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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege Wednesday to withhold documents a House committee is seeking in an investigation of a flawed gun-smuggling probe in Arizona. In a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a Justice Department official said the privilege applies to documents that explain how the department learned that there were problems with the investigation called Operation Fast and Furious. At the start of a committee hearing, Issa called the president's action "an untimely" assertion of the privilege. The committee will vote on whether to cite Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt of Congress for failing...

UPDATED According to multiple reports, a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — Obamacare — is unconstitutional. The ruling by District Judge Henry Hudson says the law “exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power” by requiring individuals to purchase health care coverage under the “individual mandate.” It is the first federal ruling against the law. “Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court of appeals has extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market,” Hudson...

OK, it's really just a skit from Saturday Night Live (video here) but it's pretty funny: "Feeling lonely this holiday season, looking for a little human contact, then why not go through security at an airport!"

She's 82 years old and today says she's not afraid to use a gun to protect her community. This comes after she did just that shooting at a man's car she says was trying to steal metal near her home in Pulaski County. WYMT's Phil Pendleton spoke to the woman and found out something else about our gun totin' grandma. Venus Ramey knows it would be easy for someone to take advantage of her. She's 82 and needs a walker to get around. "I'm an old woman. They figure they can get away with a lot," Ramey said. Last Friday,...

In a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, al-Qaida's No. 2 leader said the United States "ran and left their agents" in Vietnam and the jihadists must have a plan ready to fill the void if the Americans suddenly leave Iraq. "Things may develop faster than we imagine," Ayman al-Zawahri wrote in a letter to his top deputy in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam — and how they ran and left their agents — is noteworthy. ... We must be ready starting now." Senior U.S. military commanders have said that...

A judge on Tuesday set an Oct. 21 court date to decide who will collect Laci Peterson's $250,000 life insurance policy. Sharon Rocha, the mother of the slain pregnant teacher, has petitioned the court for the money. But Scott Peterson's attorney, Mark Geragos, won't give up his client's claim to the money until he has exhausted appeals of his conviction in her murder. Rocha's attorney, Adam Stewart, said Tuesday after a brief court hearing that it could take "a quarter of a century to find out whether he's exonerated or put to death."