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Newspapers throughout the state have come out against a Republican bill that proposes a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage in Minnesota.

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

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

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 .

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.

Enbridge Energy Partners, a Canadian oil company responsible for the July 2010 rupture of the Lakehead Pipeline 6B which spewed an estimated one million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River, is providing two Calhoun county programs with cash and services for improvements of parks and river access. On Thursday night, the Calhoun County Commission voted to accept a proposal from Enbridge which will result in upgrades to Historic Bridges Park — which has been closed since the rupture

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

Enbridge Energy Partners has notified the EPA that it has not completed the cleanup of an estimated 200 acres of submerged oil along the bottom of the Kalamazoo River. The oil company, whose pipeline ruptured at the end of July 2010, spewing between 800,000 and a million gallons of tar sands oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River in Calhoun county, had been ordered earlier this year to complete the submerged oil removal no later than Aug. 31

Rep. Michele Bachmann no longer appears troubled about President Barack Obama’s place of birth. In fact, in an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America Wednesday, Bachmann, a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2012, told George Stephanopoulos that the certificate of live birth issued by Obama presidential campaign more than three years ago “should settle it” and that she “takes the President at his word.” Upon further follow-up by Stephanopoulos, Bachmann replied that Obama’s place of birth “is not the main issue facing the United States right now” and that the focus should be on the national deficit

<p><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/middleeastCrisis/idUSYAT155421">Monday</a>:</p> <blockquote>The flow of

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

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

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.

With a debate hosted by a social conservative organization looming, GOP Senate candidate George LeMieux is criticizing rival Adam Hasner for supporting a judicial bypass option in Florida’s parental notification before abortion law.

Sam Stein at the Huffington Post reports that President Obama has come out in support of lifting the $75 million liability cap for oil spillers. Congress had

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty continued his media tour with an appearance on Fox News Tuesday, drawing a comparison between Minnesota’s 2005 budget

Republicans and immigration enforcement hawks are denouncing the Obama administration’s newly announced policy of selective deportation . The policy would have the government evaluate each person currently in deportation proceedings on a case-by-case basis using multiple criteria which were outlined in a memo issued by ICE director John Morton in June. Many undocumented immigrants without criminal records would be allowed to indefinitely stay in the United States and apply for work permits

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

Republican 2012 candidate and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) will kick off her bus tour tomorrow in Iowa City, then travel westward through the state for the holiday weekend, her campaign announced Thursday