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A federal appeals court has ruled that President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill vacancies on a labor relations panel. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit says Obama did not have the power to make recess appointments earlier this year to the National Labor Relations Board.

Not everyone will have to abide by Senator Dianne Feinstein's gun control bill. If the proposed legislation becomes law, government officials and others will be exempt. "Mrs. Feinstein's measure would exempt more than 2,200 types of hunting and sporting rifles; guns manually operated by bolt, pump, lever or slide action; and weapons used by government officials, law enforcement and retired law enforcement personnel," the Washington Times reports.

Documents published online for the first time Thursday indicate that the FBI opened an inquiry into New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez on August 1, 2012, focusing on repeated trips he took to the Dominican Republic with longtime campaign contributor and Miami eye doctor Salomon Melgen. TheDC reported in November that Menendez purchased the service of prostitutes in that Caribbean nation at a series of alcohol-fueled sex parties. The documents, which The Daily Caller had obtained hours earlier from an anonymous source, also indicate that Carrie Levine, research director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), was alerted...

No surprise that the Communist Party USA, plus official voices from Communist China and Russia, endorse Obama's latest attacks on the 2nd Amendment. Communists Cheer On Obama’s Gun Grab The New American 24 January 2013 It should come as no surprise that the Communist Party USA is on board with President Obama’s plan to attack Americans’ right to keep and bear arms as a means to “end gun violence.” A cardinal feature of communist regimes, like all dictatorships, is the prohibition of private ownership of arms, creating a monopoly of force in the hands of the State. In a...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Rhode Island House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation to allow gays and lesbians to marry in the only New England state where they can't. The House voted 51-19 after an often emotional debate that touched on civil rights, religion and the nature of marriage. The bill now moves to the Senate, where both supporters and opponents of gay marriage say it is difficult to predict the bill's fate. "This has been a long journey," said House Speaker Gordon Fox, who is gay and supported same-sex legislation when it was first introduced in 1997. "Today...

After the last vote is counted, officials say Ahmad Tibi's party Raam-Taal drops from five seats to four, while Naftali Bennett's party gains one, Kadima party makes it over the threshold with two mandates. The count of the "double envelope" votes came to a close on Thursday afternoon, with Bayit Yehudi finishing at 12 seats, Kadima crossing the threshold with two seats and the Raam-Taal party dropping from five to four seats, officials said. The votes of 200,000 soldiers, plus those of prisoners and people in hospitals, were counted a day later than the regular vote. These ballots are called...

We the people have spoken.

SNIP "We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," the country's top military body said.

Dear FRiends, We need your continuing support to keep FR on the air. FR is funded solely by contributions made by liberty loving people who enjoy and use it. We are beholden to no political party. No outsiders, no sugar daddies, no corporate string pullers. We are self-funded, fiercely independent and enjoy our freedom to speak plainly in the support of liberty. But we cannot exist without you. If you have not yet made your donation, today would be an excellent day to do so. Every donation counts no matter how big or small. If you can donate $5, $10,...

Panetta removes military ban on women in combat, opening thousands of front line positions.

2pm (ET) LIVE: Investigation of Benghazi Attack

In his 1980 graduate thesis at the University of Texas at Austin, John Brennan denied the existence of “absolute human rights” and argued in favor of censorship on the part of the Egyptian dictatorship. “Since the press can play such an influential role in determining the perceptions of the masses, I am in favor of some degree of government censorship,” Brennan wrote. “Inflamatory [sic] articles can provoke mass opposition and possible violence, especially in developing political systems.” Brennan serves as President Barack Obama’s national security advisor. Obama has nominated him to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

Senate hearing: 9:00a.m. EST. House hearing: 2:00 p.m. ESTWatch live here. Also on C-SPAN 3. In her first testimony since the Benghazi attack, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will participate in a full day of hearings Wednesday about U.S. diplomatic security and the American mission in Libya. Sec. Clinton will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the morning followed by an afternoon testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In December, the State Department's highest ranking foreign service officers, William Burns and Thomas Nides, testified before Congressional lawmakers in the Secretary's place. They discussed a new report by...

JERUSALEM – In a stunning setback, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line bloc fared worse than expected in a parliamentary election Tuesday, exit polls showed, possibly forcing the incumbent Israeli leader to invite surprisingly strong moderate rivals into his government and soften his line toward the Palestinians. TV exit polls showed the hard-liners with about 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament, a bare majority, and the counts could change as actual votes are tallied. The unofficial TV results had Netanyahu winning only 31 seats, though he combined his Likud Party with the far-right Yisrael Beitenu for the voting. Running separately four...

Reid to Senate Republicans: Filibuster deal in 36 hours or face nuclear option By Alexander Bolton - 01/22/13 03:29 PM ET Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is giving Republican colleagues 36 hours to agree to a deal on filibuster reform or he will move forward with the nuclear option. “I hope in the next 24, 36 hours we can get something we agree on. If not, we’re going to move forward on what I think needs to be done,” Reid told reporters. Reid’s trump card in negotiations with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is the threat he will...

It's being reported on KXAN.com noon news that multiple people shot at on Lone Star College in Houston, TX. It's a tech school.

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Algerian bomb squads scouring a gas plant where Islamist militants took dozens of foreign workers hostage found "numerous" new bodies on Sunday as they searched for explosive traps left behind by the attackers, a security official said, a day after a bloody raid ended the four-day siege of the remote desert refinery. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the bodies were badly disfigured and difficult to identify.

The Talk Shows January 20th, 2013 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): David Plouffe, adviser to President Barack Obama; Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Ted Cruz, R-Texas; David Axelrod, adviser to President Barack Obama. FACE THE NATION (CBS): Plouffe; Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state under President George W. Bush; Dee Dee Myers, former press secretary for President Bill Clinton; Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas; Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio..THIS WEEK (ABC): Plouffe; actress Eva Longoria, co-chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. STATE OF...

President Barack Obama offered on Saturday to provide any assistance the Algerian government needs after a deadly hostage siege at a desert gas plant and said the United States was seeking a "fuller understanding" from Algerian authorities of what took place there. "The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the families of all those who were killed and injured in the terrorist attack in Algeria," Obama said in his first comments on the hostage crisis. Obama's written statement was issued by the White House after the Algerian army carried out a dramatic final assault to end a...