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The Biden administration was forced to offer up 2,600 square miles of federal oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico this week, following a deal made by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) in exchange for his support of the left’s climate legislation last summer. Major oil companies have offered bids on more than 2,600 square miles (6,700 square kilometers) of federal oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico in a sale mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Wednesday’s auction was the first in over a year and was expected to draw interest from...

1:57 New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) wants to expand her state’s “assault weapons” ban in the wake of Saturday’s Buffalo shooting. New York has some of the most stringent gun controls in the Union. Those controls include universal background checks, a “high capacity” magazine ban, a permit requirement to buy a handgun, a red flag law, gun storage requirements, “ghost gun” regulations, and a prohibition against gun possession by felons, among other gun control laws.

President Joe Biden celebrated the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Obamacare on Thursday, promising to expand the law in the future. “Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision is a major victory for all Americans benefitting from this groundbreaking and life-changing law,” Biden wrote in a statement.

WASHINGTON - On May 21, 2013 Ted Cruz argued before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that we should "expand legal immigration".

A day after reports that US President Barack Obama is planning new sanctions on companies taking part in Iran's ballistic missile program, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came out swinging Thursday, giving an order to escalate the missile program. Rouhani issued a decree to Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehqan to accelerate Iran's production of "various types of missiles," reports the Iranian state-run PressTV. According to the report Wednesday, the potential new sanctions would target about 12 companies and individuals in Iran, Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates for their suspected role in developing Iran's ballistic missile program, which...

The United States responded on Monday to news that Israel was planning to expand its state land and launch a new building project in the West Bank. The IDF on Sunday conferred the status of state land on 4,000 dunams in the Gush Etzion region, thus ending the civil administration’s investigation into the possibility that parcels were private Palestinian property. [Snip] "We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity," a State Department official said. "This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue, is counterproductive to Israel´s stated

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the help of former President Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party launched a national drive on Thursday to expand voting opportunities and fight back against what it calls restrictive voting laws. The program will establish permanent procedures and staff in each state to help register and educate voters, and work with local officials to expand access to the polls in the November elections and beyond. Voting laws have been the subject of partisan fights since 2011, when a wave of Republican-sponsored state laws began to impose stricter identification requirements on voters or restrict access, including by cutting...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Rick Scott announced plans Wednesday to expand Medicaid coverage to roughly 900,000 more people under the federal health overhaul, a surprise decision from the vocal critic of President Barack Obama's plan. Scott said he will ask the Legislature to expand the program under a bill that would expire in three years, after which it would require renewed legislative support. He's the seventh Republican governor so far to propose expanding the taxpayer-funded health insurance program. Scott said he would support the expansion as long as the federal government pays 100 percent of the increased costs, which is...

Conservative firebrand Glenn Beck has joined a growing chorus of Republican commentators in defending gay marriage, laying out a strong case for ending government opposition to letting same-sex couples wed. "Let me take the pro-gay marriage people and the religious people — I believe that there is a connecting dot there that nobody is looking at, and that's the Constitution," Beck said during a recent segment of his online talk show. "The question is not whether gay people should be married or not. The question is why is the government involved in our marriage?" While Beck's defense of gay marriage...

In what his campaign is billing as a major policy speech, Mitt Romney will unveil an energy plan Thursday that would give states the power to determine whether drilling should occur on federal lands within their borders as part of a larger effort to increase domestic oil production and achieve energy independence. Under current law, the federal government controls oil and gas permits for federal lands. But in a speech at an oilfield services company in Hobbs. N.M., Romney will argue that determination should be up to state officials, insisting individual states are in a better position to "develop, adopt...

OAKLAND -- Protesters who have brought the Occupy movement to San Francisco are fighting for the ability to camp out from one night to the next. But the scene in Oakland couldn't be more different. Over the past nine days in Oakland, officials have allowed activists to construct an astonishing mini-city of more than 150 tents in a plaza outside City Hall, complete with a kitchen, a school and a first-aid station. Covering what was once a grass lawn is a layer of straw, and walkways made of wood pallets and cardboard. The talk on Tuesday was of a long...

