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Obama to make statement on Ukraine at 11:30 a.m. EDT: White House by Amy Tennery (Reuters) 8:50 AM

President Obama was in Delaware on Thursday when a Malaysian airliner went down near Ukraine's border with Russia. The president was scheduled to give a speech on transportation issues, but began his remarks talking about what, at that time, was thought to be a shoot down of a passenger jet. Daily Mail: President Barack Obama provoked fury in the U.S. on Thursday by casually devoting less than a minute to the deaths of 295 people aboard a Malaysian airliner, as he began an often jokey 16-minute speech about the need to expand America’s transportation infrastructure. There are no confirmed American...

Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) called the crisis of unaccompanied minors flooding the border a “disaster of the president’s own making.” Speaking on the Senate floor, Cruz denounced the president for his refusal to visit the border during his trip to Texas, despite his own administration designating it a humanitarian crisis: “President Obama today is down in the state of Texas but sadly he’s not visiting the border. He’s not visiting the children who are suffering as a result of the failures of the Obama policies. Instead, he’s doing fund-raisers . He’s visiting Democratic fat cats to collect checks and...

Senate Democrats introduced legislation on Wednesday to effectively reverse the Supreme Court’s decision last week exempting employers from having to provide insurance coverage for contraception. The law would not allow for-profit corporations to seek exemptions from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that their health plans cover contraception costs. Religious institutions would still be able to opt out. “Our bill simply says that your boss cannot get between you and your own healthcare,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the bill’s chief sponsor told reporters. “Last week, we saw the Supreme Court give CEOs and corporations across America the green light to design...

CNN) -- "Do you want to hit this?" a man asked President Barack Obama in a bar in Denver Tuesday night. The president laughed but didn't indulge. It wasn't the only time Obama was offered weed on his night out. That's apparently what happens in Colorado, which recently legalized recreational marijuana. The man posted the exchange on Instagram for the world to see. Obama has admitted to smoking pot as a young man. He was an active member of the "Choom Gang" in high school, which perfected all sorts of techniques for getting high.

Department of Homeland Security officials are stonewalling lawmakers who try to make unannounced visits to immigrant detention facilities throughout the country and are closing off public roads along the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to keep journalists from reporting on the growing illegal immigration crisis, federal law enforcement officials told TheBlaze. The officials said senior supervisors have made scheduling visits ahead of time mandatory at detention facilities, turned back officials from unannounced visits, and that Border Patrol agents have been forced to clean up facilities and transfer illegal aliens from unauthorized holding cells before they are inspected by lawmakers. Reporters...

Not only did “Morning Joe” mention Sarah Palin’s call for impeachment of President Obama on today’s show, it also ran a snippet of the video in which Palin says “enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president” and “it’s time to impeach.”

Monica Lewinsky has spoken out about becoming 'the most humiliated woman in the world' when salacious details of her affair with then-President Bill Clinton emerged. As part of her return to the spotlight, Lewinsky shared details in a new National Geographic documentary, 'The 90s: The Last Great Decade?', which will air starting next Sunday. On Tuesday, the Today show gave a first glimpse at the three-part special, in which Lewinsky, now 40, opens up about the day a 445-page report by special prosecutor Kenneth Starr was published. 'That was one of the worst days of my life,' she said. 'I...

President Obama watched some of Thursday’s World Cup match in which Germany defeated the U.S. 1-0 while flying to Minnesota aboard Air Force One. Photographers traveling with the president were ushered back into the conference room to catch a glimpse of Obama and other senior staff members watching the game. Presidential advisers Valerie Jarrett and Dan Pfeiffer were at the table, as were press secretary Josh Earnest and staffers Anita Decker Breckenridge, David Simas, and Dag Vega. The presidential watch party didn't prove good luck for the men's team, but the U.S. still advanced to the next round of the...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is currently claiming that seven different IRS officials experienced computer crashes that erased their emails and made it impossible for the IRS to cooperate with congressional investigations into the IRS targeting matter. The wave of computer crashes apparently struck both Washington, D.C. — where Lois Lerner oversaw the agency’s Exempt Organizations division — and also Cincinnati, Ohio — where agents processed tax-exempt applications. The Federal Records Act requires IRS employees to save all of their emails pertaining to agency business and to also print those emails out in case they have a computer crash.

