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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) advised officials working to convince unvaccinated Americans to receive a coronavirus inoculation to focus on explaining the facts about vaccines rather than mandates. "The vaccines do work," Christie said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "Every focus group I've been in, Republicans who are not vaccinated, you have to walk them through the logic of this." Christie added that vaccine-hesitant Americans "don't want to be indoctrinated." "They're willing to be vaccinated," he added. The former governor of New Jersey said leaders in the U.S. have "fallen down" in their messaging campaign on vaccinations.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Wednesday joined the growing chorus of Republican lawmakers opposed to a government-mandated “vaccine passport” to verify inoculation against the coronavirus. “Thanks to the safe vaccines from Operation Warp Speed, we will defeat the virus. But forcing Americans to carry a ‘vaccine passport’ to go about daily life is unacceptable in a free society,” McCarthy wrote on social media. “That’s something you’d expect in Communist China. Not in the United States of America.”

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, reintroduced three pro-life bills Thursday, a day after President Joe Biden was inaugurated the 46th president of the United States. “The next four years of the Biden administration will bring out the worst abortion policies and edicts that our nation has experienced since the Roe v Wade decision,” Biggs said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal. He added that “the pro-life community will rise above these challenges to grow our movement and to bring about an end to abortion on-demand.”

Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is speaking out against the Trump administration's decision to end temporary protected status for Haitians, saying it will negatively affect thousands of students in his schools. Nearly 12,000 children and another 5,700 adults enrolled in the school system are impacted.... "A nation that chooses to embark on the destruction of community, yanking children from their parents, forcing some to return to conditions not appropriate for their existence, is a nation that has lost its moral compass," Carvalho said....

Multiple Clips of Fox & Friends Interview and Lou Dobbs Interview.

Civil rights icon keynote speaker at Jungle Island event in Miami .....Local 10 News will be there when Lewis addresses the audience at Jungle Island at 8:30 a.m....

House Speaker John Boehner vows to do 'everything possible' to stop President Obama's newly struck Iran nuclear deal, as Congress formally begins consideration of the hard-fought pact.

....Michelle Obama, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert A. McDonald, Tom Hanks, and Pastor Joel Osteen will all play a part in a special week devoted to military and veteran caregivers, hosted by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, May 19 – 21, in Washington, DC.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) warned Tuesday that voting down the Paycheck Fairness Act would send the wrong message about women’s wages to corporate boards. “It’s very hard to break through when you have the attitudes of elected officials, that equal pay for equal work is something they can’t bother with… it sends the wrong signal to all of those corporate boards,” said McCaskill on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

(Reuters) - Two Iranian naval ships have sailed through Egypt's Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, in a move likely to be keenly watched by Israel. "Two Iranian ships crossed through the Suez Canal (on Thursday) following permission from the Egyptian armed forces," a source in the canal authority said Friday. The destroyer and a supply ship could be on their way to the Syrian coast, the source added. Iran and Syria agreed to cooperate on naval training a year ago, and Tehran has no naval agreement with any other country in the region. Two Iranian warships sailed along the strategic...

The just-concluded Texas legislative session has armed Gov. Rick Perry with a host of red-meat issues that could entice conservative Republican voters if he jumps into the wide-open presidential primary race. But analysts say some of those issues could carry consequences in reaching broader constituencies in the general election match-up against President Barack Obama. Texas' longest-serving governor burnished his conservative profile with legislative victories that included a no-tax budget with $15 billion in cuts, property rights protections, voter ID legislation and a bill requiring sonograms before abortions. Two other Perry-backed issues - an immigration measure to ban so-called sanctuary cities...

As criticism of his handling of the Gulf oil spill rises, and his poll numbers tumble, President Obama is headed back to the region tomorrow for yet another inspection tour. This, as his administration wants to force BP to spend billions more than it’s already paying out. Obama told congressional leaders that the embattled company should compensate “the people in the Gulf — the fishermen, the hotel owners, families who are dependent for their livelihoods in the Gulf — [so] that they are all made whole.” It’s a bizarre notion, and probably legally unsustainable — but no more bizarre than...

When President Bill Clinton faced Congress in 1995, after first losing any hope of health-care reform and then control of Congress, he used his State of the Union speech to declare, "The era of big government is over." President Obama's State of the Union speech last night only served to remind us that the era of big speeches is over. As America struggles with a 10 percent unemployment rate, stubbornly refusing to go down even as other economic numbers seem to rise, the public will no longer believe in speeches -- only in results. As Cuba Gooding Jr. says to...

Graham told The Associated Press Monday he wants Attorney General Henry McMaster to review how Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson was able to spare his state higher Medicaid costs as the Democrat held out for perks for his state in the mammoth bill.

Today, December 20,Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.-S.C.) said ...

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told CNSNews.com that President Barack Obama was giving 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed “his wish” by giving him a trial in federal civilian court instead of trying him before a military tribunal. McCain was asked on Nov. 19 whether the administration might have to produce Mohammed’s CIA interrogators if the terrorist’s defense lawyers call them as witnesses. McCain said the answer was not clear because Obama had opened the civilian justice system to enemy combatants, a move that raised myriad problems and gave Khalid Sheik Mohammed, or KSM, what he wanted.

[42 min ago ] (NECN: Washington) - Lawmakers have reportedly made progress on an economic recovery package and a vote could come as early as this afternoon. The economic stimulus plan has grown to $937 billion. Moderates have been circulating a list of cuts...

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is sending 10 battalions of troops to country's border with Colombia. He's also ordered the Venezuelan embassy in Bogota closed and say all embassy personnel will be withdrawn from Colombia. The announcements by Venezuela's leftist leader pushed relations with its neighbor to their tensest point of his 9-year presidency. Chavez is also warning that Colombia could spark a war in South America, calling its U.S.-allied government "a terrorist state" and labeling President Alvaro Uribe (oo-REE'-bay) "a criminal."

Nearly half the state Assembly is switching to hybrids as their choice for state-leased vehicles, a marked change from the gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and luxury sedans that have long been favored by lawmakers. Thirty-nine of the 80 Assemblymembers now are driving hybrids, up from 27 last year. Of the 40 senators, 13 opted for hybrids, three more than last year. State lawmakers choose their official vehicles, which are subsidized by taxpayers. Legislators had been criticized for voting for clean air and greenhouse gas laws while driving higher polluting vehicles. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, for instance, was driving...

Mitt Romney wants the feds to OK his plan for Massachusetts state police officers to have the authority to arrest illegal immigrants solely on their immigration status. "It's one more thing you can do to make this a less attractive place for illegal aliens to come to work," the Massachusetts governor said. "I think that's a good thing," said Representative Marie J. Parente, a Milford Democrat whose community has enacted licensing regulations that make it more difficult for undocumented immigrants to settle there. "We need to do something," Parente told the Boston Globe. "I think that will be a message,...