Planned Parenthood to Expand Abortion Biz in Nebraska, Iowa Lincoln, NE -- Fresh from a victory in the Senate to preserve its massive taxpayer funding, a local affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business announced today it plans to expand in Nebraska and Iowa. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/04/15/planned-parenthood-to-expand-abortion-biz-in-nebraska-iowa/

St. Paul, Minn. — Gov. Mark Dayton is expected today to put an end to an eight-month discussion over whether the state should enroll thousands of low- and middle-income Minnesotans into an expanded federal health care program. Dayton is scheduled to sign an executive order that would expand Medicaid coverage in Minnesota -- a move Republicans in the Legislature oppose. Dayton's decision won't put an end to the debate.

President Barack Obama announced 66 Recovery Act projects Friday aimed at expanding broadband Internet access and public computing centers in underserved communities at a cost of $795 million. The projects vary widely in their size, scope and focus, from a $45 million grant to expand broadband access in western Massachusetts to a $1.8 million grant to the Montana State Library to provide faster Internet at its 42 local libraries. Speaking at Andrews Air Force Base on Friday morning, Obama said he expects the projects to create 5,000 construction and installation jobs in the short term and benefit millions of Americans...

BOGOTA – In a private, low-key ceremony, the U.S. ambassador and three Colombian ministers on Friday signed a pact giving American personnel expanded access to military bases in this drug-producing country, a deal that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region's security. Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the 10-year deal takes effect immediately and restricts U.S. military operations to Colombian territory — alluding to fears expressed by leftist leaders in the region that it would make Colombia a base for asserting U.S. power in South America. Details of the pact, which aims to boost drug and counterinsurgency...

Taleban militants operating in Pakistan's Swat region who agreed a peace deal with the government have expanded operations into nearby Buner. Dozens of militants have been streaming into bordering Buner to take over mosques and government offices. Buner is part of the Malakand region, which has just seen the implementation of Sharia law under the peace deal. But the Taleban have mainly operated in Swat, where they fought the army from August 2007 until this year's deal. Under the deal the Taleban were expected to disarm. Buner district is only about 100km (62 miles) from the capital, Islamabad. Mian Iftikhar...

WASHINGTON – Congress has voted to set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness — from California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. The legislation, which opponents, mostly Republicans, called a "land grab" that would block energy development on vast swaths of federal land, is on its way to President Barack Obama for his likely signature. The House passed the bill, 285-140, Wednesday, the final step in a long legislative road that began last year. The vote came two weeks after the House rejected the bill amid a partisan dispute over...

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a part of the Voting Rights Act aimed at helping minorities elect their preferred candidates only applies in electoral districts where minorities make up more than half the population. The decision could make it harder for some minority candidates to win election and for southern Democrats, in particular, to draw friendly electoral boundaries after the 2010 Census. The 5-4 decision, with the court's conservatives in the majority, came in the case of a North Carolina plan that sought to preserve the influence of African-American voters even though they made up just 39...

Liberal Democrats in the House are lobbying hard to put President-elect Obama’s economic stimulus bill over the trillion-dollar mark. “Some of us are saying we need a stimulus of 1.2 or 1.3 or 1.4 trillion to prevent a depression, rather than just slow our descent into a depression,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). The Congressional Progressive Caucus is circulating a letter to Obama among its members, asking for a meeting with him to talk about dramatically expanding the bill. The caucus is also seeking signatures from members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Asian-Pacific Islander Caucus and the Congressional Black...

UNITED NATIONS - An interim proposal to tackle the divisive issue of Security Council reform would expand the U.N.'s most powerful body from 15 to 22 members but leave it up to the 192 U.N. member states to decide which countries should fill them. The proposal, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, also leaves it up to U.N. members to decide how long the new seats should be held — with suggestions of two years, five years and permanently offered as possible options. It leaves the contentious issue of veto power to future negotiations. There is strong support for enlarging...