Gay Couples Marry in Arkansas, Most Clerks Sit Out

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

More than 200 gay couples obtained Arkansas marriage licenses Monday after a judge tossed out the state’s 10-year-old same-sex marriage ban, but only at a handful of courthouses as an overwhelming majority of county clerks in this part of the Bible Belt said they first wanted the state Supreme Court to weigh in.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel — who recently announced his personal support for same-sex marriage rights but said he would defend the law — filed paperwork Monday to at least temporarily preserve the ban, which voters approved by a 3-to-1 margin.

In other states that have seen gay-marriage bans overturned, judges either issued stays with their orders or state lawyers sought them with some immediacy. McDaniel’s office requested a stay from the local judge Friday night but had to wait until the full court record was available Monday before going to the state Supreme Court, under the justices’ rules. Justices gave both sides until midday Tuesday to file arguments.

Seventy of the state’s 75 clerks have not granted licenses. A handful of clerks, including one who granted licenses Monday, filed a stay request saying the judge’s decision didn’t address a law that threatens clerks with fines for “wrongful issuance of a marriage license.”

With the weddings Saturday and Monday, Arkansas became the 18th state to allow same-sex marriages, and the first among former states of the Confederacy.

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‘Don’t Record Me, Lady’ – Police Charge Woman With Wiretapping After She Records Her Own Arrest

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Photo Credit: IJ Review

Photo Credit: IJ Review

Massachusetts woman has been charged with unlawful wiretapping after she recorded her own arrest on her smartphone. 24-year-old Karen Dziewit allegedly had too much to drink and got too loud and belligerent at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, and police were called out.

Dziewit allegedly refused to cooperate with instructions from police officers and was arrested. However, before she was arrested, she activated the voice recording feature on her smartphone.
Mass Live reports:

Springfield Police Capt. Harry Kastrinakis said 24-year-old Karen Dziewit of Chicopee was drinking in front of 140 Chestnut Street shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday when police were called to assist a security officer at that address. Police said Dziewit was screaming and yelling and disturbing the tenants of the buildings, and she refused to stop her tirade when police asked her to.

She was arrested. But, before she was taken into custody, she apparently started the voice recorder in her smart phone and put it in her purse…

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Clay Aiken Opponent Dies Suddenly at Home

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Photo Credit: Ricky Ingold / The Courier-Tribune

Photo Credit: Ricky Ingold / The Courier-Tribune

Asheboro businessman and congressional candidate, Keith Crisco, 71, died suddenly at his home today.

Information is incomplete; however, early information indicates he suffered injuries from a fall around 1 p.m. at his home on 1263 Thayer Drive in Asheboro. He was reported dead at the scene when emergency workers arrived there.

John Ogburn, Asheboro city manager, confirmed that the Asheboro Police Department and Asheboro Fire Department responded to the scene. He said the case will go to the state medical examiner to determine an exact cause of death.

In a statement from the city, local officials said they were saddened to learn of Crisco’s death. During his time on the Asheboro City Council, from 2003-2009, officials said he consistently demonstrated the intellect and steadfastness that made him so successful.

“Keith was an excellent leader and public servant,” said Mayor David Smith. “His service to the City of Asheboro and the State of North Carolina serves as a testimony to his love of family, community and our state.”

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Darrell Issa Threatens EPA Official with Contempt

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Photo Credit: AP / J. Scott Applewhite

Photo Credit: AP / J. Scott Applewhite

House Republicans have run out of patience with President Obama’s administration, Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Wednesday.

Issa, who has been investigating employee misconduct at the Environmental Protection Agency, demanded that deputy administrator Bob Perciasepe produce documents within one month.

“It is my intention to bring to this committee a contempt if that is not done,” Issa said during a Wedneday hearing, before citing his investigation into the Internal Revenue Service targeting of Tea Party groups and the Benghazi terrorist attack as evidence that the Obama administration has a strategy of “running the clock” on House investigations.

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Hagel: Military Should Review Transgender Ban

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

The prohibition on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military “continually should be reviewed,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Sunday.

Hagel did not indicate whether he believes the policy should be overturned. However, he said “every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it.”

A transgender individual is someone who has acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or presents themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

A panel convened by a think tank at San Francisco State University recently estimated that about 15,450 transgender personnel serve in the military and in the National Guard and Reserve.

In 2010, Congress passed legislation allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. Hagel said the issue of transgender serving in the military is more complicated. He said “these issues require medical attention” that at times cannot be provided in austere locations.

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Rubio Says ‘I Do’ About Having Enough Experience to Become President, but Still Must Make The Case

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio is at least six months away from saying whether he’ll run for president in 2016, but last week the Senate freshman made clear that he thinks he’s ready.

