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(RTTNews) - New claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. unexpectedly saw a modest increase in the week ended June 9th, according to figures released Thursday by the Labor Department. The Labor Department estimated initial jobless claims at a seasonally adjusted level of 386,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level of 380,000. The increase surprised economists, who had expected jobless claims to edge down to 375,000 from the 377,000 originally reported for the previous week. Lindsey Piegza, an economist at FTN Financial, said, "While noticeably down from this time last year, claims remain elevated after the...

You wouldn’t think, but not all mail-merge, en masse, preformed emails are alike. Which is why journalism nonprofit ProPublica created their a wonderful little feature—right now, in beta—called the Message Machine, which crowd-sources communications like emails from campaigns, collects them, and notes the small differences. The one they’re working on now is about Sarah Jessica Parker fundraising for Barack Obama in New York City. It’s pretty interesting to watch—and note—the way most people got emails that left out the emphatic praise of Sarah Jessica Parker from emails other recipients received.

MINNEAPOLIS - As Minnesotans enjoyed a weekend at the beach, the beautiful weather could not mask what has been an unfortunate theme over the last few days. Since Thursday, at least four people have drowned or presumed to have drowned in area lakes. Not included in that number was latest the scare at Cedar Lake Point Beach in Minneapolis Sunday afternoon where a 16-year girl went under water shortly after two. "The beach went from being totally normal to being surrounded with caution tape," said witness Jenna Bennett. "It's hard thing to see especially when it's a child." Witnesses say...

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, goes on Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren to discuss the latest on Fast & Furious, including the June 7th Judiciary Committee hearing with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Police recordings made the night a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain allegedly shot and killed an unarmed 17-year-old boy outside his stepmother's home sent the boy's mother screaming from the room and prompted his father to declare, "He killed my son," according to a family representative. The series of emergency and non-emergency calls to police depict the apparent progression of events on Feb. 26 that led to the watch captain, George Zimmerman, 28, who is white, allegedly shooting Trayvon Martin, a high-school junior who is black, as the teen made his way home with a bag of Skittles and a can...

President Barack Obama now holds a double-digit lead over Republican Mitt Romney for Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes in the presidential election, a Franklin & Marshall College Poll released this morning shows. The Democratic incumbent, whose campaign has been forced to defend his handling of the economy, holds a 12-point lead over the former Massachusetts governor, the statewide poll found. Obama's sizable lead underscores a pair of critical problems for Romney — his inability to connect with voters or paint a clear picture of how he would handle the country's problems, F&M political analyst G. Terry Madonna said. "I think the...

With only about four hours into the Election Day voting, members of the Milwaukee Democratic Party claim that calls are going out to voters telling them if they'd signed the recall, they didn't need to vote today. Milwaukee County Dem Chair Sachin Chheda said that Walker supporters can't get through the day without "cheating." “This latest lowlife sleaze comes on the heels of countless reports from around the state of various Republican dirty tricks on behalf of Walker," Chheda said in a statement. "For instance, reports surfaced last weekend that Walker supporters are paying homeowners to post Walker signs on...

Last Sunday, Up with Chris Hayes host Chris Hayes ignited significant outrage with his musings about the word “heroes.” This morning, Up panelist and national security reporter for The Nation Jeremy Scahill waded into controversial semantic waters by repeatedly accusing President Obama of “murder” through the administration’s use of drone strikes, which have killed an indeterminate number of civilians. Surprisingly, Scahill’s indictment of the President was challenged, not by Hayes, but by Redstate.com co-founder Joshua Treviño. The topic of discussion was the so-called “kill list” of suspected terrorists to be exterminated in drone strikes. Hayes began by trying to drill...

(RTTNews) - New claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly showed a modest increase in the week ended May 26th, according to figures released Thursday by the Labor Department. Initial jobless claims came in at a seasonally adjusted level of 383,000 for the week, up 10,000 from the previous week's revised level of 373,000. The level of initial claims was higher than the predictions of most economists, who had expected new claims to hold steady at the 370,000 level initially reported for the previous week. The four-week moving average of new unemployment claims, a figure that eases some of the week-to-week...

