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The US Senate has passed a bill to reopen the government and raise the federal debt limit, with hours to spare before the nation risks default. The Democratic-controlled Senate's bipartisan compromise won swift approval by 81 votes to 18. It will now be sent to the House of Representatives, whose Republican leadership has begrudgingly said it will support the measure. It comes hours before the deadline to raise the $16.7tn (£10.5tn) limit. President Barack Obama is set to speak shortly at the White House. The deal would extend the federal borrowing limit until 7 February and fund the government to...

A host of Republicans considering 2016 presidential bids, including Florida Gov. Marco Rubio, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, will attend a conference for religious conservatives starting Thursday, with a notable exception: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Christie was invited to speak at the Faith and Freedom Coalition´s two-day "Road To Majority" conference in Washington, Republicans with knowledge of the invitation said. Christie´s team declined, citing a scheduling conflict. Instead of visiting the conservative confab, the New Jersey governor

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have broken through a symbolic mark. Daily measurements of CO2 at a US government agency lab on Hawaii have topped 400 parts per million for the first time. The station, which sits on the Mauna Loa volcano, feeds its numbers into a continuous record of the concentration of the gas stretching back to 1958. The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago - before modern humans existed. Scientists say the climate back then was also considerably warmer than it is today. Carbon dioxide is regarded as the...

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters) - Olympic organisers are "very alive" to the threat of a cyber attack on the London 2012 Olympics, made more challenging because of its evolving nature, senior Interior Ministry officials said on Tuesday. Ticketing systems, the transport network and hotel bookings as well as security are among potential targets. Olympic security officials are also planning for the possible diversion of aircraft to protect airspace around the venues from terrorist attacks, the officials said. The greatest threat to security at the Games is international terrorism, the government's latest "Safety and Security Strategy" report said.

The House oversight committee voted Wednesday to demand a broad audit of the Federal Reserve system by congressional investigators - a major move lawmakers said is designed to bring accountability to the murky workings of the independent board. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who turned the push for an audit into a powerful campaign slogan and whose criticism of the Fed’s monetary policy drew hundreds of thousands of voters into the political process.

Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), formerly the ranking member on the Intelligence Committee, voted against the measure. After the vote, she tweeted: "I voted no on #CISPA-it didn't strike the right balance & #GOP didn't allow amendments to strengthen privacy protections." Continue Reading Text Size - + reset The House adopted several amendments to the bill before passing it, including one by Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) that added a five-year sunset to the bill. But lawmakers voted to reject a motion to recommit by Rep. Ed Perlmuttter, who sought to add language specifying that nothing in the bill could be...

Pro-Life Student Advocate Jon Scharfenberger Passes Away Washington, DC -- Jon Scharfenberger, a field director for Students for Life of America, passed away Tuesday morning from complications suffered after an tragic automobile accident that also claimed the lives of Kortney Blythe Gordon and her unborn baby Sophy. http://www.lifenews.com/2011/10/18/pro-life-student-advocate-jon-scharfenberger-passes-away/

Nobody could have foreseen the "tradition" being a safe haven escape to all the other "traditional" fiat-based garbage available to investors. Nobody. Next stop: $1950.

After a wild and bumpy ride, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed Speaker of the House John Boehner’s Budget Control Act Friday evening. The vote fell along party lines at 218-210, with 22 Republicans voting against the bill. The House passage comes after many hours of arm-twisting and negotiating to get enough of the GOP freshmen class to promise a “yes” vote. At several points, the plan was on clear life support, with little chance of surviving. (RELATED: Obama makes last-ditch plea for a debt deal) One of the later converts came Friday afternoon with Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona....

The buck stops where?

