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<p>WASHINGTON (April 7, 2014) - The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from a commercial photography business in New Mexico that objects to taking pictures of same-sex wedding ceremonies.</p>

If President Obama means what he says about wanting an immigration system that reflects American values, helps the economy and taps the yearnings of millions of Americans-in-waiting, he is going to have to do something about it — soon and on his own. It has been frustrating to watch his yes-we-can promises on immigration reform fade to protestations of impotence and the blaming of others. All Mr. Obama has been saying lately is: No, in fact, we can’t, because Republicans and the law won’t let me. Mr. Obama is correct when he complains that long-term immigration repairs have been throttled...

Mozilla, the company that operates the web browser Firefox, experienced its highest level of negative customer feedback the day after its embattled co-founder Brendan Eich resigned as CEO after gay rights activists objected to his appointment. On Thursday, Mozilla forced Eich to resign just two weeks after hiring him. At issue was a $1,000 donation Eich gave in 2008 in support of California’s Proposition 8, a successful ballot initiative which banned gay marriage. The decision to remove the man who invented the web scripting language JavaScipt did not sit well with many customers — many of them pelted Mozilla’s website...

More mission creep, more highhanded government causing problems for citizens (Fox News)"A federal proposal requiring more efficiency from wood-burning stoves has ignited a debate between the Obama administration and lawmakers who oppose the new regulations, arguing the rules impose an unfair burden on people in remote areas. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule changes in January that would dramatically tighten emissions requirements on new wood-powered heaters, though does not impact ones already in homes. The EPA estimates that as much as 13 percent of all soot pollution in the U.S. is a result of inefficient wood-fired stoves and boilers."Is...

On Thursday, CEO Brendan Eich of Mozilla was forced out of his job thanks to his $1,000 donation to the Proposition 8 pro-traditional marriage effort in California in 2008. At that point, he held the exact same position as Barack Obama on traditional marriage. Now, that position has soured in the nostrils of the militant left, which seeks to ruin the lives of those with whom it disagrees. ~~snip~~ Google Adsense Shuts Down WorldNetDaily. On February 6, Google Adsense notified WorldNetDaily’s Joseph Farah that it would be cancelling WND’s account thanks to a “policy violation email this morning regarding negative/hate...

In a press conference heralding the attainment of 7 million enrollments in his signature Affordable Care Act insurance plan this past Monday, President Obama declared “the debate over the merits of this law has been settled. The success of the program has been conclusively proven by the events of this past week. There is no longer any need for further discussion. I am instructing the FCC to monitor all media outlets that are licensed through this agency for compliance with my directive. Any unwarranted excursions into disputation or reporting that is intended to reflect negatively on the program or to...

In March 2013, Anthony Brasfield released a dozen heart-shaped balloons in the air as a romantic gesture for his girlfriend. After a Florida Highway Patrol officer spotted the gesture, Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals and plants—a third degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. While some criminal laws and sanctions are necessary to protect safety and ensure justice, America’s criminal code includes many activities that Americans and business owners have little way of knowing are crimes. As a result, law-abiding individuals and businesses spend innumerable hours and dollars fending off criminal prosecution for...

One of the Tea Party's top stars in Congress has penned an Obamacare op-ed co-bylined by Nebraska Senate candidate Ben Sasse. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sasse argue that Obamacare's failures offer an opportunity for conservatives to be a movement that represents solutions and stands on the side of working-class Americans. "Republicans cannot win the healthcare debate until we effectively communicate our solutions to the problems that plague working families," they write in Thursday op-ed in the Washington Examiner. The article comes two days after Obama took what was considered a "victory lap" to tout the 7.1 million Americans who...

<p>The FBI has swooped into an elderly man’s Indiana home and seized thousands of artifacts he collected — he says legally — during his decades of travel to hundreds of destinations, including Haiti, Australia, New Guinea and Peru.</p> <p>Donald Miller, 91, accumulated the artifacts over the past 80 years, said FBI Special Agent Robert Jones, during a news conference.</p>

Totalitarian nations, dictatorships, and police states don’t happen overnight. They start out as supposedly good ideas with considerable support from the citizenry. In fact, history shows that in the beginning, despots and tyrants are often viewed as heroic protectors, benevolent rulers, welcomed with fanfare and open arms—champions of the people. But eventually, average citizens wake up one day amidst chaos and decay, look around, and ask in bewilderment, “Wha hoppin?” Of course by that time, it’s usually too late to do anything about it. In a similar way, our government has begun to resemble something akin to a foreign occupation....