Reporter on Fox News Report just said that Romney has a huge lead over Obama with military veterans and that Obama has a lead over Romney with non-military veterans. What is a non-military veteran?

In advance of the fundraiser with Mitt Romney and Donald Trump on Tuesday, the candidate's senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom tried to set the line on CNN a short time ago. "I can't speak for Donald Trump," Fehrnstrom said. "But I can tell you that Mitt Romney accepts that President Obama was born in the United States. He doesn't view the place of his birth as an issue in this campaign."

The man breaks down and cries and says yes, I did it. I killed that 6-year-old boy 33 years ago. I did it. It should be a detective’s dream come true. The police have their man, their investigation sewn up with a tidy bow of his own damning words. Far from it, for now the police must try to prove that he did what he said he did. And in the case of the suspect, Pedro Hernandez, and the boy, Etan Patz, that is not going to be easy. In many ways, this confession is a worst-case scenario of corroboration,...

The mother of a 13-year-old boy said she's outraged her son was banned from wearing a T-shirt in class that shows an anatomically correct U.S. Marine Corps bulldog. Sandra Griffith, of Ellisville, Miss., said her son, Jordan, was was told by administrators at South Jones Elementary School to turn the shirt inside-out because the genitalia of the dog was deemed offensive. "They said turn the shirt inside-out or go home and get a new one,'" Griffith told FoxNews.com. "I was in complete shock." The front of the USMC T-shirt shows the bulldog's face with the words: “If you are not...

Interview CEO Adam Baker talks up collaborative reporting by journalists and readers NEWS REPORTING might never be the same. "I think we've tapped into the fact that millions of people on the street have the technology to be able to capture and record news instantly," says Adam Baker, founder and CEO of Blottr."And that level of scale... when you do that it becomes very disruptive and could put us into pole position as the breaking news service."Blottr is an attempt to reinvent news as true "citizen journalism". The user-generated news service publishes stories, whether written, photographed, or videorecorded by anyone...

SEIU Member Noujaim wins writ of mandate allowing her to get access to SEIU financial records.

The Martinez Report is a constantly updated site covering U.S. and world news with a focus on politics, finances, media bias, and show-biz.

Romney’s up three points in a Mason-Dixon poll, 47%-44%. Obama has a six-point lead with women and a seven-point lead with those younger than 50.

Who, What, Where, When and Why – The 5W's of Journalism By Norm Lenhart Special to Free Republic If there is one thing that I as a former reporter/editor can say to the reader side of the media street, it's this. NEVER trust an article that does not contain the 5Ws of Journalism. For those not in the know, they are right up there in the headline: Who, What, When, Where and Why. If I could say another, it is to barrage the publisher of any article with email/letters and public scorn until their reportage conforms to all five of...

Puzzling break-ins over the last month at the offices of at least three House members and several committees have U.S. Capitol Police gumshoes working to find a pattern and the culprits, with missing items ranging from cash and expensive computer equipment to autographed baseballs and alcohol. In at least four of the cases, thieves broke into the offices at night when doors were locked, leading some staffers to believe they were victims of an inside job. (MAP: Where the House Office Break-Ins Happened) “The evidence points to someone with access to my office, and other offices in the Capitol complex,...

The Obama campaign is pushing back hard against a New York Times/CBS poll that showed Mitt Romney with advantage with women and reported that voters overwhelmingly believed President Obama backed gay marriage last week for political reasons. "We can't put the methodology of that poll aside," deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter told MSNBC's Chuck Todd. "It is a biased sample." "Aside from being outlier, CBS/NYT poll used weird methodology -- same voters as last month, reached fewer of them, more IDed as GOP," campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said on Twitter Monday. At the heart of the dispute is the fact...