The passage of SB1028/HB1353 (Material Support to Designated Entities Act of 2011) in the Tennessee Legislature on May 21, 2011 after months of controversy, and inaccurate and misleading reporting in local and national media marks a sea-change moment in America’s awareness and understanding of, and response to, the threat of Islam and its doctrine of jihad. The bill passed the Tennessee Senate with 26 Yes, and 3 No; the vote in the House was 76 Yes, 16 No, and 1 Present/Not Voting. This bi-partisan support for a bill that does nothing if not increase the ability of the legal and...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Anyone 18 or older could openly carry a firearm in Oklahoma without a gun license under a bill overwhelmingly approved in the state Senate. The Republican-controlled Senate voted 36-8 on Tuesday for the bill by Sen. Steve Russell, R-Oklahoma City, over the objections of several members who argued the bill had too few restrictions.

Last night in front of an audience of hundreds at a presentation at the University of Southern California, TV personality Bill Nye — popularly known as the "Science Guy" — collapsed midsentence as he walked toward a podium. Early indications are that Nye is OK, but what's odd about the incident isn't so much Nye's slight health setback as the crowd's reaction. Or, more precisely, its nonreaction, according to several accounts. It appears that the students in attendance, rather than getting up from their seats to rush to Nye's aid, instead pulled out their mobile devices to post information about...

WASHINGTON — Pizzas and hamburgers in the school lunch line would be healthier under child nutrition legislation passed by the Senate Thursday, a key part of first lady Michelle Obama's campaign to end childhood obesity. The $4.5 billion legislation passed by voice vote would create new standards for all foods in schools, including vending machine items, to give students healthier meal options. It would also expand the number of low-income children eligible for free or reduced cost meals. The legislation had stalled since Senate committee passage in March, but it gained new attention as the White House became involved this...

Petrol and power prices have risen sharply in New Zealand after the government introduced a controversial emissions trading scheme. The government has pressed ahead with plans to slash the nation's carbon output, despite widespread opposition and New Zealand's larger neighbour Australia shelving its own scheme. Motorists were hit by a 3c (1.4p) rise in the price of a litre of petrol overnight, while householders face a 5 per cent increase in gas and electricity prices. It was the first step in a complex scheme, universally referred to as "the ETS", to slash carbon emissions back to 1990 levels. Some disgruntled...

1/29/2010 - SAN ANTONIO (AFNS) -- Lt. Col. Lee Archer, a World War II fighter pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen, died Jan. 27 at the age of 90. He died of coronary complications at New York Hospital in New York City. Colonel Archer entered the Army in November 1941 and received training as a telegrapher and field network-communications specialist. In December 1942, he was accepted into aviation cadet training and reported to the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Tuskegee, Ala. On July 28, 1943, after graduating number on in his class and receiving his commission as a 2nd lieutenant, he was...

The House has passed a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations that would govern Wall Street and reconfigure the power of the agencies overseeing the nation's banking system. The vote was 223-202. The legislation is a priority of President Barack Obama's. It is designed to address the shortfalls that led to last year's calamitous financial meltdown. New powers would give the federal government the right to break up big risky companies. It also would create a consumer agency to police lenders.

SEOUL, South Korea – A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test. Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju,...

Meet the Obama whiners. “They did it” is the new administration’s credo when things go wrong. Most often, the culprit for disappointment in Obama’s hope-and-change agenda remains George W. Bush — a sort of modern-day fallen angel Azael, whose wickedness is persistent and omnipresent. Nine months after his departure, the former president insidiously still has his hand in almost everything that seems to plague Barack Obama’s utopian plans. At other times “the Republicans,” “the far Right,” “conservatives,” or even the “mob” have kept America from getting the future it deserves. One would never guess that the Democrats have held the...

All but 11 Democrats voted for the plan, and 177 Republicans voted against it. The 244-to-188 vote came a day after Mr. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to seek Republican backing, if not for the package then on other issues to come. Mr. Obama, in a statement hailing the House passage of the plan, did not take note of the partisan divide but signaled that he expected changes to be made in the Senate that might attract support. “I hope that we can continue to strengthen this plan before it gets to my desk,” he said. “But what we can’t...