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The Obama administration issued new rules Tuesday that require insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions — one of the most popular provisions of President Obama’s healthcare law. The Health and Human Services Department also began to implement other popular, but expensive, parts of the Affordable Care Act. Regulations released Tuesday will prohibit insurers from charging women a higher premium than men, and will require plans in every state to cover certain services.

Florida Rep. Allen West — the tea party pugilist and face of the class of House Republicans that stormed to power two years ago — conceded Tuesday to 29-year-old construction executive Patrick Murphy in one of the nation’s highest-profile congressional races. After two weeks of battle with St. Lucie County elections officials — and a recount of early votes that wound up extending Murphy’s lead — West acknowledged that he couldn’t surmount his 1,904-vote, or 0.58 percent, deficit. That difference was just outside the 0.5 percent threshold to automatically trigger a recount of all votes.

A rocket exploded in an open area near an Arab village in Gush Etzion around 2:15 p.m. as sirens wailed in Jerusalem during another barrage of rockets and missiles unleashed by Hamas. The missile exploded in an open area, and no one was injured. Minutes before the sirens rang out, an AFP correspondent in Gaza City reported hearing the loud report of an outgoing rocket. The attack was claimed by Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which said it had fired "an M75 rocket at the occupied city of Jerusalem." United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who spent the...

Three U.S. Navy amphibious warships are returning to the eastern Mediterranean to remain on standby in the event they are needed to assist Americans leaving Israel in the coming days, according to two U.S. officials. The officials stressed an evacuation remains an extremely remote possibility and the Obama administration is not currently planning for one. Americans who wish to leave the region now are able to do so using commercial airlines. But the decision to send the ships even if the event is such a remote contingency underscores the growing concern about where the Israel-Gaza conflict could be headed. "This...

GAZA CITY — The top leader of Hamas dared Israel on Monday to launch a ground invasion of Gaza and dismissed diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire in the six-day-old conflict, as the Israeli military conducted a new wave of deadly airstrikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave, including a second hit on a 15-story building that houses media outlets. A volley of rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel included one that hit a vacant school. Speaking at a news conference in Cairo, where the diplomatic efforts were under way, the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal, suggested that the Israeli infantry...

Dow Jones is reporting that a bankruptcy judge is urging mediation to save Hostess from liquidation. WSJ will have more to come as it comes out of the courtroom. Here’s an update from bankruptcy reporters Jacqueline Palank and Rachel Feintzeig A bankruptcy judge Monday asked whether he should preside over mediation between Hostess Brands Inc. and its striking union to avoid pulling the plug on the baker of Ho Hos, Twinkies and Wonder Bread.

Diplomatic message to Egypt: Hamas terrorism must cease by Tuesday evening or we step up attack. Israel has delivered an ultimatum to Hamas through Egypt, according to which the IDF will widen its offensive in Gaza in 36 hours unless Hamas ceases firing rockets and smuggling arms into Gaza, IDF Radio reported Monday morning. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told the station that the time left before Israel steps up its attack can be measured in "hours, not days." "We are at a junction," he said. "Either we go toward a calm or toward a meaningful widening of the operation… including...

November 18, 2012 Allen West Camp to Contest ‘Suspect Result’ on 'Behalf of all Voters in District 18’ By: JIM TURNER As St. Lucie County has reportedly missed the noon Sunday deadline to certify new numbers after a weekend recount of the first five days of early voting, the campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Allen West says more questions have arisen about how the election was conducted. “Today’s actions cast an even greater cloud of suspicion over the results of St. Lucie County than existed before,” Tim Edson, the campaign manager for the Palm Beach Gardens Republican, stated in a...

November 18, 2012 St. Lucie recount results shows Murphy picked up votes on West St. Lucie election official said state-mandated noon deadline met James Kirley FORT PIERCE -- Results of recounting more than 37,000 St. Lucie County ballots were announced shortly after 2 p.m. Sunday and preliminary figures given by Canvassing Board member Tod Mowery placed Jupiter Democrat Patrick Murphy farther ahead of Republican Allen West than before the two-day effort began. Murphy campaign senior advisor Eric Johnson was quick to reaffirm victory. "As far as we're concerned, this puts an end to it," Johnson said. "The West people demanded...

