Photo Credit: LifeNews
Sitting around a conference table made just for them, these South Carolina quadruplets think their father is quite the comedian.
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Photo Credit: CNSNews.com / Penny Starr
In a March 7th letter to House Science, Space and Technology Committee chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), McCarthy admitted that EPA cannot produce all of the original data from the 1993 Harvard Six Cities Study (HSC) and the American Cancer Society’s (ACS) 1995 Cancer Prevention Study II, which is currently housed at New York University.
Both studies concluded that fine airborne particles measuring 2.5 micrograms or less (PM2.5) – 1/30th the diameter of a human hair – are killing thousands of Americans every year.
These epidemiological studies are cited by EPA as the scientific foundation for clean air regulations that restrict particulate emissions from vehicles, power plants and factories.
The agency has recently come under fire for exposing volunteers to concentrated levels of particulate matter without informing them of the risks, a practice Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, called “despicable.”
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Photo Credit: Ano Lobb
The memo dated Friday, which The Associated Press obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, says the state auditor compared clients enrolled in the Medicaid database last June with state death records dating back to 1970. Auditors identified overpayments for services to roughly 2,900 people after the date of their deaths.
The heads of the departments of Healthcare and Family Services and Human Services, the two state agencies involved with Medicaid payments, outline steps to fix the problem in the memo to their senior staffs.
The memo states that more than $7 million has been recovered and the rest is expected to be recouped by year’s end.
Sen. Dale Righter, a Republican from Mattoon and the Senate GOP’s point person on Medicaid reform, said the finding was further evidence that Democrats’ arguments that they have done all they can to clean up the Medicaid rolls is “empty rhetoric.”
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“The Internet can link people, groups and organizations together instantly,” the report reads. “Moreover, it allows an extraordinary amount of unregulated data and information to be located in one area and available to all. The right wing has seized upon the internet as a means of communicating its ideas to people. Moreover, evidence exists that Republican staffers surf the internet, interacting with extremists in order to exchange ideas and information.”
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Photo Credit: Leah Millis, San Francisco Chronicle
By SF Gate.
To “honor the dignity and work of immigrants,” Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi helps Bishop Marc Andrus wash the feet of two children Thursday at Saint John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in San Francisco.
Pelosi also used the occasion to talk about passing HR15 – bipartisan immigration legislation that her office says would “reduce the deficit by nearly $1 trillion, secure our borders…
Read more from this story HERE.
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Bozell: Pelosi’s Mimicry of Pope Is ‘Sickening and Shameful,’ ‘Sacrilegious’
By Craig Bannister.
Conservative leader and Catholic L. Brent Bozell III today blasted Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for mimicking the pope’s Holy Week foot-washing tradition while touting her immigration reform legislation:
“I am a Catholic and I am offended at Minority Leader Pelosi’s continued abuses of the Catholic Church’s teachings and traditions. As a Catholic who has watched Ms. Pelosi champion one anti-Catholic cause after another, I believe this to be sacrilegious.
“Christ taught the washing of the feet as an act of utter humility, while she turned a sacred religious tradition into a grandstanding political publicity stunt. Ms. Pelosi’s politicizing of Holy Week is sickening and shameful.”
Read more from this story HERE.
Photo Credit: AP
Sen. Ted Cruz’s bill to forbid an Iranian diplomat from entering the U.S. got President Barack Obama’s signature Friday, though the president noted he still considers the law “advisory.”
The law spearheaded by the typically polarizing Texas Republican was a rare moment of consensus in D.C.: Obama’s sign-off follows unanimous passage in the Senate and House last week.
The bill would tweak existing law to prohibit entry to the U.S. to anyone who has engaged in terrorist activity against the U.S. or its allies in the past, a move triggered by Iran’s selection of Hamid Aboutalebi, who was involved in the 1979 taking of Americans hostage in Tehran, as its U.N. ambassador.
Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: AP
By Sharon Churcher.
Real estate mogul and entertainment personality Donald Trump gave $5,000 to Sen. Ted Cruz’s leadership PAC in January, according to newly released campaign records.
The Hill reported that Trump’s donation to the tea party-backed Texas Republican — the maximum allowed per election cycle — is the latest indication that the men are becoming political allies.
