Pat Dollard

MEXICO CITY (AP) – A letter purportedly signed by a major Mexican drug cartel offers to dissolve the gang if the government promises to protect citizens in the western state where it is based, authorities said Wednesday. Prosecutors said they couldn’t immediately verify the letter’s authenticity — or the offer’s sincerity — but stressed the [...]

Politico: Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann dropped out of the race for House Republican Conference chair on Wednesday night, ending a quixotic bid for leadership that many saw as the first real test of the tea party against the GOP establishment. In a statement Wednesday evening, Bachmann said that Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling has her “enthusiastic [...]

Fox News: RICHMOND, Va. – Corpses, cancer patients and diseased lungs: These are some of the images the federal government plans for larger, graphic warning labels for cigarette packages. The images are part of a new campaign announced by the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday to [...]

Fox News: As President Obama huddles with world leaders for the G-20 summit in South Korea to weigh proposals aimed at stabilizing the global economy, one idea being pushed is a so-called “Robin Hood tax,” aimed at collecting money from rich nations to give to the poor. The Robin Hood tax — a global financial [...]

My San Antonio: Gov. Rick Perry stopped off in the Alamo City on Tuesday for a bite of barbecue and a bit of promotion for his new book — and called for completely repealing President Barack Obama’s health care legislation while he was at it. In his 12-minute speech at Augie’s Barbed Wire Smokehouse Bar-B-Que [...]

Fox News: A draft proposal by the deficit commission suggests curbing Social Security benefits and raising the retirement age. The co-chairmen of the panel appointed by President Obama to cut the U.S. deficit recommend raising the retirement age to 68. It is currently 67 years for retirees to receive full benefits. The panel leaders also [...]

LONDON (AP) — Tens of thousands of students marched through London on Wednesday against plans to triple university tuition fees, and violence erupted as a minority battled police and trashed a building containing the headquarters of the governing Conservative Party. Organizers said 50,000 students, lecturers and supporters demonstrated against plans to raise the cost of [...]

The Guardian: The timer on the bomb found on a cargo plane at East Midlands airport last month was set for the device to detonate over the eastern seaboard of the US, Scotland Yard said today. The mobile phone timer attached to the device was set for 10.30am, the Guardian has learned. Forensic and other [...]

Washington Times: The U.S. military is fast running out of human analysts to process the vast amounts of video footage collected by the robotic planes and aerial sensors that blanket Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terrorism. Speaking at an intelligence conference last week, Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of [...]

The Hill: Republican Joe Miller has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent state elections officials from counting write-in ballots that don’t accurately spell Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) full name. The Tea Party favorite wants a judge to bar the state division of elections from weighing voter intent with write-in ballots that contain a [...]

YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) – Intensifying friction over currencies and trade loomed Wednesday as leaders of major economies converged on Asia for back-to-back summits aimed at safeguarding the still fragile global recovery. President Barack Obama and other top leaders were arriving in Seoul, South Korea, for a two-day Group of 20 summit with the ambitious agenda [...]

Fox Business: Is the Federal Reserve violating the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers with its new purchases of $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries? Is the Fed engaging in an unconstitutional monetization of the U.S. Congress’ out of control spending spree that is really a bridge loan to fiscal insanity? At minimum, should the Fed [...]

The Sun: LARA CARTER has slept with 20 strangers in the past year – in a desperate and reckless bid to get pregnant. The self-confessed “sperm hunter” uses ovulation kits to tell her when she is most fertile then pretends to be drunk, throwing herself at unsuspecting fellas and making it obvious she wants sex. [...]

McClatchy: WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has decided to begin publicly walking away from what it once touted as key deadlines in the war in Afghanistan in an effort to de-emphasize President Barack Obama’s pledge that he’d begin withdrawing U.S. forces in July 2011, administration and military officials have told McClatchy Newspapers. The new policy [...]

The Telegraph: The Prime Minister said China needed to understand what was at stake and he urged its leaders to open its markets. In a speech in Beijing Mr Cameron explained that for the world economy to be able to grow strongly again – in particular the struggling Western economies – China had to start [...]

Politico: The intense focus on the differences between President Barack Obama and House Republicans on government spending and tax cuts has eclipsed the yawning gulf that separates Obama and the incoming House leadership on counterterrorism policy, Guantanamo and the use of civilian courts to try accused Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other terrorism [...]

The Hill: Lobbyists who have built their careers around securing congressional money for clients are facing the biggest squeeze yet on their business as earmarks begin to disappear from Washington. Since capturing the House in the midterm elections last week, Republican leaders have affirmed their support for a plan that would outlaw earmarks in the [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) – Mark Twain paid a surprise visit to the Kennedy Center on Tuesday night to honor Tina Fey with the nation’s top humor prize that bears his name. A mustached Alec Baldwin playing Twain said he thought he would be remembered for being a tender lover and was surprised to learn the prize [...]

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