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The Florida Senate is ready to take up its version of a bill that tightens eligibility requirements for people seeking unemployment compensation. The bill ‘s sponsor, Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, has been haggling with her House counterpart over a provision that would shorten the number of weeks people can receive benefits from 26 to 20. So far, she has stood firm

There are 1,200 National Guard troops on the U.S.-Mexico border, working as extra eyes and ears for Border Patrol agents to watch for trafficking and illegal

In response to renewed efforts to pass same-sex marriage in Maryland through legislation in 2012, a new website dedicated to maintaining marriage rights for

A report published by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank sees continued high commodity prices and, thus, continued high land values at least for the near term. … As crop prices pushed toward record highs in 2011, farmland values have followed.

Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler garnered national headlines recently when he ordered county clerks in Colorado not to send ballots to registered but inactive voters– and in Colorado that means voters who missed just one election . Detractors called the effort attempted voter suppression and pointed to a host of similar Republican efforts launched nationwide in the wake of the Tea Party-wave election last November that swept Republicans into office across the country. Denver-based Free Speech TV explored the topic this week and asked Colorado Independent reporter John Tomasic, who has reported the story in-depth , to join the discussion.

The law banning depictions of animal cruelty at issue in a Supreme Court argument this morning may not survive, reports Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog. The

There’s a new argument coursing through Washington in the last 48 hours, which lays the blame for the AIG bonus scandal at the feet of Sen. Christopher Dodd

The report, issued by the Center for American Progress, a group heavily involved in the transition, recommends that the Obama administration’s defense policy break from the last eight years and include a clear set of priorities.

Another good point made by TWI’s Daphne Eviatar and Josh Marshall, who sums it up well. From TPM: Senate Republicans are following this course for three key

It was an odd but refreshing spectacle, to see U.S.-based human rights lawyers arguing to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights that the United States

In case you haven’t read it already, Patrick Caldwell’s profile of the post-Citizens United landscape for campaign spending gets at a number of important

Key parts of a controversial Texas law requiring women to receive sonograms before getting abortions are violations of free speech rights, a federal judge ruled

The Florida Senate approved Thursday a measure that will require all recipients of the state program Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to pass a

Richard Philips, the Maersk Alabama captain who endured a week of captivity by Somali pirates before U.S. Navy SEALs freed him, testified before the Senate

Earlier today, progressive groups (and some conservatives) were surprised to see the pro-peace/pro-Israel/pro-Palestine American Jewish organization J Street

Discovery News reports on new research published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy that finds wind speeds will decrease as a result of climate

Former state Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, D-Sarasota (Pic by Meredith Hill, via myfloridahouse.gov) Former state Rep. Keith Fitzgerald is attempting to unseat a three-term incumbent in his bid for Florida’s 13th congressional district seat

The Sierra Club has filed suit against the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (aka IFAS) over what it says are violations of public records laws. The lawsuit, which was filed yesterday, comes as a result of “years of refusal by IFAS to respond to legitimate questions asked by the Sierra Club and local governments with regard to contradictory messaging about urban fertilizer management.” “The records sought will provide the names of the external and internal reviewers, and their reviews, of several IFAS papers that have been created for and used by the opponents of urban fertilizer regulation, and details regarding the decision-making process that led a handful of IFAS administrators to denounce and lobby against the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s and IFAS’ own Florida-friendly urban fertilizer recommendations,” according to a press release. In March 2009, IFAS released a publication titled “Unintended Consequences Associated with Certain Urban Fertilizer Ordinances” that promoted less protective standards than those found in the earlier “Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Handbook,” a guide published by IFAS and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection

He was practically a fixture on Capitol Hill during the Wall Street bailout debate and subsequent oversight discussions. But Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America,

The proposed rule would let power plants measure their rate of emissions on an hourly basis instead of their annual total output.

It’s almost enough to generate sympathy for Jay Bybee and John Yoo, the two heads the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel in 2002 who signed off on the

Pic via dbmathews.com With the U.S. Conference on AIDS just three days away, A Day with HIV in America , a project of Positively Aware , seeks to bring together a community of folks who live with HIV, to show their diversity and confront HIV stigmas