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President Barack Obama is highlighting good economic news during a period of wildly erratic stock markets to make the case the United States remains an anchor of global strength. […] Obama is warning lawmakers not to keep the economy hostage over what he describes as ideological demands. He also says Congress will eventually pass the budget, so “let’s just do it without too much drama.” …

A federal judge in North Dakota on Thursday blocked a new Obama administration rule that would give the federal government jurisdiction over some smaller waterways just hours before it was set to go into effect. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson in Fargo issued a temporary injunction requested by North Dakota and 12 other states halting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers from regulating some small streams, tributaries and wetlands under the Clean Water Act. The rule, which has prompted fierce criticism from farmers among others, was scheduled to take effect Friday. North Dakota Attorney General Wayne...

Hillary Clinton has spent a third of her adult life trying to become president. All for nothing. The first time around, she wasted $200 million just to lose to Obama. $11 million of that money came from the notoriously "flat broke" couple. This time around she was determined to take no chances.

President Barack Obama is using a Friday webcast to try to allay concerns from Jewish communities about the nuclear agreement with Iran. Obama will deliver remarks about the agreement and take questions from participants. The webcast is being organized by two major Jewish organizations that have held similar events with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz. …

Iran appears to have built an extension to part of its Parchin military site since May, the UN nuclear watchdog said in a report obtained by the Reuters news agency on Thursday. A resolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Parchin file, which includes a demand for fresh IAEA access to the site, is a symbolically important issue that could help make or break Tehran's July 14 nuclear deal with six world powers. The confidential IAEA report obtained by the news agency says, "Since (our) previous report (in May), at a particular location at the Parchin site, the agency...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sweeping into office in 2009, President Barack Obama captured near rock-star status around the world among millions who saw him as the embodiment of a new sense of social purpose. Now, that baton has largely been passed to Pope Francis, whose visit to the White House next month will put his common cause with Obama on vivid display. Obama has made no secret of his affection for the outspoken pope, calling him a "transformative leader" whose influence has transcended the Roman Catholic community. The pope has embraced many of the issues Obama has sought to advance, including...

Yeah, I get President Obama's point. He wants to disarm law-abiding Americans but entrust the Iranian Islamist theocracy to police itself on nuclear arms and subsidize its funding of global terrorism. But we're the "crazies." Recently, Obama dissed opponents of his Iran nuclear deal for "making common cause" with Iranian hard-liners who chant "death to America," and now he's calling us crazy. But he's the one playing footsie with those America haters. Projection is a beautiful thing. It gets old pointing out that Obama uses Saul Alinsky tactics to demonize conservatives and avoid defending his positions, but it's true. Instead...

In yet another depiction of the nation’s flawed immigration policies, the Obama administration is extending a humanitarian measure designed to temporarily shield illegal immigrants from deportation during emergencies for the fifth time in five years. It’s officially known as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) but should be renamed permanent—or at least long-term—protected status. It involves tens of thousands of Haitians, who were originally granted TPS after an earthquake devastated the poverty-stricken Caribbean island in 2010. Then Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the benefit would last only 18 months and be limited to Haitian nationals who were in the United States...

Talky pointy We touched yesterday on the left’s out-of-the-gate seizing on the Roanoke shooting to kick off the latest gun control push. It’s what they do, and no one was surprised that they did it - tinged as always with warnings like “we can’t wait any longer,” which imply, I guess, that everyone knows the left’s gun control agenda would stop killings like this, and we’re all just dragging our feet because the approval of the NRA is more important than the lives of folks like Alison Parker and Adam Ward. That’s the implication, and it’s hardly new. They dropped...

President Barack Obama’s almost certain to get the Iran nuclear deal — but whether he gets there by filibuster or sustained veto could make all the difference. A Democratic filibuster in the Senate would be a clear victory for the president, allowing Obama to say that for all the political noise there wasn’t enough actual opposition to the nuclear agreement with the Islamic republic to even get to a final vote.

For some gay activists, it had shades of bathhouse raids and gay-bar roundups from decades ago. On Tuesday, federal authorities burst into the Union Square office of the gay-escort website Rentboy.com and arrested the chief executive and several employees on prostitution charges. Rentboy, which federal authorities called the biggest male-escort website, had been around for almost two decades, allowing escorts to pay to advertise themselves. It was well known in the gay community, hosting pool parties, dances and awards shows throughout the country. ... Mr. Walls said: “As the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE is responsible...

82% of all voters OPPOSE President Obama's plan to give $100 billion in sanctions relief within the next few months to Iran without the approval of Congress. 67% of all voters would NOT approve of a deal that does NOT allow independent inspections of Iran's military laboratories, no US monitoring of the program and no Americans or Canadians on the ground in Iran to inspect in any capacity. 64% of all voters think that President Obama and Secretary Kerry are only telling Americans what they think will help the agreement be passed by Congress. Only 19% think they are telling...

If U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has his way the United Nations will be able to say if Americans are allowed to have their Second Amendment rights. He has just signed an anti-gun treaty with the United Nations that the U.S. Senate has already said it is against. The treaty Kerry signed without authorization from the Senate would create an un-Constitutional registry of all US gun buyers and would lead to the UN controlling American’s gun rights. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday signed a controversial U.N. treaty on arms regulation, riling U.S. lawmakers who vow the Senate...

Every day the media is filled with talking heads perplexed by the phenomenal success of The Donald. They’ve no idea what is fueling his popularity, which in itself is indicative of their disconnect from the reality of our day-to-day existence. With a new poll showing The Donald in the lead among Republican candidates with a 40% share, heads are beginning to explode and shaky legs are beginning to crumble under the pollsters.“This is real. I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking.” - TimeThe only people more surprised about the appeal of The Donald than the media are...

In an op-ed in the Washington Post, two former Obama administration officials urged for Israel to be provided with bunker-buster bombs, in order to be able to make a credible threat against Iran if that country gets too close to developing a nuclear device. Dennis Ross, a former Middle East envoy, and David Petraeus, who directed the CIA after commanding US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote that the bunker-busters would be an effective "firewall" against Iranian nuclear development, especially in 15 years, when the agreement between Tehran and Western powers expires. "Now is the time for the Iranians and...

A young cancer survivor sent President Barack Obama a moving letter thanking him for keeping a promise made during a 2007 campaign stop -- a promise the boy says saved his life. Gavin Nore, a teen from Fort Dodge, Iowa, told Obama in a letter shared by the White House Tuesday that he'd had the opportunity to meet the president during his first presidential campaign. At the time, Nore asked Obama whether he'd continue stem cell research during his presidency, to which the president responded he would. In February 2013, Nore was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. He was 14 years old. Nore...

"The foundation overseeing the development of Barack Obama’s presidential library began a global competition on Wednesday to select the architect who will design the elaborate Chicago complex."

Ben Turner: Yes In the Republican Party’s "autopsy" of why they lost the 2012 presidential election, they noted a need for the party to reach out to minorities and younger voters, two groups they had limited support from. Little did they know, they would have not one but two young Hispanic candidates competing for their party’s nomination in 2016. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are not only the same age and Hispanic — their entire biographies are remarkably similar. Both Cruz and Rubio claim Cuban ancestry, both have law degrees and both served in state politics before running for and...

In a preview of an interview with President Barack Obama set to air tomorrow on Philadelphia ABC affiliate WPVI, the president reacted to the WDBJ shooting earlier in the day with commentary on what he described as “gun-related incidents.” “It breaks my heart every time you read about or hear about these kinds of incidents,” Obama said. “What we know, is that the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism.”