Politics News

Moderate Dems pivotal in Saturday health care vote

AP - 30 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Suitably opaque, Section 2006 takes up only a few dozen lines in a sweeping health care bill that runs to 2,074 pages and mentions neither Sen. Mary Landrieu nor her state of Louisiana.

Election News

  • Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., left, accompanied by Sen. Lisa  Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Ariz., right, lifts copy of the Democratic health care reform bill, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.  (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
    Moderate Dems pivotal in Saturday health care vote AP - 30 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON - Suitably opaque, Section 2006 takes up only a few dozen lines in a sweeping health care bill that runs to 2,074 pages and mentions neither Sen. Mary Landrieu nor her state of Louisiana.

  • Map locates uranium enrichment plant in Iran
    Analysis: Outlook for tough Iran sanctions is dim AP - Fri Nov 20, 3:47 AM ET

    WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is shifting the focus of its Iran policy from talk to sanctions, but the prospect of winning early international support for toughened new penalties appears dim.

  • Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, gestures during a health care reform news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009. From left are, Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., McConnell, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Sen. Lisa  Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl of Ariz.  (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
    GOP: Health test recommendations could affect care AP - 28 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON - Republicans are seizing on this week's recommendations for fewer Pap smears and mammograms to fuel concern about government-rationed medical care — and to try to chip away support by women for President Barack Obama's proposed health care overhaul.

White House News

  • Obama drops by daughter Sasha's school for event AP - Fri Nov 20, 9:31 AM ET

    BETHESDA, Md. - Fresh from his weeklong trip through Asia, President Barack Obama is taking time to catch up on dad duty.

  • President Barack Obama waves as he exits Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
    Obama faces showdowns on health, Afghanistan, jobs AP - Thu Nov 19, 8:06 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will have scant time to rest up from his eight-day Asia trip. On Saturday, two days after his return to Washington, the Senate plans a make-or-break vote on his hard-fought plan to overhaul the nation's health care system. Obama also confronts a difficult choice on strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan, which will be criticized no matter what he decides.

  • Details of state dinner scarce, White House mum AP - Thu Nov 19, 5:48 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - It's the hottest ticket in town. Just don't ask the White House who got them.

U.S. Congress News

  • file - This Oct. 2008 file photo by Muhammad ud-Deen shows Imam Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen. The imam, who communicated with the Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, said he did not pressure Hasan to harm Americans, The Washington Post reported Monday, Nov 16, 2009.  (AP Photo/Muhammad ud-Deen, File)   MANDATORY CREDIT  NO SALES
    Levin: May be more troubling emails from Hasan AP - 29 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON - There may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the Fort Hood shooter before he went on his deadly rampage, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Friday.

  • Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin is surrounded by reporters after holding a news conference on health care at the US Capitol. President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate strove to lock down support to prevail in a landmark first test vote on his top domestic priority, remaking the US health care system(AFP/Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)
    Senate Democrats eye key US health care victory AFP - Fri Nov 20, 10:05 PM ET

    WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats in the US Senate strove to lock down support to prevail in a landmark first test vote of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, remaking the US health care system.

  • FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2009 file photo Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill. is seen during a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington. On Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, the Senate ethics committee admonished Burris for making 'inconsistent, misleading or incomplete' statements about the circumstances surrounding his appointment to the seat once held by Barack Obama. The committee didn't recommend any punishment. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
    Ethics committee: No punishment for Burris AP - Fri Nov 20, 5:14 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - The Senate ethics committee on Friday admonished Democratic Sen. Roland Burris for misleading investigators about his maneuvering to get Barack Obama's old Senate seat from the governor who was ousted for trying to sell it.

U.S. Government News

  • FILE - In a Monday, July 21, 2008 file photo, Blackwater Worldwide's headquarters is seen in Moyock, N.C. Former top executives at Blackwater Worldwide say the U.S. security contractor sent about $1 million to its Iraq office with the intention of paying off officials in the country who were angry about the fatal shootings of 17 civilians by Blackwater employees, The New York Times reported Tuesday, Nov.10, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)
    US to drop shooting case against Blackwater guard AP - 29 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON - The Justice Department intends to drop manslaughter and weapons charges against one of the Blackwater Worldwide security guards involved in a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting, prosecutors said in court documents Friday.

  • A handout photo shows Major Nidal Malik Hasan when he was a medical student.The army psychiatrist accused of a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood military base in Texas will have his first pre-trial court hearing Saturday in his hospital room, his lawyer's office told AFP.(AFP/USUHS-HO/File)
    Levin: May be more troubling emails from Hasan AP - 29 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON - There may be additional e-mails that could have tipped off law enforcement or military officials to the Fort Hood shooter before he went on his deadly rampage, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Friday.

  • Couple pleads guilty in Cuban spying case AP - Fri Nov 20, 6:30 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - A retired State Department worker and his wife accused of a decades-long plot to spy for Cuba pleaded guilty Friday in a deal that will leave him behind bars for the rest of his life but gives her a chance at freedom in six years.

