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EPA Sets Aside $61 Million of 2012 Budget for Legal Advice
Tweet Share on Facebook April 28, 2011 Comment (3)It’s always said in Washington that if both sides hate you, then you’re doing a good job. Well, at the Environmental Protection Agency, they’re also saying it’s pretty expensive to be under fire. Administrator Lisa Jackson says that the agency is setting aside $61 million of next year’s budget for legal advice. “Well, we are sued quite often,” she says, “by many sides.” Officials describe an agency stuck in the middle. Environmentalists think the EPA is too soft on polluters, and industry leaders feel they’re being singled out. So how bad is it? The EPA’s Office of General Counsel is defending 650 cases, say officials.
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Justice Breyer Enters Birther Debate
Tweet Share on Facebook April 27, 2011 Comment (2)Chances are that if those who question President Obama’s American birth, like Donald Trump, get a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, there could be a lively and unpredictable debate. At a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing this month, Justice Stephen Breyer waded into the white-hot discussion of whether those born outside the 50 states can be president. His comments came when Bronx Rep. Jose Serrano, a Democrat and Puerto Rico native, asked if he could be president. “That still hasn’t been settled,” Serrano said. “Does the person get aggrieved [and sue] at the time I declare my candidacy, or do I have to be elected first?” Breyer took the bait. “Why would anyone be aggrieved if you were running for president? Wouldn’t they be pleased?” he said before quoting the Constitution: “It says no person except a natural-born citizen. Well?” Serrano chimed in, “I’m a natural born citizen.” Breyer: “OK.” A gleeful Serrano: “I can’t believe we just had a Supreme Court decision.” A vague Breyer: “Well, you said you are a natural-born citizen.” Serrano said, “Well that’s what I believe I am,” before assuring the hearing room that he would not make a primary challenge to Obama in 2012.
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10 States With the Lowest Belief in God
Tweet Share on Facebook April 26, 2011 Comment (17)The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life says, on average, 71 percent of Americans believe in God. The most religious state is Mississippi, where 91 percent believe in God. The bottom 10:
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T. Boone Pickens Says U.S. Awash in Oil, Gas
Tweet Share on Facebook April 26, 2011 Comment (7)T. Boone Pickens, the nation’s champion of home-grown energy, is hitting the road again, armed with new geological information that he calls shocking. He is telling lawmakers and business leaders that the United States has far more oil in reserves than previously believed, maybe even double Saudi Arabia’s 250 billion barrels. “We have resources in America that can change the globe,” he says. And oil isn’t even part of his revised Pickens plan, which calls for the mining of some 4,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the equivalent of 700 billion barrels of oil. The reason it’s just sitting in the earth and not helping to cut gas prices, he says, is a lack of leadership in Washington. “This country has to have an energy plan,” he says. His goal is to get congressional approval of a plan to use tax credits to switch 18-wheelers to natural gas, which would expand availability to consumers. Pickens says the House GOP is on board with the plan and will push it this year.
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Book: Hillary Clinton Error Led to Impeachment
Tweet Share on Facebook April 25, 2011 Comment (5)Bill Clinton can blame his wife and a House GOP in disarray after disastrous midterm elections for his 1998 impeachment and 1999 Senate trial on perjury and obstruction charges. Former Republican Rep. James Rogan, a House prosecutor who was the only key player to keep a diary of the epic event, reveals in the most unvarnished tale yet how nobody in Washington wanted to move forward on the case, but there just wasn’t anybody in leadership to stop the train wreck from happening. In Catching Our Flag, due soon to bookstores, the former California lawmaker, now a Superior Court judge in Fullerton, Calif., says that after the election, GOP leaders wanted to drop the impeachment, fearing it would make Republicans even more unpopular. But the internal war that prompted former Speaker Newt Gingrich to quit led to a leadership vacuum in which “nobody was there to give us the marching orders to stop.” Add to that Hillary Clinton’s sudden decision, he writes, to stop talks for a deal because she didn’t think the GOP would dare to proceed. “A serious chance existed for Clinton to avoid impeachment, and Hillary Clinton killed that opportunity personally,” pens Rogan of the White House view, independently confirmed by Whispers. “These were all missed opportunities,” the folksy Rogan says in an interview.
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Zogby: Obama Errs in Not Talking Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook April 22, 2011 Comment (4)Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on the president's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis, and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending.
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Poll: Americans Fear Japanese Radioactivity
Tweet Share on Facebook April 22, 2011 Comment (4)The radioactive disaster on Japan's coastline that followed an earthquake and tsunami has Americans on edge. According to the latest Whispers poll, 42.9 percent say that of all the fallout from the earthquake and tsunami that's claimed 11,000 lives so far, the possibility of radioactivity reaching U.S. shores is the most alarming.
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Earth Day Ends Obama's 53,300 Gallon Trip
Tweet Share on Facebook April 22, 2011 Comment (237)President Obama declared today's 41st annual Earth Day proof of America's ecological and conservation spirit—then completed a three-day campaign-style trip logging 10,666 miles on Air Force One, eating up some 53,300 gallons at a cost of about $180,000. And that doesn't include the fuel consumption of his helicopter, limo, or the 29 other vehicles that travel with that car.
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New GOP Agenda: Balance Budget, Expand Jobs
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2011 Comment (3)Moving fast to avoid being out-flanked by the campaigning President Obama, Republicans are developing a new jobs plan that recasts their hot-button agenda issues as sure-fire ways to crush unemployment, the most frightening worry among independents.
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Ex-NASA Boss O'Keefe Describes 'Miracle' of Surviving Alaska Crash
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2011 Comment (3)Over eight months into his recovery from last August's Alaska fishing plane crash that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens, ex-NASA boss Sean O'Keefe says he can finally sleep through the night, having junked his back and neck brace for good.
