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<p>Michelle Obama has called the White House the "people's house," and similar to many American homes, it is seeing an increase in its value with the recovery of the housing market.</p> <p>Since President Barack Obama, his wife, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, moved into the White House in January 2009, the home's value has increased about 7 percent to an estimated $294.9 million, according to housing marketplace Zillow.</p>

"By far, the toughest part of my job was going to those funerals, going to those homes and going to those classrooms," he told a conference of the nation's mayors who met with Duncan earlier in the day to discuss education.

Izhar Khan, 26, the imam of a mosque in Margate, is a free man after U.S. District Judge Robert Scola issued a verdict of acquittalHours after a federal judge dismissed terrorism support and conspiracy charges against him, a young Muslim cleric on Thursday said he hopes his father similarly is cleared of such charges. “I'm hoping he will get released soon,” said Izhar Khan, 26, an imam at a mosque in suburban Margate north of Fort Lauderdale. “Justice will be served. Only time will tell.” Thursday, U.S. District Judge Robert Scola issued a verdict of acquittal for the younger Khan,...

Soldiers in Afghanistan have been filling us in on what it means to no longer get a hot breakfast each morning - and it has a lot more to do with morale than hunger. The comments are in response to a story that appeared in Home Post last week about the Pentagon's dismissal of a viral email that claimed all troops in Afghanistan weren't getting breakfast. According to the American Forces Press Service: The Internet myth’s genesis came from a few forward operating bases in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province that are closing or being turned over to Afghan security forces....

Speaking from Rome, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the U.S. will take "all necessary and proper steps" in response to the attack and subsequent hostage crisis in Algeria. Panetta called it a "terrorist act" and said "it is a very serious matter when Americans are taken hostage, along with others." Yesterday, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb made it clear that the targeting of Americans was intentional--that it was a way to send a message that the U.S. will "face the consequences" if they help the French fight Malian Islamists in southeast Algeria.

A New York Times columnist has come under fire after retweeting a controversial message that referred to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the National Rifle Association (NRA) as “the 2 most pig like lobbies” in America. According to Adam Kredo of The Washington Free Beacon, Columnist Nicholas Kristof on Wednesday afternoon retweeted the message written by longtime Israel critic M.J. Rosenberg, which recalled the recently unearthed statements by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi that referred to Jews as “pigs.” “OBAMA told the 2 most pig like lobbies, AIPAC & NRA, to drop dead in same month. Next: Chamber...

WASHINGTON (KABC) -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in the national spotlight Monday calling for federal immigration reform. With so many priorities in Washington D.C. right now, the mayor said he doesn't want this issue to fall off the radar screen. Villaraigosa spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and called repairing the nation's broken immigration system an economic imperative. He wants a pathway to citizenship as the core of any reforms. "No human being is illegal. No human being should be illegal. We must enshrine this principle into the heart and soul of this country's immigration...

The Military Is Already Preparing For The Worst-Case Sequester Scenario Paul SzoldraJanuary 17, 2013There's plenty of talk about the "fiscal cliff" -- which was avoided by a last-minute deal last month — but that only delayed a huge Pentagon fear: Sequestration. What happens if the military is slapped with sequestration -- automatic budget cuts to the tune of about $500 billion over ten years? The Defense Department is the biggest loser in the latest budget battle, and although Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is hopeful about reaching an agreement, they still need to plan for the possibility, which left unchecked...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie slammed the National Rifle Association’s latest ad in which they accuse President Barack Obama of hypocrisy for sending his children to a school where they are protected by armed guards. Christie called the ad “reprehensible” and said that the NRA should not be “dragging people’s children” into the gun control debate. RELATED: NRA: Those Who Think New Ad Is About First Daughters Are ‘Missing The Point Completely’ “I think any of us who are public figures, you see that kind of ad and you cringe,” Christie said on Thursday at a news conference in Trenton....

The Department of Homeland Security has released their 2011 "Analysts Desktop Binder," detailing how the department has been monitoring activity on the internet and social networks. The binder includes an extensive list of key words and search terms carefully watched by analysts in multiple agencies including the Directorate for National Protection and Programs, Directorate for Science and Technology, Office of Health Affairs, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and others. Many monitored search terms are basic and used on a regular basis by every day American citizens and journalists.

