the duration of benefits, for the first time reducing benefit weeks to less than the decades-long accepted standard of 26 weeks.

Noah Shachtman at Danger Room has an alarming post about Tara O’Toole, the Obama administration’s pick to become Undersecretary of Homeland Security for Science

Hundreds of Occupy Des Moines demonstrators will march on Terrace Hill on Saturday, part of an international “Robin Hood Tax” day of action.

A group of nine recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, including Bishop Tutu of South Africa and the Dalai Lama of Tibet, have written a letter to President Obama urging him to reject the application to build the Keystone XL pipeline. The letter reads, in part: The night you were nominated for president, you told the world that under your leadership—and working together—the rise of the oceans will begin to slow and the planet will begin to heal. You spoke of creating a clean energy economy.

LANSING — Thousands of Michiganders gathered on the East lawn of the Michigan Capitol Wednesday to protest Republican legislative proposals that, in their view, undermine labor rights and budget proposals that balance the state’s budget on the backs of seniors and the poor. “I am here because the Blue Green Alliance is an important player in mobilizing the environmental and labor communities to develop the clean energy agenda,” said former Congressman Mark Schauer, who now runs the Blue Green Alliance. “Those jobs will help us compete in the global competition for jobs — and it is global

According to a recent Brookings Institute report, three big metro areas in Florida — Lakeland, Palm Bay and Miami — are among the 20 weakest-performing cities in the country in the struggle to recover from the recession. The study (.pdf) attributed Florida’s struggles to the housing crisis in the state. Florida, in particular, experienced a housing price boom that was followed by a bust that the state has yet to fully recover from