An email recently released by the House Oversight Committee shows IRS official Sarah Ingram was pretty excited about President Obama publicly speaking out against conservative groups with "secret donors." The email was sent from Ingram to Lois Lerner and others inside the tax agency after a glowing piece was published in the New York Times about the IRS and the trouble it was having with new tax exempt applicants and groups in light of the 2010 Citizen's United ruling. "The 'secret donor' theme will continue -- see Obama salvo and today's Diane Reeham (sp). At least SS started the idea...

Can Democrats running in 2016 give the fake class warfare a rest? First Hillary claimed that she left the White House broke (and bought two mansions) and that after making $100 million she’s not truly well off. Now, never one to let his foot leave his mouth for too long, Joe Biden had to jump in and cry poverty. Hoping to establish credibility with the audience, which was gathered to discuss ways to improve working conditions for working families, Biden reminded people that he used to be the poorest member in Congress (in reality, the poorest member of the Senate)...

The White House believes that the election of a new House leadership team has opened up an opportunity to pass immigration reform this summer, presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett said Friday. Jarrett said the change necessitated by Rep. Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) surprising primary loss gives new life to immigration reform. “There’s a change in leadership obviously with Cantor’s loss and so we have an opportunity with a new team in place in the House to act,” Jarrett told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Friday. President Obama believes “this summer is a pivotal opportunity for us to get comprehensive...

Secretary of State John Kerry cautiously signalled on Monday that the United States would be open to cooperating with Iran militarily in Iraq to beat back al Qaida-inspired fighters who pose an "existential" danger to that war-torn country and may look to target Europe and the United States. “This is a challenge to the stability of the region. It is obviously an existential challenge to Iraq itself. This is a terrorist group,” Kerry told Yahoo News Global Anchor Katie Couric in an exclusive interview. Prodded on whether the United States would consider cooperating militarily with Iran, Kerry replied: "Let’s see...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is preparing to open a direct dialogue with longtime adversary Iran on security in Iraq and ways to push back Sunni militants who have taken over large areas of the country, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.Citing senior U.S. officials, the newspaper said the dialogue was expected to begin this week. It comes as the United States and other world powers strive for an agreement with Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

Hillary Clinton on Thursday said the U.S. shouldn’t provide military assistance to Iraq despite the threat from an Islamist militant group that has captured major cities. [READ MORE] “I agree with the White House’s rejection and reluctance to do the kind of military activities that the Maliki government is requesting, mainly the fighter aircraft to provide close support for the army and also to go after targets,” the former secretary of State said on BBC’s “Newsnight.” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki reportedly asked the Obama administration to launch airstrikes against militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)....

Video: The Evolution of Dad Dancing (w/ Jimmy Fallon & Gov. Chris Christie) The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was a leading and outspoken supporter of the Obama administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq and even defended the White House’s controversial failure to reach a status of forces agreement with the Iraqi government. Team Obama’s decisions in Iraq are coming under intense criticism from experts and lawmakers across the political spectrum in light of the seizure of key Iraqi cities by a violent Muslim extremist group that is seeking to transform the nation into a strict Islamic state. Clinton emerged as one of the top supporters of the withdrawal and defended...

Chelsea Clinton earned an annual salary of $600,000 at NBC News before switching to a month-to-month contract earlier this year, sources with knowledge of the agreement told POLITICO. Clinton, who joined NBC News as a “special correspondent” in November 2011, was up for renewal or non-renewal this year. Instead, the sources said, the network decided to keep her on the payroll on a month-to-month basis so that the two parties could sever ties if Clinton’s mother, Hillary, runs for president.

President Obama reflected on his own struggles as he delivered the commencement address to the graduating class at Worcester Technical High School in Worcester, Mass., on Wednesday. Saluting graduates as they left the safety of high school behind, the President talked about the obstacles he had had to overcome as a youngster growing up in Hawaii, adding that his family at times ‘had to scrape to get by.’ He held up the revitalized technical school as a model for the United States in an increasingly competitive global workforce. (snip) Reflecting on his own youth, Obama said the support of his...