Kass exclusive: Suburban officer charged in 95-year-old's death Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass discusses charges filed in the death of 95-year-old John Wrana. John Kass April 2, 2014 An officer was charged this morning in the police killing of 95-year-old John Wrana, the World War II veteran who was fatally shot with beanbag rounds in his apartment at a south suburban senior facility last year. Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s office said patrolman Craig Taylor, 43, was charged with one count of reckless conduct, a Class 4 felony. Taylor has been with the Park Forest Police Department since January,...

US intelligence chiefs have confirmed that the National Security Agency has used a "back door" in surveillance law to perform warrantless searches on Americans’ communications. The NSA's collection programs are ostensibly targeted at foreigners, but in August the Guardian revealed a secret rule change allowing NSA analysts to search for Americans' details within the databases. Now, in a letter to Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat on the intelligence committee, the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has confirmed for the first time the use of this legal authority to search for data related to “US persons”.

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MILLER: Witaschek surrenders to D.C. police ‘Gun Offenders Registry’ Businessman convicted of having unregistered muzzleloader bullets By Emily Miller The Washington Times Friday, March 28, 2014 Mark Witaschek never had a firearm in the District of Columbia, but he is now on the city’s Gun Offenders Registry. This bizarre case has drawn national attention because an upstanding citizen was tried and convicted of possessing unregistered ammunition for muzzleloader bullets, which are simply pieces of lead and copper. On Friday afternoon, I accompanied Mr. Witaschek and his wife, Bonnie, to Metropolitan Police Department headquarters to abide by the terms of his...

<p>The Daily Caller: A reporter has been detained by Capitol Hill police for trying to ask a question of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy.</p> <p>Bloomberg BNA energy reporter Ari Natter tweeted about being detained.</p> <p>Natter was detained while covering the American Council On Renewable Energy conference, where McCarthy spoke. Also speaking at the conference was Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a staunch supporter of green energy who regularly takes the Senate floor to sound the alarm on global warming.</p>

Thousands of Bay Area workers will become eligible by Sept. 30 for a new commuter benefit that could save them hundreds of dollars a year if they take public transit or van pools to work. Employers of 50 of more full-time workers within the nine Bay Area counties must start offering employees at least one of four kinds of assistance for commute alternatives to driving alone. Companies that already offer a commuter benefit will not be required to expand their program, but they will have to file an annual report.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco opened on Wednesday an effort to force House Republicans to bring an immigration overhaul to a vote. Most observers think the effort is doomed. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a San Jose Democrat who is the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel, spoke passionately on the floor about a potentially “truly historic” day, but so far it remains just that. President Obama likewise issued a statement encouraging the effort.

With less than a week left for customers to apply for insurance through the health care marketplaces, a poll released Wednesday finds that half of the people still without health coverage intend to remain uninsured. Five million people have signed up for insurance since the marketplaces created by the federal health law opened in October. The official deadline to sign up without facing a financial penalty is March 31, although federal officials told news organizations Tuesday that consumers who begin the process before then and have had trouble with the technology will an extension of several weeks to finish the...

In an argument that touched on medical science and moral philosophy, the Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with whether corporations may refuse to provide insurance coverage for contraception to their workers based on the religious beliefs of the corporations’ owners. --snip-- Hobby Lobby told the justices that it had no problem offering coverage for many forms of contraception, including condoms, diaphragms, sponges, several kinds of birth control pills and sterilization surgery. But drugs and devices that may prevent embryos from implanting in the womb are another matter, the company said; its owners believe those would make the company complicit in...

IRVING, TEXAS--Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were in Dallas on Monday for the inaugural Globalization of Higher Education Conference. Bush and Clinton spoke separately at the private event co-organized by Bush. According to the Associated Press (AP), the event offered a bipartisan twist for the nation's two dominant political families. Both spoke on education policy and the need to make higher education affordable and accessible across the globe. Both also were reported as chatting briefly off stage. According to AP, Bush said in his speech, "Higher education in America has a growing...