The relationship between the pair got off to a bumpy start. Last August, Trump said he wasn’t sure whether Cruz could be president because he was born in Canada.
But at a February Republican Party dinner at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, the tycoon called Cruz a “very special guy” and defended his 21-hour filibuster on the Senate floor over Obamacare.
“One of the reasons I like Ted Cruz so much, is that he’s not controversial,” he said, to laughs from the audience.
Read more from this story HERE.
When the Census Bureau released its most recent ranking of the U.S. communities with the highest median household incomes, seven of the nation’s ten wealthiest counties were in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.
In an interview about his new book, Falling in Love With America Again, Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint told CNSNews.com he had a theory that might explain this. “[B]ig government benefits the rich and big business,” he said.
In the book, DeMint describes the cozy, symbiotic relationship that often exists between people working for the federal government and people representing big business.
“In Washington,” DeMint wrote, “it’s a rule of thumb that government staffers charged with overseeing an industry want to go to work for that industry one day, for a huge raise. ‘Cashing in,’ it’s called, or ‘moving to K Street’ (the downtown Washington artery that’s synonymous with the lobbying business).”
Here, from his interview with CNSnews.com, is DeMint’s explanation of how people come to Washington to do public service and end up getting rich:
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Citizens for Joe Miller today released its first quarter fundraising totals. The campaign reported contributions more than three times that from the previous quarter, and cash-on-hand increased to nearly $300,000. The total raised for the first quarter was approximately $101,400. No loans have been made to the campaign.
“I am very pleased with the increased financial backing we are seeing as we move toward our campaign launch date next week,” said Miller campaign political director Matt Johnson. “I believe this upward trend will continue. I am confident that Joe’s supporters will provide all the resources we will need to carry the message of liberty and opportunity to the people of Alaska and prevail on Election Day.”
In the 2010 primary election, Miller won the Republican Party nomination against the incumbent senator with approximately $300,000. In mid-July of 2010, about a month from Election Day, the senator reported over $2 million on-hand to Miller’s $125,000.
According to recent public polling, Miller has gained 17 points in a head-to-head match-up against Democrat Senator Mark Begich since last year and now holds the incumbent under 50 percent.
“I am excited by the trends we are seeing in terms of financial backing, public polling, endorsements the campaign is picking up, and grassroots enthusiasm Joe is seeing as he travels the state,” said Johnson. “The people of Alaska recognize that Joe is the real deal and when he goes to Washington, he will partner with reformers like Senators Cruz, Lee and Paul to restore the America we love.”
Photo Credit: HotAir
As much as I suspect an immigration deal under these circumstances will inevitably be terrible, I also think Boehner’s bet is a shrewd one. In fact, I’ll place a bet of my own: If they pass something along the lines of the Gang of Eight bill and I end up writing a bunch of posts in October exhorting people to boycott the midterms because of it, some commenters will be calling me a traitor.
Speaker John Boehner and other senior House Republicans are telling donors and industry groups that they aim to pass immigration legislation this year, despite the reluctance of many Republicans to tackle the divisive issue before the November elections.
Many lawmakers and activists have assumed the issue was off the table in an election year. But Mr. Boehner said at a Las Vegas fundraiser last month he was “hellbent on getting this done this year,” according to two people in the room…
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Photo Credit: REUTERS
The Obama administration once again has punted on a final decision for the Keystone XL pipeline, announcing ahead of the holiday weekend it is extending a key review period indefinitely — a move that could push off a determination until after the midterm elections.
Republicans, as well as red-state Democrats who want the proposed Canada-to-Texas pipeline approved, slammed the administration for the delay. Democrats even threatened to find ways to go around the president to get the project approved.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous that this well over five year long process is continuing for an undetermined amount of time,” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said in a statement.
Republican Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry called the decision “shameful,” noting that another spring construction season will come and go without the project.
The administration had been in the middle of a 90-day review period for federal agencies assessing an environmental study from the State Department.
Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: IJ Review
By Soopermexican.
While the media is obsessed with the Koch brothers this campaign season, a billionaire hedge fund manager from San Francisco just bought off the White House to the tune of $100 million in order to delay the Keystone XL pipeline decision.
Read more from this story HERE.