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Democrat Chad Taylor must stay on the ballot for U.S. Senate in Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday afternoon. Kobach said Taylor submitted a letter Wednesday to withdraw from the race but did not declare he was incapable of serving, which is also required. The Kansas Republican Party had questioned whether Taylor, the Shawnee County district attorney, could withdraw. Kansas law means “we now have no choice” but to put Taylor’s name on the ballot, Kobach told reporters at an afternoon news conference. “The law is the law.” Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article1504835.html#storylink=cpy

Democrat Chad Taylor has dropped out of the Kansas Senate race, according to local reports, complicating Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-Kan.) reelection fight. ADVERTISEMENT Local outlet Kansas First News is reporting Taylor, the Shawnee County district attorney, said he submitted papers to withdraw himself from the ballot at 4:15 p.m. Central Time Wednesday, just 45 minutes before the deadline to exit the race. The race is now a three-way battle between Roberts, independent Greg Orman and libertarian Randall Batson. Now, Taylor’s exit may create more of a headache for Roberts, who has emerged as surprisingly vulnerable in recent weeks, with multiple...

The Alaska Democratic Party broke with long tradition Monday when its central committee voted 89-2 to not field a gubernatorial ticket and instead put its weight behind the independent campaign of Bill Walker and Byron Mallott. The vote to support the fusion ticket was contingent on Walker dropping his Republican Party affiliation. Mallott will quit as the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor, as will his running mate, state Sen. Hollis French. But Mallott will remain a Democrat, executive director Kay Brown said after the vote at party headquarters in a Spenard bungalow.

After this week’s dreary news out of Kansas, we owe Hot Air readers a pleasant surprise, and this may be it. Martha Coakley, who lost a special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy four years ago despite the near-total grip Democrats have on Massachusetts, may be in the process of losing another election. Republican gubernatorial nominee Charlie Baker took his first lead in the Boston Globe poll series, edging Coakley barely, while neither candidate looks to be catching fire: Republican Charlie Baker has edged ahead of Democrat Martha Coakley in the race for...

The White House said Monday that President Obama won’t necessarily seek congressional approval if he decides to order airstrikes in Syria against militants of the Islamic State. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Mr. Obama, who is meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Monday afternoon, “has not made a decision to pursue any military action in Syria.” But he said the president doesn’t see the need to seek congressional approval as he did a year ago, when he was considering an attack on the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for its use of chemical weapons. “That was a...

According to a new Sunday Times report by Toby Harden, "Pentagon sources said Foley and the others might well have been rescued but Obama, concerned about the ramifications of US troops being killed or captured in Syria, took too long to authorise the mission." It's claimed that Obama was concerned about his administration being Carterized had the mission failed.

President Barack Obama is sending three White House officials to the funeral service of the Missouri teenager whose death in a police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, has sparked days of racial unrest. Leading the group for Monday’s service will be the chairman of the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force, Broderick Johnson. My Brother’s Keeper is an Obama initiative that aims to empower young minorities. Johnson is also the secretary for the Cabinet. Also attending will be the deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Marlon Marshall, and an adviser for the office, Heather Foster. The White House...

A statement shown on screen on An-Nabaa television, regarded as close to the Islamists, said: "Fajr Libya announces that it totally controls Tripoli international airport." Earlier on Saturday, leaders of the Islamist coalition, partly comprising men from Misrata, east of Tripoli, said their forces were advancing on the airport, having taken a bridge and a military base. The strategic site 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the Libyan capital, has been shut since July 13 amid skirmishes between the Islamists and the Zintan force, allies of rogue general Khalifa Haftar, based at Benghazi in eastern Libya and hostile to the...

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials say military planners are weighing the possibility of sending more American forces to Iraq mainly to provide additional security around Baghdad. A senior U.S. official says the number of troops currently under discussion would be fewer than 300, but there has been no final decision yet by Pentagon leaders. The talks come as American fighter jets and drones conducted nearly a dozen airstrikes in Iraq since Tuesday when Islamic State militants threatened to kill a second American captive in retribution for any continued attacks.

Warning for link - can be distressing. Evil straight from the pits of hell': American journalist James Foley reportedly beheaded by ISIS

<p>President Barack Obama says he's sending about 200 more U.S. troops to Iraq to protect Americans and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.</p> <p>The announcement will bring to nearly 800 the total number of U.S. forces in and around Iraq to train local forces, secure the embassy and protect American interests.</p>

Update 2:43 pm ET: The White House just reversed course on Kerry: White House says U.S. won't pursue coordinated military action with Iran in Iraq.

The Islamist militant group that has seized control of parts of Iraq has been outlawed in the UK. The Home Office said it would be a criminal offence to associate with or give financial backing to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis). The UK has ruled out a role in any possible military action but may give other support to the Iraqi government. Nick Clegg has warned that the turmoil in Iraq and Syria is a "very direct threat" to the safety of UK citizens. The deputy prime minister said the UK would not provide "active frontline...

The USS Mesa Verde with 550 Marines on board entered the Gulf on Monday to support possible U.S. action to help Iraq's Shi'ite-led government combat a Sunni Islamist insurgency that has overtaken large areas of the country's north, CNN reported. The USS Mesa Verde joins the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, which the Pentagon ordered on Saturday to move into the Gulf. President Barack Obama has said he is considering military action, short of putting U.S. troops in Iraq, to aid that government's efforts to stop the insurgency.

<p>The American Embassy in Baghdad plans to evacuate a substantial number of its personnel this week in the face of a militant advance that rapidly swept from the north toward the capital, the State Department announced on Sunday.</p> <p>The embassy, a beige fortress on the banks of the Tigris River within the heavily-secured Green Zone, where Iraqi government buildings are also located, has the largest staff of any United States Embassy.</p>

Militants have seized the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and efforts are under way to ensure the safety of diplomatic staff, two Turkish government sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Sunni insurgents from an al Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), seized Mosul on Tuesday in a show of strength against Iraq's Shi'ite-led government. "Certain militant groups in Mosul have been directly contacted to ensure the safety of diplomatic staff," a Turkish government source said, adding there was no immediate information on the status of the diplomats. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip...

<p>Iraq's prime minister has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency over a militant attack in Mosul.</p>

Stunning developments right now. Iraqi prime minister al-Maliki has just called for urgent help from the UN, the EU and the Arab League. As of right now Mosul has been taken by Isis - AQ, 28 turkish truck drivers kidnapped, Mosul Airport over-run and Isis has taken aircraft. Well done AQ now has a fleet of military helicopters. Militant gunmen free up to 1000 in Mosul prison break Military has abandoned all posts in Mosul. So does Obama still think this is going well?

Just Breaking on AP wires.......I have heard it all now.......lies lies and more lies.

The Los Angeles Fire Department reports a ruptured oil pipe near Glendale has spilled about 50,000 gallons of crude oil onto streets. According to a Fire Department release, the leak from a 20-inch pipe was reported around 12:15 a.m. and the oil line was remotely shut off. No injuries were reported. Oil spilled over approximately half a mile and is knee high in some areas. A handful of commercial businesses are affected.