World Politics News

  • In this Aug. 12, 2000 file photo, The Holy Shroud, a 14 foot-long linen revered by some as the burial cloth of Jesus, is shown at the Cathedral of Turin, Italy. A Vatican researcher claims a nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin proves the authenticity of the artifact revered as Jesus’ burial cloth. The claim made in a new book by historian Barbara Frale drew immediate skepticism from some scientists, who maintain the shroud is a medieval forgery. Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, said Friday, Nov. 20, 2009,  that she used computers to enhance images of faintly written words in Greek, Latin and Aramaic scattered across the shroud. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, file)
    Researcher: Faint writing seen on Shroud of Turin AP - 22 minutes ago

    ROME - A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus. Experts say the historian may be reading too much into the markings, and they stand by carbon-dating that points to the shroud being a medieval forgery.

  • (L-R) European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, Belgian Prime Minsiter Herman Van Rompuy and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker at a European Union summit. Incoming EU president Van Rompuy kept a low profile as the 27-nation bloc's leaders faced flak for picking him and a little-known British peer to lead a revamped Europe on the world stage.(AFP/File/Georges Gobet)
    EU leaders face flak as new president keeps low profile AFP - 34 minutes ago

    BRUSSELS (AFP) - Incoming EU president Herman Van Rompuy kept a low profile as the 27-nation bloc's leaders faced flak for picking him and a little-known British peer to lead a revamped Europe on the world stage.

  • In this image provided by Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze shows a finger attributed to Galileo Galilei. A Florence museum says, Friday, Nov. 20, 2009, two fingers and a tooth believed to belong to Galileo Galilei have been found and will go on display next spring. Three fingers and a tooth were taken from the astronomer's body in 1737 and placed in a container. Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Museum of the History of Science, said a private collector had bought a container at auction containing two fingers and a tooth. The collector contacted Florence cultural officials and the parts and the container were found to match descriptions of the Galileo relics in historical documents. Galileo, who died in 1642, was branded a heretic by the Vatican for saying the Earth revolved around the Sun. In the early 1990s, Pope John Paul II rehabilitated him. (AP Photo/Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze/ho)
    Museum: Galileo's fingers, tooth are found AP - 2 hours, 52 minutes ago

    ROME - Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again and will soon be put on display, an Italian museum director said Friday.

Supreme Court News

  • Black firefighters object to white promotions AP - Wed Nov 18, 3:22 PM ET

    NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A group of black Connecticut firefighters hopes to block promotions for white firefighters who won a discrimination case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)
    Justice Scalia speaks about Constitution in Ohio AP - Tue Nov 17, 7:57 PM ET

    COLUMBUS, Ohio - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (AN'-toh-nihn skuh-LEE'-uh) has said in a speech at Ohio State University the Constitution is best treated as an original document within the context of its historical creation, not as a text subject to modern reinterpretation.

  • Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert Bell, center, applauds after unveiling a plaque honoring Dred and Harriet Scott during a ceremony Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009, in Frederick, Md. City officials placed the plaque about the Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision affirming slavery near a statue of Roger Brooke Taney, the onetime Frederick lawyer who wrote the inflammatory opinion. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)
    Md. city aims for balance with Dred Scott plaque AP - Tue Nov 17, 5:21 PM ET

    FREDERICK, Md. - More than 150 years after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the notorious Dred Scott decision affirming slavery, a Maryland city unveiled a plaque Tuesday to educate visitors about the opinion and the local man who wrote it — and to quell a local controversy.

Most Popular Politics News

  • A resident of Plano, Texas cheers on a speaker at an America's Tea Party event held at Southfork Ranch in Parker, Texas, July 4, 2009. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
    Tea partiers turn on each other Politico - Thu Nov 19, 11:41 PM ET

    After emerging out of nowhere over the summer as a seemingly potent and growing political force, the tea party movement has become embroiled in internal feuding over philosophy, strategy and money and is at risk of losing its momentum.

  • US President Barack Obama (L) bows as he shakes hands with Japanese Emperor Akihito (C) and as Empress Michiko (R) looks on upon Obama's arrival at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on November 14. The former top commander of US troops in Asia on Thursday strongly defended Obama against critics of his bow to Emperor Akihito, calling it a gesture of respect.(AFP/File/Mandel Ngan)
    US admiral defends Obama's Japan bow AFP - Thu Nov 19, 7:55 PM ET

    WASHINGTON (AFP) - The former top commander of US troops in Asia on Thursday strongly defended President Barack Obama against critics of his bow to Japan's Emperor Akihito, calling it a gesture of respect.

  • Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank listens to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, October 29, 2009.   REUTERS/Larry Downing (UNITED STATES POLITICS BUSINESS HEADSHOT)
    Dems fight over funds left from bailout Politico - Fri Nov 20, 5:01 AM ET

    Congressional Democrats could be careening toward a head-on collision with the White House over $200 billion in leftover bailout money — money that Republicans think should simply be returned to taxpayers.