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<p>The Associated Press has learned that a registered sex offender working as an unpaid intern for Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey is facing deportation after being arrested by federal immigration authorities.</p>

(CNN) -- The wait is over for Pope Benedict XVI's many Twitter followers, and they have been quick to respond to the much anticipated first tweet from his personal account Wednesday morning.... (video at link)

Now that the election is over, we are starting to see the contours of what lies ahead for the next four years. Here are some likely consequences from the Obama victory.1. Barack Obama is not very interested in tax reform, deficit reduction, or curbing annual spending. He believes in big government, and the bigger the better. His tenure is not so much a repudiation of Reaganism as it is of Clintonism, and the whole notion of keeping the annual growth of federal spending at or below 2 percent, balancing the budget, and declaring the era of big government over....

The White House snubs the appeal of the Polish Nation to support the establishment of an international investigation of the Smolensk 2010 air crash. The White House released its official department of state response describing its position on a petition filed with https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/ asking to support the Polish Nation appeal for an international investigation of the Smolensk 2010 air crash. The statement (along with the original petition) can be found here and reads as following: The White House has received your petition requesting support for an international investigation of the Polish Air Force Tu‑154 crash that occurred near Smolensk, Russia,...

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say they have arrested a Panamanian woman arriving at Barcelona airport with 1.38 kilograms (3 pounds) of cocaine concealed in breast implants. The Interior Ministry said Wednesday that border police noticed fresh scars and blood-stained gauze on her chest as well as pale patches beneath her skin.

The Cincinnati Reds held their annual "Redsfest" over the weekend and the biggest happening — other than Bronson Arroyo's Goo Goo Dolls cover or Mat Latos' Justin Bieber impression — was the introduction of the team's new alternate jersey. That's it to the right here. The Reds will wear the "Los Rojos" tops on select dates this season as they follow other teams into the world of Spanish-themed jerseys.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve ramped up its stimulus to the economy on Wednesday, expressing disappointment with the pace of recovery in employment as contentious U.S. budget talks heighten uncertainty about the outlook. The central bank replaced a more modest stimulus program due to expire at year-end with a fresh round of Treasury purchases that will increase its balance sheet. It committed to monthly purchases of $45 billion in Treasuries on top of the $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed bonds it started buying in September. In a surprise move, the Fed also adopted numerical thresholds for policy, a...

Jacob Tyler Roberts, 22, was the masked man who stormed into Clackamas Town Center Tuesday afternoon, fatally shooting two people and wounding another before turning a gun on himself, police said. Roberts does not appear to have a criminal history in Oregon, according to court records. He had two speeding tickets earlier this year. Court records show that Roberts and a woman, Hannah Shoemake, were evicted last summer from their Happy Valley apartment. Roberts' mother answered her door at her Portland home, but declined to comment to an Oregonian reporter. "I loved my son very much," she said.

The masked gunman who killed two people in the crowded Clackamas Town Center mall in suburban Portland, Ore., was identified today as Jacob Tyler Roberts. Roberts, 22, was armed with a stolen AR-15 semi-automatic weapon, Sheriff Craig Roberts told a news conference today. He was not wearing a bullet-proof vest as previously reported.

Palazzo, Venetian welcome veterans to Las Vegas in style By Marco Villarreal CREATED Dec. 5, 2012 Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) -- It's the season of giving and it's especially nice when the people on the receiving end have already given so much to protect our nation. Wounded war veterans were given a well-deserved "thank you" at the Palazzo Wednesday afternoon. Joined with the Armed Forced Foundation, veterans were greeted at the hotel with applause and cheers from hundreds of team members from the Palazzo and the Venetian. Veterans came in with close family and loved ones; some physically supported or...

The Obama administration is launching a brand-new public service announcement to tout Treasury and Housing & Urban Development‘s joint initiative to help progress "the Obama Administration's broad strategy to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, stabilize the country's housing market, and improve the nation's economy." Via Politico: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO... “While communities across the country are beginning to recover from an unprecedented housing crisis, too many families are still struggling with their mortgage payments and are unsure of where to turn for help,” said Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance Mary Miller in a statement. “Millions of homeowners have...

