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President Obama, in a historic first for the Pentagon, has chosen to nominate Eric Fanning to lead the Army, a move that would make him the first openly gay civilian secretary of one of the military services. Fanning’s nomination is the latest in a series of actions taken by the administration to advance the rights of gays and lesbians throughout the federal government. The Obama administration has overhauled internal policies to provide benefits to same-sex partners, appointed gay men and lesbians to the executive branch and the federal bench and ended the 18-year ban on gays serving openly in the...

Enjoy! Thanks for being MY country!!!

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- Police say a fight over gumbo spices ended with the fatal stabbing of a Florida restaurant worker and former Florida State mascot. Panama City police say 33-year-old Caleb Joshua Halley was working at Buddy's Seafood Market last Tuesday when he and a co-worker, 26-year-old Orlando Thompson, began arguing about how much spice to add to the restaurant's gumbo.

Republicans like to talk about impeaching President Obama, but there is a far more deserving candidate for impeachment—Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court. While the Republicans in Congress have blocked Democrats from enacting much of substance, the GOP majority in control of the Court has been effectively legislating on its own, following an agenda neatly aligned with their conservative party. Step by step, the five right-wing justices are transforming the terms of the American political system—including the Constitution. They empowered “dark money” in politics and produced the $4 billion by-election of 2014. They assigned spiritual values to soulless...

he Thomas Jefferson Memorial, which has stood near the banks of the Potomac River in Washington for more than 70 years, is a classical tribute to the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third U.S. president.. This week, the Jefferson Memorial was drawn into the national debate about race following the shooting deaths of nine people in a predominantly black church in South Carolina last week. It joins other public statues depicting Southern or Confederate figures, including Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, that some are arguing represent the country's racist past and should be removed. CNN anchor...

Louis Farrakhan stated “We need to put the American flag down. Because we’ve caught as much hell under that as the Confederate flag” in remarks before the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington, DC on Wednesday first reported by DC’s WMAL. Farrakhan said, “White folks march with you because they don’t want you upsetting the city, they don’t give a damn about them nine.” He added that when the police took suspected shooter Dylann Roof to Burger King they were saying “You did a good job. Kill all them [bleep.]”

LAUSSANE, Switzerland—The Obama administration is giving in to Iranian demands about the scope of its nuclear program as negotiators work to finalize a framework agreement in the coming days, according to sources familiar with the administration’s position in the negotiations. U.S. negotiators are said to have given up ground on demands that Iran be forced to disclose the full range of its nuclear activities at the outset of a nuclear deal, a concession experts say would gut the verification the Obama administration has vowed would stand as the crux of a deal with Iran. Until recently, the Obama administration had...

WASHINGTON — She has been the chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, a senior adviser to a Republican presidential nominee and a candidate for the United States Senate. But Carly Fiorina recently took on her boldest role yet: Hillary Rodham Clinton’s loudest critic. Over the past few weeks, Ms. Fiorina has mocked Mrs. Clinton’s globe-trotting as secretary of state, assailed Mrs. Clinton’s use of only a private email account to do official business, and even accused Mrs. Clinton of stealing intellectual property. From her. Twice. Ms. Fiorina insists she has no problem with Mrs. Clinton personally — only with her liberal philosophy...

The Transportation Security Administration said it is unlikely to detect and unable to extinguish what an FBI report called “the greatest potential incendiary threat to aviation,” according to a classified document obtained by The Intercept. Yet despite that warning, sources said TSA is not adequately preparing to respond to the threat. Thermite — a mixture of rust and aluminum powder — could be used against a commercial aircraft, TSA warned in a Dec. 2014 document, marked secret [PDF here]. “The ignition of a thermite-based incendiary device on an aircraft at altitude could result in catastrophic damage and the death of...

Pres. Obama is daring Republicans to vote on whether or not his executive actions are legal. Discussing opposition to his executive amnesty orders at an immigration town hall Wednesday, Obama said he would veto the vote because his actions are “the right thing to do”: “So in the short term, if Mr. McConnell, the leader of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, want to have a vote on whether what I’m doing is legal or not, they can have that vote. I will veto that vote, because I’m absolutely confident that what we’re doing is the...

