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via Ron Nixon, The New York Times Faced with billions of dollars in losses, the Postal Service announced on Wednesday that it would seek to stop Saturday delivery of letters, a sweeping change in mail delivery that immediately drew criticism from postal unions, some businesses and lawmakers. The post office said a five-day mail delivery … Continue reading
via Patricia Zengerle and Susan Heavey, Reuters A growing number of lawmakers – including a leading pro-gun senator – called on Monday for a look at curbing assault weapons like the one used in a massacre at a Connecticut grade school, a sign that attitudes toward gun control could be shifting. Senator Joe Manchin, a … Continue reading
via Laura Bassett, The Huffington Post In a historic bipartisan vote on Tuesday, the Senate passed Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s (D-N.H.) amendment to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act that would extend abortion insurance coverage to victims of rape in the military. If the House of Representatives decides to include the measure in its version of … Continue reading
via Chris Good, ABC News As Congress wrangles over the fiscal cliff, one tiny document will loom large over the negotiations. Known in Republican circles simply as “The Pledge,” the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) Taxpayer Protection Pledge has steered GOP tax policy for decades, applying pressure to any candidate, lawmaker, or president who would … Continue reading
via Erin Fuchs, Business Insider A whopping 75 percent of Montana’s voters approved an initiative Tuesday stating corporations are not people. Montana voters specifically said “corporations are not entitled to constitutional rights because they are not human beings,” Courthouse News Service reported. The measure was a stinging rebuke to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision … Continue reading
via Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters CIA Director David Petraeus resigned as head of the leading U.S. spy agency on Friday, saying he had engaged in an extramarital affair and acknowledging he “showed extremely poor judgment.” In a letter to the CIA workforce, Petraeus, 60, said he met with President Barack Obama at the … Continue reading
via Lucy Madison, CBS News Despite hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of spending in races across the country, the political composition of Congress will look much the same next year as it does now, CBS News projects, with Democrats holding onto a majority in the Senate and Republicans retaining power in the House of … Continue reading
via Steve Holland and John Whitesides, Reuters President Barack Obama rolled to re-election and a second term in the White House on Tuesday with a clear victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney as the Democrat overcame deep doubts about his handling of the U.S. economy. Romney called Obama to concede after the president’s victories in … Continue reading
via John Whitesides, Reuters President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney make a frenetic dash to a series of crucial swing states on Monday, delivering their final arguments to voters on the last day of an extraordinarily close race for the White House. After a long, bitter and expensive campaign, national polls show Obama … Continue reading
via Reuters, The Huffington Post As polls point to a close U.S. presidential election, the country faces the possibility of political chaos – from a repeat of the disputed 2000 election to the remote possibility of a new administration with a president from one party and a vice president from the other. The most likely … Continue reading
via Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle The next president may have the power to change the direction of the Supreme Court – and determine the future of abortion, gay rights, corporate influence in politics and much more. The subject has hardly surfaced during the campaign, apart from Vice President Joe Biden’s brief reference at Thursday’s debate … Continue reading
via AP, Los Angeles Times The Senate closed the Capitol on Saturday after sending President Obama a spending bill that will make sure the government won’t shut down Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year. The measure passed early Saturday by a 62-30 vote — and then lawmakers skipped out of town to … Continue reading
via Jeremy Herb, The Hill’s Ballot Box The tight presidential race has all but ensured that Congress will not pass a bill before the election that would halt sequestration cuts to the military. President Obama and presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney have traded barbs over sequestration as the issue has amplified on the campaign trail … Continue reading
via Frank Bruni, The New York Times It makes no strategic sense for Bob Kerrey to bring up his support for gay marriage on the campaign trail in Nebraska, where he’s the Democratic nominee for an open Senate seat. Republicans far outnumber Democrats here; the state’s voters are socially conservative; his opponents are already smearing … Continue reading
via David Lawder, Reuters Massive U.S. government spending cuts and tax hikes due next year will cause even worse economic damage than previously thought if Washington fails to come up with a solution, the Congressional Budget Office warned on Wednesday. Without action by Congress to avoid a “fiscal cliff,” Americans should expect a “significant recession” … Continue reading
via Evan McMorris-Santoro, Talking Points Memo Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee for Senate in Missouri who is running against Sen. Claire McCaskill, justified his opposition to abortion rights even in case of rape with a claim that victims of “legitimate rape” have unnamed biological defenses that prevent pregnancy. “First of all, from what I … Continue reading
via Devin Leonard, Businessweek The U.S. Postal Service essentially went broke yesterday. It skipped a $5.5 billion payment to the U.S. Treasury for future retiree health-care payments and said it would do the same early next month when another $5.6 billion is due. This comes as no surprise. The USPS has been losing $25 million … Continue reading
via Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA), San Gabriel Valley Tribune Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, represents California’s 29th Congressional District. Three weeks ago, in a decision all but lost in the tumult over the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act, the Justices overturned a century-old Montana law that prohibited corporate spending in that state’s elections. In … Continue reading
via Sean Reilly, Federal Times, USA Today The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service is within weeks of defaulting on a legally required $5.5 billion payment into a health benefits fund for future retirees. So far, it appears House leaders have no intention of preventing that from happening — they have postponed any action on relief measures … Continue reading
via Jennifer Bendery, The Huffington Post President Barack Obama on Monday dropped in on a White House press call to urge the Senate to pass legislation that ensures women are paid the same amount as their male counterparts. “Tomorrow, Congress is going to have a chance to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act,” Obama said … Continue reading
via Carrie Budoff Brown and Seung Min Kim, Politico President Barack Obama’s embrace of same-sex marriage was viewed for so long as such a risky move that operatives in both parties expected it to drop like a bomb, handing Republicans a powerful wedge issue in an election year. Instead, it’s landed like a feather. Top … Continue reading
via Jon Walker, FireDogLake Things appear to be looking up for Senate Democrats. While this year will be inherently very tough for Senate Democrats — they have 23 seats to defend compared to the Republicans who have only 10 seats up this year — the Democrats recently received several pieces of good news. Earlier this … Continue reading
via Michelle Garcia, The Advocate The day after the Senate approved the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act with LGBT-inclusive provisions, members of the Republican-controlled House introduced their own version of the bill, which excludes coverage for LGBT citizens. The day after the Senate approved the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act with … Continue reading
via Michael McAuliff, The Huffington Post The House of Representatives advanced a bill Friday that funds cheaper student loans by cutting a preventive health care program — sparking a heated battle in which House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused Democrats of manufacturing a war on women. The House passed the bill by a vote of … Continue reading
via Alex Fitzpatrick, Mashable The House of Representatives changed, then passed, the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, late Thursday afternoon. As the dust settles, many are wondering where CISPA stands now and where it’s headed next. Hey Mashable, what’s CISPA? CISPA’s designed to let private business share information about … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 