White people will no longer make up a majority of Americans by 2043, according to new census projections, part of a historic shift that is already reshaping the nation's schools, workforce and electorate. The official projection, released Wednesday by the Census Bureau, now places the tipping point for the white majority a year later than previous estimates, which were made before the impact of the recent economic downturn was fully known. America continues to grow and become more diverse due to higher birth rates among minorities, particularly for Hispanics who entered the U.S. at the height of the immigration boom...

Patrick Moran, the son of Democratic Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, is having a bad year. First, undercover video operative James O'Keefe caught him on tape half-heartedly discussing how to commit voter fraud...while acting as the field director for his dad's campaign. Now Moran's taken a more criminal turn, pleading guilty earlier today to allegedly beating up his girlfriend outside a Columbia Heights bar. SNIP In a statement to Washington City Paper, Rep. Moran described his son and his girlfriend as "good kids." "I hope their privacy will be respected," the congressman said. "They look forward to putting this embarrassing situation...

Are higher taxes inevitable? If they are, Senator Rand Paul wants no Republican fingerprints on them. Last night, he told Greta van Susteren on Fox News that House Republicans should pass a bill with their specific plan to cut spending and fix the tax code to address the fiscal-cliff issues, and dare the Senate to take it up. If Democrats refuse, then Paul wants the House to hold a vote on the Democratic plan, with Republicans voting "present" to allow Democrats to pass the bill. That way, the economic damage from tax hikes will be totally owned by Democrats, and...

Police interrupted a church service Sunday morning when neighbors called about noise--again. Just last week Rehoboth United Assemblies Church was fined $700 for noise citations. At that time, church leaders said they would monitor the noise during their worship.

  (Source: inautonews.com) A123 could lose the rest of its $249 million grant We can put this under the "Duh" files: A123 Systems won't receive the remaining amount of its federal grant if Wanxiang Group is approved as the new owner. According to Reuters, which spoke to an unnamed official from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the DOE will cut A123 off from its $249 million grant the company received in 2009. A123 has only used $133 million of the grant so far. The official, who noted that all parties were aware of this consequence during last weekend's auction of A123, said...

In the scramble to make the GOP more diverse, a lot of people are looking at Asian Americans, whom many believe are a natural constituency for the party. I would love it if Asian Americans converted en masse to the Republican party, but the challenge for Republicans is harder than many appreciate. President Obama did spectacularly well with Asian Americans, garnering nearly three-quarters of their vote. This runs counter to a lot of conventional wisdom on both the left and the right. On average, family income is higher and poverty is lower among Asian Americans than among non-Latino whites. Entrepreneurship,...

Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, spoke to NRO yesterday morning about the committee’s new Growth and Opportunity Project, which is led by a five-member panel that will review the operations and strategies of the RNC and Republican party as a whole. The members of that panel are Sally Bradshaw, a veteran adviser to former Florida governor Jeb Bush; Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush; and three RNC committee members — Zori Fonalledas of Puerto Rico, Henry Barbour of Mississippi, and Glenn McCall of South Carolina.

The long-awaited review of a controversial study on the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” was released today, and it finds numerous errors and flaws with how the study was conducted and released, as well as University of Texas policies for disclosing conflicts of interest. The head author of the study, Dr. Charles “Chip” Groat, has retired in the wake of the controversy, and the head of the Energy Institute that released it, Dr. Raymond Orbach, has resigned as head of the Institute, the University announced today. The original report by UT Austin’s Energy Institute, ‘Fact-Based Regulation for...

I am going to keep repeating The Christmas Strategy until someone in Republican circles listens: I say call his bluff. If a deal which tackles deficits from both revenue and spending can be reached this month, great. If not, pass a 90 day extension of current tax rates and whatever else is needed to postpone the “cliff,” and go home for Christmas to give time for a Grand Bargain which puts Democratic sacred cows on the table. Let Harry Reid refuse to bring it to a vote, and Obama refuse to sign it. Their inaction will be the reason for...