The 42-year-old Rubio on Friday visited the key, early-voting state of New Hampshire for the first time since the 2012 presidential elections.

“I do” think I have the political experience to become president, Rubio told ABC’s “This Week,” while in New Hampshire, in an interview aired Sunday.

Rubio, a dynamic Tea Party candidate swept into the Senate during the 2010 midterm elections, has quickly emerged as a leading GOP voice in Congress and was even considered a viable, potential presidential candidate in 2012.

He is among several potential 2016 GOP presidential candidates at the top of early polls with New Jersey Gov. Christ Christie, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and fellow freshman Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky.

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U.S. Naval Academy Hosts First Same-Sex Wedding for Maryland Couple

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Photo Credit: NBC News

Photo Credit: NBC News

Beneath the magnificent cupola of the Navy’s most recognizable religious structure, two men — accompanied by their two children and about 100 guests — gathered here Saturday for the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel’s first-ever same-sex wedding.

For the Naval Academy, it was an historic milestone that David Bucher, a 49-year-old Academy graduate who works at the Pentagon, and partner Bruce Moats, 50, tied the knot. . .

The wedding was not widely publicized, and it wasn’t surprising to Naval Academy spokesman Cmdr. John Schofield to see no Academy opposition to the ceremony.

“The Naval Academy is all about creating leaders for the future and embodying and promoting a culture of dignity and respect,” Schofield said. “And I think that it’s in line with those values, those tenets that we hold dear, that we have our first same-sex marriage here.”

He said the Academy was proud to hold the wedding — in line with Maryland law. Same-sex marriage went into effect in 2013.

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Greenwald Details Day Snowden Revealed Himself as NSA Whistleblower

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Photo Credit: The Guardian

Photo Credit: The Guardian

Nearly a year after Edward Snowden revealed himself as the National Security Agency contractor-turned-whistleblower, Glenn Greenwald — the former Guardian journalist who helped unveil Snowden as the source of the leaks — is sharing more behind-the-scenes details of the events in Hong Kong in the hours before Snowden’s announcement.

A few days before the Guardian revealed him as the source, Snowden told Greenwald that “an Internet-connected security device at the home he shared with his longtime girlfriend in Hawaii had detected that two people from the NSA” had come looking for him, Greenwald writes in an excerpt from an upcoming book, “No Place to Hide,” published by the Guardian on Sunday.

Greenwald was skeptical that the visit meant the NSA suspected Snowden was behind the leaks, but he knew that he and filmmaker Laura Poitras had to hustle.

“We were determined that the world would first hear about Snowden, his actions and his motives, from Snowden himself,” Greenwald writes, “not through a [demonization] campaign spread by the US government while he was in hiding or in custody and unable to speak for himself.”

After taping a second video interview with Snowden, Greenwald writes, the reality of disclosing Snowden’s identity set in.

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Donald Sterling Tells Anderson Cooper: I Was ‘Baited’ Into ‘A Terrible Mistake’

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Photo Credit: CNN

Photo Credit: CNN

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling says he’s sorry but feels he was “baited” to make racist comments, nearly two weeks after the NBA fined him and banned him for life for his remarks in a recorded conversation.

“When I listen to that tape, I don’t even know how I can say words like that. … I don’t know why the girl had me say those things,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview set to air on Monday.

“You’re saying you were set up?” Cooper asked.

“Well yes, I was baited,” Sterling said. “I mean, that’s not the way I talk. I don’t talk about people for one thing, ever. I talk about ideas and other things. I don’t talk about people.”

Sterling, an 80-year-old married lawyer and billionaire real-estate investor, hasn’t spoken publicly about the accusations since celebrity gossip website TMZ posted a 10-minute audio recording of him that drew widespread condemnation from fans, players and the league.

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Ted Cruz: 76 ‘Lawless’ Obama Actions

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz released a definitive list Wednesday of 76 “lawless” Obama administration actions and abuses of power.

Cruz’s “The Legal Limit Report No. 4,” obtained by The Daily Caller, delves into little-known and little-reported details of President Obama’s executive actions. Cruz was set to discuss his report at the Federalist Society in the Promenade Ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington at 2:15 PM Wednesday.

Cruz details 76 specific actions over eight chapters. We’ve listed eight of them, as chronicled by Cruz, below:

1. “Obama implemented portions of the DREAM Act by executive action”

2. “Ended some terror asylum restrictions”

3. “Recognized same sex marriage in Utah despite a Supreme Court stay on a court order allowing the institution”

4. “Illegally revealed the existence of sealed indictments in the Benghazi investigation”

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