On Friday, Walmart filed an unfair labor practice charge against UFCW with the National Labor Relations Board to stop what Walmart says are illegal disturbances against its businesses. A group of Walmart employes, encouraged by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and OUR Walmart, are expected to strike on Black Friday. Black Friday is the store’s busiest day of the year, and this may be the largest strike against the company in its history. Two groups affiliated with the UFCW -- OUR Walmart and Making Change at Walmart -- have been organizing demonstrations and flash mobs outside...

p>The Talk Shows November 18th, 2012 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Scott Walker, R-Wis.MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Lindsey Graham R-S.C.; Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Raul Labrador.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., John McCain, R-Ariz., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.THIS WEEK (ABC): Reps. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Peter King, R-N.Y.; Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich..STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Durbin; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Reps. Tom Price, R-Ga., and C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger,...

St. Lucie elections officials suspend recount; tally to continue at 8 a.m. Sunday By James Kirley, Eric Pfahler FORT PIERCE — The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board suspended its recount of all early voting ballots late Saturday night, saying members would return at 8 a.m. Sunday to complete the job. The board made the announcement at 10 p.m. that it will continue tabulating write-in and provisional ballots Sunday after counting votes late into Saturday night as supporters for District 18 congressional candidates Patrick Murphy and Allen West watched the process. Poll workers finished entering in early ballots for all precincts...

As many as 1000 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) workers at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) are considering going on strike on Thanksgiving eve in what is the busiest travel day of the year. Andrew Gross-Gaitan, the director of the Southern California Airports Division of SEIU, said the protest would be in response to an LAX contractor that failed to comply with the city’s Living Wage Ordinance.

In a blockbuster report, John Solomon, the former Associated Press and Post reporter, has ferreted out the president's daily brief that informed him within 72 hours of the Sept. 11 attack that the Benghazi attack was a jihadist operation.Citing officials directly familiar with the information, Solomon writes in the Washington Guardian that Obama and other administration officials were told that "that the attack was likely carried out by local militia and other armed extremists sympathetic to al-Qaida in the region."He adds: The details from the CIA and Pentagon assessments of the killing of Ambassador Chris [Stevens] were far more...

A top Iraqi diplomat urged Arab states to “use the weapon of oil” against the United States because of its alliance with Israel, raising more questions about the Middle Eastern nation's allegiance to the nation that freed it from a ruthless dictatorship.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY CANVASSING BOARD ORDERS RETABULATION OF ALL EARLY VOTES IN ALLEN WEST RACE Jason Howerton The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board has ordered the retabulation of all early votes in the highly contested congressional race between Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and Democrat Patrick Murphy, according to Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a volunteer lawyer for the West campaign. The board voted 2-1 in favor of recounting the votes. “This retabulation of all early votes as the Supervisor of Elections originally planned is a victory for democracy,” Shapiro told TheBlaze. “This restores some level of trust and public confidence in the...

November 16, 2012 St. Lucie County had 304 uncounted votes, official says Johnathan Mattise At least 304 early votes in St. Lucie County were not counted, according to a Florida elections official during early voting at a canvassing board meeting Friday night. David Drury, head of the Division of Elections Bureau of Voting Systems Certifications also made a recommendation that the board re-run every early vote. The board will discuss that after running the 304 votes. It took about four hours to run the military and overseas ballots, which needed to be transferred by hand. The board is preparing to...

Allen West hearing live video: Allen West, Patrick Murphy race results challenged at 1 p.m. hearing By: Jonathan Mattise, Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers WPTV will be live streaming Friday's 1 p.m. hearing. CLICK HERE TO WATCH WHEN IT BEGINS ST. LUCIE COUNTY — A St. Lucie County Circuit Court judge has scheduled a hearing at 1 p.m. Friday for U.S. Rep. Allen West's latest St. Lucie challenge for an election recount. By noon, about 50 Allen West supporters have showed up outside the St. Lucie County Courthouse and were chanting scathing criticisms of county Supervisor of Elections Gertrude Walker. The...

Now that the GOP-e's anointed RINO has failed to attract sufficient numbers of conservative voters (the Republican base) to defeat the most blatantly corrupt liberal, er, communist useful idiot to ever occupy the White House, they've come up with an ingenious plan. We should "moderate" our stances against liberal causes like abortion, illegal aliens, the homosexual agenda, socialized healthcare, gun control, carbon tax, recreational drugs, resisting over taxing the "wealthy," etc. Our self-appointed Republican political "experts" now say we've lost the war against socialism and therefore must run up the white flag of surrender and become just like the godless...

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Obama administration official says a Tampa Bay socialite whose emails triggered the eventual downfall of CIA director David Petraeus visited the White House three times this year with her sister, twice eating in the Executive Mansion mess.