Washington Post: The Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, who has questioned whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed suspected gun smugglers to purchase assault rifles that later may have been used in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, wants to know if ATF has ordered its agents not to cooperate [...]
BAGHDAD (AP) — A powerful anti-American Shiite cleric has threatened to reactivate his feared militia in Iraq if U.S. soldiers extend their stay. The statement by Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mahdi Army battled U.S. forces for years, was read out by a senior aide to hundreds of thousands of his followers in Baghdad on Saturday. The [...]
NY Post: No wonder he’s become such good pals with Al Sharpton. President Obama’s approval ratings among black voters plummeted last month to their lowest levels ever, while his support among Hispanics took a tumble in the same period, according to a surprising new poll released yesterday. Blacks continue to back him by a wide [...]
WASHINGTON — Perilously close to a government shutdown, congressional leaders reached agreement with the White House late Friday night on a deal to cut tens of billions of dollars in federal spending and avert the closure. House Speaker John Boehner informed the GOP rank and file of the accord, reached in grueling negotiations over several [...]
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WASHINGTON – In the event of a government shutdown, the Pentagon would have to delay payments of the $100,000 death benefit that families receive if a military service member dies in the line of duty, a senior defense official said Friday,Families would get the money eventually after the government re-opens, but they could have problems [...]
National Journal: As negotiations stall and the federal government veers toward a shutdown, both politicians and the public have begun to fret over the possible economic effects of a government suspension, with some even opining that it could derail the recovery. The Business Roundtable released a sober statement cautioning that “a shutdown would have negative [...]
National Journal: The latest Pew Research Center national poll released today underscores how slender a beachhead President Obama has established among whites more than two years into his presidency. In his 2008 election, Obama ran well only among two groups of whites — young people and white women with at least a four year college [...]
Madison (AP) – Democrats in Wisconsin were crying foul Friday after a significant vote-count change in the hotly contested Supreme Court election gave the conservative incumbent the lead in a race that could decide the fate of the state’s new divisive collective bargaining law. Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said it was “human error” that [...]
Politico: With the government on the verge of a shutdown, the two parties backed further into their corners Friday afternoon, as Democrats insisted abortion policy was the only hangup while Republicans contended there was still no real agreement on how deep to cut government spending. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blamed the crisis on [...]
The Hill: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he will introduce a week-long stopgap spending measure on Friday in a last-ditch attempt to avert a government shutdown. Reid told reporters Friday morning that negotiations with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) broke down over one issue: a policy rider defunding Planned Parenthood. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) [...]
Damascus (AP) – Syrian security forces opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters across several cities Friday, killing at least 20 people, wounding hundreds and forcing residents to turn mosques into makeshift hospitals, witnesses and a human rights group said. Ammar Qurabi, who heads Syria’s National Organization for Human Rights, said most of the [...]
