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House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Sept. 12 that he is willing to support President Barack Obama’s plan to extend tax breaks for the middle-class and increase rates for the wealthiest Americans —but only if that’s his only option. Appearing on the CBS program Face the Nation, Boehner stated that his preference is to extend all of the tax breaks approved by President George W. Bush in 2001. If presented with a bill that doesn’t include continued tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 annually, Boehner said, "of course I’m going to do that," but added that...

Federal investigators say the state is violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act by shortchanging thousands of students whose first language is not English. Unless changes are made, the violations could lead to a loss of federal funding for state education. The Arizona Republic reports one complaint alleges the Arizona Department of Education has reclassified "many thousands" of children as proficient in English even though tests indicate they aren't. The second complaint says federal departments found the state eliminated two questions from its home-language survey in 2009. The result was that students who are eligible for English-language services "are not being...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on Friday Ulipristal Acetate, which will be marketed under the brand name as “ella,” as an acceptable emergency contractive for the American market. Watson Pharmaceuticals, a specialty drug company located in California and New Jersey, will introduce the drug by the end of the year. The FDA’s decision came down despite numerous concerns and warnings related to ella‘s deceptive marketing and its detrimental impact on women and the preborn. DECEPTIVE MARKETING Even though it is being marketed as a 5-day emergency contraceptive – potentially preventing ovulation or fertilization, or causing an early...

(CNSNews.com) – At an event celebrating Gay Pride Month on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged State Department employees to let teenagers know homosexuality is okay. “We’ve come such a far distance in our own country, but there are still so many who need the outreach, need the mentoring, need the support to stand up and be who they are and then think about people in so many countries where it just seems impossible,” Clinton said. “So I think that each and everyone of you, not only professionally, particularly from State and USAID and every bureau and every embassy...

Kalamazoo, Mich. (AP) - Don't mimic Washington by making excuses, President Barack Obama advises graduating high school students, and take responsibility for failure as well as success. In remarks to be delivered Monday evening at Kalamazoo Central High School, Obama says it's easy to blame others when problems arise. "We see it every day out in Washington, with folks calling each other names and making all sorts of accusations on TV," the president said. He said the high school kids can and have done better than that. The 1,700-student school in southwest Michigan landed Obama as its commencement speaker after...

Following the tragic death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash, Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed his condolences to the whole Polish nation. Speaking on behalf of all Russians, Medvedev promised a most thorough investigation of the tragic accident. “Dear friends, the citizens of Polish republic. I and all the citizens of Russia are shaken by this terrible tragedy, the death of Polish President Lech Kachinsky, his wife Maria and all the Polish citizens on board the crashed plane. “In these days we were holding remembrance ceremonies together, mourning the victims of totalitarian times. Lech Kazcynski was...

MOSCOW — The British Embassy says British, French and U.S. troops will march with Russian soldiers on Red Square to mark the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. It said in a statement Thursday that the May 9 parade will include a Royal Air Force band and a detachment of Welsh Guards. The statement said the parade may mark the first time British troops have marched in Red Square. The U.S. Embassy confirmed that U.S. soldiers will take part in the parade. Victory Day is Russia's most important secular holiday. The Kremlin plans a larger parade than usual...

Today marks the 99th birthday of former President Ronald Wilson Reagan. Ronald Reagan was a movie star, television star, the 33rd Governor of California and two-term 40th President of the United States of America. Ronald Reagan was an American legend, icon and the perpetual hero in the white hat. For many he represents that ideal of a great leader we find severely lacking in today's political culture...

Cold War: The White House has announced our absence at ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Meanwhile, Russia has been practicing a nuclear invasion of an abandoned Poland. The Berlin Wall has been a famous backdrop for American presidents sounding the battle cry of liberty in the struggle against tyranny. It was there that John F. Kennedy expressed our solidarity with the encircled residents of that outpost of freedom with his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner." And it was there that Ronald Reagan, with a defiant "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," voiced our...

A Republican-oriented political action committee says if ObamaCare can be defeated, the rest of President Barack Obama's radical agenda can also be derailed. During the August recess, Democratic lawmakers have found themselves in the unusual position of seeing their efforts to push the Obama healthcare agenda challenged by ordinary citizens, whom they have described as "angry mobs." In addition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) accused town hall protestors of "carrying swastikas" and being "un-American" in the way they are voicing their opposition. Republicans have seized on the protests as evidence of a lack of public support for President Barack Obama's...

In an interview five years ago with the Weekly Standard magazine, former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky described the “brilliant moment” when he and his fellow prisoners in Siberia learned of Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech. Speaking to the National Association of Evangelicals in 1983, president Reagan urged delegates against taking a moral equivalence stance on nuclear proliferation. When voting later in their convention on whether to support a freeze in the nuclear arms race, it would be too easy, Mr. Reagan said, to "label both sides equally at fault." That would "ignore the facts of history and the aggressive...

MOSCOW — Negotiations over gas prices between Russia and Ukraine unraveled Wednesday and executives at Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly, said they were preparing to halt supplies early Thursday morning. If they do, customers in Western Europe will see shortages as the same pipelines in Ukraine are used for export and internal distribution. It is a problem that has bedeviled Europe’s energy supplies from Russia for years. How quickly Western Europe would feel a shortage of natural gas was unclear, and would depend on the scale and duration of any Russian embargo of Ukraine. The fuel is used for...

Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili said Wednesday that Russian forces were erecting a "Berlin Wall" as part of a campaign to cut off rebel regions from the rest of the country. Russia is trying to divide Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the rest of Georgia, she said in a speech to the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank in London. Tkeshelashvili said Russia was building a wall at Zugdidi, a city at the Abkhaz border. "Russia physically destroys physical links between the regions of Georgia," she said. "It is blowing up bridges in Gali region so that it is harder...

Relations between Russia and Germany have not been good since Vladimir Putin's nationalist sabre-rattling this summer, but they are about to get a whole lot worse. A new film about to be released in Germany will force both countries to re-examine part of their recent history that each would much prefer to forget. Yet it is right that the ghastly truth should finally be acknowledged. The movie, A Woman In Berlin, is based on the diary of the German journalist Marta Hillers and depicts the horror of the Red Army's capture of the capital of the Third Reich in April...

MOSCOW — Russia’s stock market is suffering its worst correction in nearly a decade as sliding oil prices, political attacks on private companies and instability after last month’s war in Georgia spook investors. On a bad day globally for stocks, Russia’s markets took an exceptional fall Friday. The Russian Trading System index lost 7.6 percent and recovered later to close down 4.45 percent after rumors circulated that the government would use state oil money to halt the decline. A Russian central bank official said the bank had sold large amounts of foreign currency a day earlier to shore up the...

Moscow-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking in the midst of one of the lowest points in the Russia-West relationship since the breakup of the Soviet Union 17 years ago, said Tuesday that his country did not seek a new Cold War-but neither was it afraid of one.

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Fears that Russia might sell advanced weaponry to Syria kicked up a mini-storm of concern in Israel on Thursday. Syrian President Bashar Assad, in Russia for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev, has been campaigning to acquire weapons systems that include long-range surface-to-surface missiles, according to Russian media reports. The news of Assad's reported ambitions prompted immediate hand-wringing among Israeli officials and analysts. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was "analyzing the ramifications" of Assad's visit.