Illegal immigrants who are able to obtain Social Security Numbers and work permits as a result of President Obama’s executive amnesty could claim tens of thousands of dollars in back tax benefits, a new Congressional Research Service memo obtained first by Breitbart News reveals. The report comes following the Internal Revenue Service’s confirmation that once illegal immigrants are granted Social Security Numbers — as a result of Obama’s executive actions — they will be able to file back tax returns and obtain up to four years of tax benefits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax...

Seven months after federal officials fired CGI Federal for its botched work on Obamacare website Healthcare.gov, the IRS awarded the same company a $4.5 million IT contract for its new Obamacare tax program. CGI is a $10.5 billion Montreal-based company that has forever been etched into the public’s mind as the company behind the bungled Obamacare main website. After facing a year of embarrassing failures, federal officials finally pulled the plug on the company and terminated CGI’s contract in January 2014. Yet on Aug. 11, seven months later, IRS officials signed a new contract with CGI to provide “critical functions”...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — West Virginia quietly passed the ignominious milestone of having less than half of its adult, civilian population in the workforce in November. State data compiled by the Labor Department shows that West Virginia’s civilian labor participation rate has fallen to 49.8%, from 50% in October. The national rate in December was 62.7%. The Mountain State is the only state in the history of the series, which goes back to 1976, to have fallen below 50%, though Mississippi at 50.8% isn’t far behind. The troubles that have befallen West Virginia have been well publicized, notably the diminished demand...

This year is already seeing a wave of new regulations being published in the Federal Register as the Obama administration unveils 300 new rules in the first seven days of 2015, according to federal data. Federal agencies have published 300 final rules, proposals for new rules and regulatory notices in the seven days since the new year began, according to the website Regulations.gov. The bulk of these new regulations are notices, which can lead to rulemakings, meetings and other government activities. Rules having to do with energy, environment, public lands and agriculture make up the largest share of new regulations....

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, announced Thursday she will not run for re-election in 2016.

Historians take issue with director Ava DuVernay focus on former president Lyndon B. Johnson Days away from the wide release of “Selma,” a controversy around the film is gaining steam as historians take issue with its depiction of president Lyndon B. Johnson clashing with Martin Luther King, Jr. over voting rights. In a lengthy New York Times story about historians taking issue with the movie, Diane McWhorter, the author of “Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution,”argued Thursday that the movie is not truthful in depicting LBJ (played by Tom Wilkinson) fighting King on...

It appears as though NBC has gone all in by creating yet another musical for the network. Following primetime productions of The Sound of Music and Peter Pan, NBC decided to create a Today musical featuring the cast and crew of the network's morning show. The 30-minute special aired on Monday, December 29 and while it included numerous scenes, one featuring Matt Lauer and his female colleagues was the most bizarre. During a scene in which Lauer was having his pants ironed by an NBC staffer, the NBC anchor turned to Savannah Guthrie, Natalie Morales, Jenna Bush Hager and Tamron...

By Jeffry Bartash Reporter   WASHINGTON (MarketWatch)—To hear the White House tell it, the November elections never happened and 2014 was a super-duper year for President Obama. In a “Year in Review” slideshow, the White House suggests 2014 represented a “breakthrough” for America. The Obama administration takes credit for: • An economy growing at a record pace; • The longest streak of private-sector job growth on record; • The number of Americans without health insurance falling to a near record low; • Concerted action to prevent sexual assaults on college campuses; • The highest high school graduation rate in...

In an attempt to promote transparency in military activities between the two countries, Russia will conduct an observation flight over the United States as part of the Treaty on Open Skies between Dec. 8 and Dec. 13, Sergei Ryzhkov, head of Russia’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, said Monday. The flight will be launched from Travis Air Force Base in California and cover a maximum range of 2,640 miles. A group of U.S. specialists will also board the Russian aircraft to monitor the flight and to ensure that norms of the treaty are not violated. According to the U.S. Department...

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Is the U.S. Ebola screening effort really just a public-relations ploy? Health officials say beefed-up defenses in five U.S. airports mean they will screen 94% of passengers flying in from Ebola-hit countries. But a check of airlines schedules shows that even if that figure is correct, a significant number of flights will bypass that extra security. Dr. Joseph McCormick, professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health and former CDC official specializing in viral diseases, says the efforts seem to be the result of public pressure. “I think that the screening program is, to...