Michelle Obama: ‘Splurging is the Key to Life’

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Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

Photo Credit: AP / Susan Walsh

Michelle Obama said “splurging is the key to life” if you regularly eat right and stay active. Her biggest guilty pleasure: French fries.

“How would you appreciate vegetables if you never had chocolate?” she asked. “You couldn’t live without a little chocolate, a little French fries.”

The first lady took questions from children reporters Monday after appearing at the White House Easter Egg Roll. She told the children that if they eat right the majority of the time, then a splurge or snack is not going to hurt them.

“I still splurge when I can, but that’s why I try to exercise almost every day,” she said.

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Dem Congressman on Obamacare: The Worst Is Yet to Come (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

Massachusetts representative Stephen Lynch isn’t just worried about the negative impact Obamacare will have on his party’s performance this fall — he also thinks its worst effects on our health-care system are still to come. Lynch, who voted against the Affordable Care Act in 2010, warned that the situation is “going to hit the fan” when the law’s delayed provisions go into effect down the road.

“There are parts of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, that were postponed because they are unpalatable,” he told the Boston Herald. The “Cadillac tax” that goes into effect in a few years and taxes employer health plans over a certain value, he said, will be “the first time in this country’s history that we have actually taxed health care.”

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IRS Revokes Conservative Group’s Tax-Exempt Status Over Anti-Clinton Statements

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Internal Revenue Servicehas revoked the tax-exempt status of a conservative charity for making statements critical of Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry, according to a USA Today report.

The Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty, based in Manassas, Va., “has shown a pattern of deliberate and consistent intervention in political campaigns” and made “repeated statements supporting or opposing various candidates by expressing its opinion of the respective candidate’s character and qualifications,” according to a written determination released Friday by the IRS.

The IRS said the center acted as an “action organization” by publishing alerts on its website for columns written by its president, former FBI agent Gary Aldrich, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The IRS pointed out a column that appeared to be published by Townhall on April 2, 2004, in which Mr. Aldrich wrote, “if John Kerry promises otherwise ill-informed swing-voters lower gas prices at the pump, more than a few greedy, registered ignoramuses will follow him anywhere,” the Free Beacon reported.

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Former Supreme Court Justice: Amend 2nd Amendment

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Photo Credit: AP / J. Scott Applewhite

Photo Credit: AP / J. Scott Applewhite

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in his new book, recommends six rewrites to the U.S. Constitution. He would restrict gun ownership to militia members; ban the death penalty; and allow government to set “reasonable limits” on campaign financing, among other things.

But Stevens says he’s no radical:

“I think every one of my proposals is a moderate proposal,” Stevens told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

One of Steven’s proposals would add five words to the Second Amendment, which would then read: “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, when serving in the militia, shall not be infringed.”

Stevens agreed that adding those five words would allow legislatures and Congress, rather than the courts, to “do what they think is in the best public interest.”

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Trump: Why I Donated to Ted Cruz (+video)

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Donald Trump isn’t ready to make his presidential endorsement just yet.

The real estate magnate clarified on Monday that a donation he made to Ted Cruz’s political action committee doesn’t mean that he’s supporting Cruz for president in 2016.

Appearing on “Fox and Friends,” Trump praised Cruz, saying, “He’s a nice guy. I get along with him…”

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U.S. Intelligence Chief Bars Unauthorized Contacts with Reporters On All Intel-Related Matters

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Photo Credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY — MCT

Photo Credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY — MCT

Employees of U.S. intelligence agencies have been barred from discussing without authorization any intelligence-related matter – even if it isn’t classified – with journalists, under a new directive issued by Director of National Security James Clapper.

Intelligence agency employees who violate the policy could suffer career-ending losses of their security clearances or out-right termination, and those who disclose classified information could face criminal prosecution, according to the directive signed by Clapper on March 20.

Under the order, only the director or deputy head of an intelligence agency, public affairs officials and those authorized by a public affairs official may have contact with journalists on intelligence-related matters.

The order, which was made public on Monday by Steven Aftergood, who runs the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, is sweeping in its definition of intelligence-related matters.

“The directive is limited to contact with the media about intelligence related-information, including intelligence sources, methods, activities and judgments,” says the order, which doesn’t distinguish between classified and unclassified matters.

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Alaska Marijuana Vote Pushed to November

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Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey / POLITICO

Photo Credit: M.Scott Mahaskey / POLITICO

Marijuana likely won’t be on the ballot until November in Alaska when voters head to the polls in the general election, because of the state’s Legislature extending its session.

A citizens’ petition to allow recreational marijuana use similar to alcohol qualified to be on the ballot in the August primary, but it is expected to get pushed back to November, Alaska Public Media reported.

The change is caused by the Legislature’s extended session: Lawmakers were unable to reach an agreement on education spending by the midnight deadline and thus continued to meet. Alaska law requires constitutional initiatives to wait 120 days after a legislative session before making the ballot, and the Aug. 19 primary is 120 days from Monday.

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Independents More Likely to Back Anti-ObamaCare Candidates

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Most voters say ObamaCare will play an important role in their vote in this year’s elections, and over half are more inclined to back the candidate who opposes the health care law.

That’s according to a Fox News poll released Monday.

The new poll asks voters what they would do if the only difference between two congressional candidates is that one promises to fight for the health care law and the other promises to fight against it.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS

By a 53-39 percent margin, more voters say they would back the anti-ObamaCare candidate.

Independents, always a key voting bloc, would back that candidate by a 25 percentage-point margin (54-29 percent, with another 14 percent saying it depends).

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U.S. Says Has Indications Toxic Chemical Used in Syria this Month

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / STRINGER

Photo Credit: REUTERS / STRINGER

The United States has indications that a toxic chemical, probably chlorine, was used in Syria this month and is examining whether the Syrian government was responsible, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.

“We have indications of the use of a toxic industrial chemical” in the town of Kfar Zeita, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, referring to a rebel-held area.

“We are examining allegations that the government was responsible,” she told a regular news briefing. “Obviously there needs to be an investigation of what’s happened here.”

Syrian opposition activists reported that helicopters dropped chlorine gas on Kfar Zeita on April 11 and 12. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told ABC television’s “This Week” on April 13 that the attack was “unsubstantiated.”

Psaki said chlorine was not one of the priority one or two chemicals Syria declared to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) under a Russian-U.S. agreement for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

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Gold Bars Found Inside Stomach of Indian Businessman

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Photo Credit: John Louis / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: John Louis / Creative Commons

Twelve gold bars were found inside the stomach of a businessman who tried to smuggle the precious metal into India from Singapore.

The Indian Express reports that the 63-year-old man visited a hospital in New Delhi earlier this month, saying he had swallowed the cap of a water bottle and wanted it removed. Doctors soon operated after he repeatedly vomited and complained of pain, and later found 12 gold bars, weighing nearly a pound and worth $23,000.

Read more from this story HERE.