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Figure skating, a sport that has long faced serious credibility problems over its judging, appears to be on the cusp of another scandal. French publication L’Equipe has reported that the United States and Russia have struck a deal to mutually assure higher marks for their countries, while also shutting out Canada from the gold. The allegation implies the pact would see the U.S. judge dish out favourable marks to Russia in the team event, where the U.S. is not a contender for the podium, in exchange for the Russian judge boosting the scores for Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White...

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NEW YORK – Pete Seeger, the banjo-picking troubadour who sang for migrant workers, college students and star-struck presidents in a career that introduced generations of Americans to their folk music heritage, died Monday at the age of 94.

Basically there’s been quite a shake – up in the White House and the Democrats and George Soros are doing the shaking.They’ve been the brunt of all Obama’s political blunders and have grown weary of their Commander in Chief’s screw upsfor the past five years. Senate and House Democrats are venting their frustrations over the ACA and worried that if it keeps self -destructing theNovember 2014 Elections are going to be a nightmare for Democrats. For starters, here are a few disgruntled Democratswho aren’t happy with their Commander in Chief. Mary Landrieu (D – La), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va), Mark Pryor...

resident Obama reflected on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade by encouraging Americans to recommit to the “guiding principles” of the 1973 Supreme Court decision. According to Obama: Every woman should be able to make her own choices about her body and her health. We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her constitutional right to privacy, including the right to reproductive freedom. And we resolve to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, support maternal and child health, and continue to build safe and healthy communities for all our children. Because this...

Foreign Policy: The latest U.S. ally to openly sneer at us is a senior British defense adviser who says President Obama has "devalued the deterrent effect of American military capability" in the world. In his first campaign for president, in April 2007, Barack Obama complained George W. Bush's war in Iraq cost the U.S. "in influence and respect." Because of Iraq, he said, "many around the world are disappointed with our actions, and many in our own country have come to doubt either our wisdom or our capacity to shape events beyond our borders. Some have even suggested that America's...

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner says he believes Chris Christie remains a serious contender for the Republican 2016 presidential nomination, despite the traffic jam scandal engulfing the New Jersey governor. Reporters asked Boehner about Christie's problems on Thursday, even as the governor was holding a news conference in Trenton, N.J.

Ford's Global VP/Marketing and Sales, Jim Farley, said something both sinister and obvious during a panel discussion about data privacy today at CES, the big electronics trade show in Las Vegas. Because of the GPS units installed in Ford vehicles, Ford knows when its drivers are speeding, and where they are while they're doing it. Farley was trying to describe how much data Ford has on its customers, and illustrate the fact that the company uses very little of it in order to avoid raising privacy concerns: "We know everyone who breaks the law, we know when you're doing it....

Fewer people in the United States have confidence in President Obama as leader of the federal government, with a majority saying he’s neither honest nor trustworthy. According to a CNN/ORC international poll released Monday, 40 percent said they believe Obama can manage the federal government effectively. That’s a 12-percentage-point-drop since June, and the worst score he received among nine personal characteristics measured in the poll. "A lot of attention has focused on the president's numbers on honesty in new polling the past three weeks, but it looks like the recent controversy over ObamaCare has had a bigger impact on his...

JONATHAN GRUBER, M.I.T.: Let’s start with understanding that we're not talking about the vast majority of Americans. This law is really leaving those with employer insurance, those with government insurance alone. We’re talking about a small minority of Americans that buy insurance on their own through the individual market. CHUCK TODD: Still millions of people. GRUBER: Exactly. It's 12 million people, about a third of which will end up paying more under this law. And that as you said in the introductions sort of the idea. We currently have a highly discriminatory system where if you’re sick, if you’ve been...

A new Common Core-aligned lesson is teaching third-graders across the United States that “the commands of government officials must be obeyed by all,” and that “the wants of an individual are less important than the well-being of the nation.” Those un-American and unconstitutional concepts are being peddled to elementary students by the Pearson Education company, one of the nation’s leading producers of school curricula, reports MinutemenNews.com.The historically inaccurate lesson appears to be part of a Pearson Education unit that teaches kids about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War – “Hold the Flag High” – while doubling as an English assignment....

In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County, which is southwest of Fort Worth, and made a bold declaration: The United States is a "Christian nation." The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation "Judeo-Christian nation." Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution "were signed on the knees of the framers" and were a "divine revelation from God," he went on to say, "yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The...

A Northern California school that banned a handful of students from wearing T-shirts that showcased the U.S. flag on the Hispanic-based holiday, Cinco de Mayo day, is headed to court Thursday, to defend their order that the now-graduated individuals go home and change. The school’s argument during the 2010 matter was that racial tensions and gang problems plagued the student body at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, located 20 miles outside of San Jose, The Associated Press reported.

Will the initiative remain with aggressive Southern reactionaries, as their fellow Americans try to appease them or react on a case-by-case basis against a feint here or a diversion there? Or will an aroused national majority, tired of being pushed around by a selfish Southern minority of the shrinking American white majority, finally fight back?When I have described the well-considered, coherent political and economic strategies of the conservative white South, as I have done here, here and here, I am sometimes been accused of being a “conspiracy theorist.” But one need not believe that white-hooded Dragons and Wizards are secretly...

WASHINGTON — After a public backlash to government spying, President Barack Obama called for an independent group to review the vast surveillance programs that allow the collections of phone and email records. Now, weeks before the group’s first report is due, some lawmakers, technology organizations and civil liberties groups are concerned that the panel’s members are too close to the Obama administration and its mission too vague to provide a thorough scrubbing of the National Security Agency technologies that have guided intelligence gathering since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------snip---------------------------- The members of the review group are Richard Clarke,...

<p>Shock, outrage and mocking criticism is building among conservatives — and those of other political stripes who put the White House and its possessions on a historical pedestal – over a photograph showing President Obama in an informal pose, with his foot on his Oval Office desk.</p>

The movie "Lee Daniels' The Butler" saw its weekend box office receipts plummet by nearly a third, from $24.6 million in its opening week to $17 million last week, after a storm of protests from Republican and veterans groups. The film depicts a White House butler who served eight presidents, and has come under fire for its portrayal of former President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy as being racially insensitive and for casting Jane Fonda as the first lady. Supporters of President Reagan and veterans groups especially have criticized the film, with some calling for boycotts. Though the film...

<p>A source close to singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder has released a list of some the biggest names in the music industry joining in the boycott against Florida’s “stand your ground” laws.</p>

Leadership: President Obama had some unsolicited advice for Africans on Sunday: Be wary of foreign powers — including the United States. So this is what our $100 million presidential junket is buying us? In the most mind-boggling statement yet on his latest trip abroad, America's chief spokesman and the leader of the free world warned the African continent against assuming "folks come here and they're automatically benefiting Africans. And that includes the United States. Ask questions in terms of what we do." It was as patronizing to Africans, who know all about Western aid rackets and do-gooder carpetbaggers, as it...

President Obama pledged $7 billion in aid Sunday to provide electricity to sub-Saharan Africa, as he warned Africans to be wary of exploitation by other countries, including the U.S. “I’m calling for America to up our game when it comes to Africa,” Mr. Obama said in a speech at the University of Capetown in South Africa, midway through his weeklong tour of the continent. “We want to unleash the power of entrepreneurship and markets to create opportunity here in Africa.”