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DENVER — As anticipated, President Obama this morning detailed his plan to use an executive order to ease the burden of student loan debt that presently presses down on tens of millions of Americans. Speaking in shirtsleeves and drawing on his own struggles with student debt as a young man, husband and father, Obama told the energized crowd in an event center hall on the downtown university Auraria Campus that he was determined for the foreseeable future to act wherever possible to relieve economic distress in the country without going through the gridlocked Congress.

TransCanada, owners of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, promised Nebraska state legislators this week to take additional steps to protect environmental safety if the project is approved by the federal government. The Canadian pipeline company made several guarantees to Nebraska lawmakers, including a $100 million bond to ensure adequate funds to clean up after any oil spills, as the state’s legislature considered holding a special session to consider legislation to force the company to change Keystone’s route… In a letter to the Speaker of the Nebraska legislature, Sen.

It’s been an amazing thing: faced with hundreds of pages of documents disclosed last week that explicitly state and thoroughly demonstrate that it’s unknown

As of now, Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform bill has 93 confirmed votes on party lines. Just a few decisive senators remain. Yesterday,

Here’s something counterintuitive: the closer a person lives to Washington, D.C., the more likely it is that he or she watched the inauguration on

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is clearly excited about her 9-point win over Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in yesterday’s Pennsylvania primary. But is it enough to

My friends Jason Talley and Pete Eyre, anarcho-capitalists road-tripping across America, capture some footage from a New Hampshire Tea Party of angry

Daphne pointed out that FBI Director Robert Mueller has some concerns about bringing Guantanamo prisoners into U.S. prisons. What, he doesn’t read Glenn

After a week’s delay, the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote this morning on the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. Although Sotomayor is

Daphne Eviatar is guest-blogging for Glenn Greenwald today. The following is cross-posted at Salon. Ever since The Los Angeles Times reported last weekend

In the aftermath of last year’s spill of nearly a million gallons of tar sands oil into the Kalamazoo River here in Michigan and a recent spill of the same kind of oil into the Yellowstone River, TransCanada executives were in Montana this week promising that the Keystone XL pipeline will be safe. Company president Alex Pourbaix said Keystone XL would incorporate pipeline technologies and construction techniques not seen on older lines. He added that the company would take precautions beyond what is required by federal regulation.

That’s the question being asked around the country today in response to the $85 billion proposal presented Thursday by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles

He’s a Republican gladiator, not a conservative, said American Conservative Union chairman David Keene.

The Bush administration has no plans to rescind controversial guidelines restricting enrollment in a popular children’s health-care program, despite a

In stark contrast to the orange chicken canard about the treatment of Guantanamo detainees comes this disturbing Andy Worthington report on malnutrition at

The Awl explains how to vote, partially based on a Daniel Craig picture... ...but you’ll probably just pick the better-looking candidate. You can play

In a long speech this morning in Boston, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke implied that the central bank will take additional action to help the economy, in

As state legislatures across the country begin their 2011 sessions, there is one lingering issue that simply won’t die. Conservative legislators in several

NORFOLK, Va. -- Sen. Barack Obama blasted his GOP rival, Sen, John Mccain, during a visit to a school here today, for lying about an innocent remark and

Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall at a gay-rights event this weekend in Denver said he supports marriage equality for all Americans. Udall joins a growing list of lawmakers who have gone on record in support of ending the era where the federal Defense of Marriage Act and where constitutional bans like Colorado’s Amendment 43 blocked LGBT couples from the legal protections and advantages provided by the state through marriage