Pauline Phillips, better known to millions of newspaper readers as the original Dear Abby advice columnist, has died after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease, her family said Thursday. She died Wednesday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at age 94. Phillips' columns were published in an era when newspaper readers began to prize straight-talking, pithy advice about marriages, children, jobs -- just about anything that troubled people. Phillips wrote under the pen name of Abigail Van Buren, shortened to "Dear Abby" in newspapers. "Abigail" was taken from the wise woman in the Old Testament and "Van Buren" was one of her favorite...

Hilda Solis, the outgoing Secretary of Labor made some surprising comments in an interview with Fox News Latino: In a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with Fox News Latino on Wednesday, Solis, the first Hispanic Labor Secretary in U.S. history, made it clear that despite her resignation, politics still flow through her blood. When asked whether she would consider running for the mayor of Los Angeles or governor of California, she proudly pandered to illegal aliens: ”I will absolutely make myself available,” said Solis, a four term congresswoman representing districts in the heavily Hispanic East LA area. “Many of the hardworking people...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

NEW YORK (WABC) -- It appears someone forgot to exempt police officers from the ban of ammunition clips with more than 7 bullets in New York State's new gun control law. It's a big oversight that apparently happened in the haste by the Cuomo Administration to get a tough package of gun-control measures signed into law. On Tuesday, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the sweeping gun measure, the nation's toughest. It includes a ban on the possession of high-capacity magazines.

Two Americans escaped unharmed Thursday from a hostage standoff with an Al Qaeda-linked group as Algeria's state news agency reports special forces have completed a rescue operation to free the remaining foreign hostages, but casualties have been reported. Algerian state television said that four captives, two Britons and two Filipinos have died. But the militants said at least 35 hostages had died in the state's rescue attempt. There was no way to independently verify the toll in the remote location, 800 miles from Algiers. The two Americans who managed to escape the Ain Amenas gas plant where they were being...

(Reuters) - Thirty hostages and at least 11 Islamist militants were killed on Thursday when Algerian forces stormed a desert gas plant in a bid to free many dozens of Western and local captives, an Algerian security source said. Two Japanese, two Britons and a French national were among at least seven foreigners killed, the source told Reuters. Eight of the dead hostages were Algerian. The nationalities of the rest, as well as of perhaps dozens more who escaped, were unclear. Americans, Norwegians, Romanians and an Austrian have also been mentioned by their governments as having been captured. Underlining the...

The White House on Thursday again evaded direct questions about whether chemical weapons have been deployed in Syria. White House press secretary Jay Carney would not deny definitively that chemical weapons were used in the city of Homs, despite claims made in a recent classified State Department cable that such weapons had been used. Carney referred to the information in the cable as “anecdotal” and said that the State Department could not independently corroborate the information in the cable, which originated from a third-party source on the ground in Syria.

Karl Rove enlivened Fox News Channel's election coverage last year by questioning the network's declaration that Barack Obama had been re-elected. It hasn't affected Fox's desire to keep him on the air. The network announced Thursday that it had signed Rove to a new contract as a contributor. The deal runs through the 2016 election.

Via the Daily Caller, a teaser for his appearance on "Hannity" later tonight. If I didn't know better, I'd say that a guy who just visited Israel and is now talking about blocking executive overreach on gun-grabbing just might be running for president in 2016.The bill will go nowhere but conservatives will appreciate the gesture: “I’m told Sen. Rand Paul will introduce language within hours, within hours, to call for the nullification and prohibition of funding for the president’s executive actions announced today and possibly even using the federal courts to nullify and defund some of the things that he...

Hundreds of political activists were bedding down in a field near the Drax power station in North Yorkshire. It was August 2006 and eco-activists had erected tents beside the UK's single biggest carbon emitter. As night fell on the inaugural Climate Camp protest the campaigners near the coal-fired station had no idea that their camp had been infiltrated by three undercover police officers. Mark Kennedy, now the most famous of police spies, and, it now seems, a woman constable known as Lynn Watson – were that night inside tents sleeping with activists. The third, an officer using the alias Mark...