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| Obamacare enrollment tops six million as deadline looms: White House Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 02:33 PM PDT  By Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 6 million people have now signed up for private insurance plans under President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law known as Obamacare, reflecting a surge in enrollments days before the March 31 deadline, the White House said on Thursday. The milestone gives the White House some ammunition to counter Republican critics, who have described the program as an expensive flop in the build-up to midterm congressional campaigns in November, when Democratic control of the U.S. Senate is at stake. Only 10 days ago, the administration had pegged enrollment at more than 5 million people, and enlisted celebrities and top government officials to try to persuade more uninsured people, particularly the young and healthy, to sign up. The last-minute boost has exceeded the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's estimate that 6 million people would sign up in the program's first year, down from earlier expectations of 7 million enrollees because of problems with websites used for shopping for insurance. Full Story | Top |
| WhiteHouse.gov petition seeks to give Alaska back to Russia Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 09:51 AM PDT A petition on WhiteHouse.gov is seeking to give Alaska back to Russia. It's safe to file this one under "N" for "Never Gonna Happen." Full Story | Top |
| What really matters on health care: Making it work Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 03:57 AM PDT The truth is that whether it takes six weeks or six months to meet the next arbitrary benchmark, the health care law is now embedded in the society, and it's not going anywhere. Full Story | Top |
| Christie's lawyer: Governor not involved in plot Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 11:31 AM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — Gov. Chris Christie was not involved in a plot to create gridlock near a major bridge in a scheme directed at a mayor, lawyers hired by the administration reported Thursday while also defending the integrity of their internal review amid separate federal and legislative investigations. Full Story | Top |
| Poll: Ukraine crisis hurts Obama approval ratings Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 12:09 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign policy used to stand out as a not-so-bleak spot in the public's waning assessment of Barack Obama. Not anymore. He's getting low marks for handling Russia's swoop into Ukraine, and more Americans than ever disapprove of the way Obama is doing his job, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Full Story | Top |
| Obamacare: Taxpayers in the Hole for $1.5 Trillion Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 02:45 AM PDT  "What the hell is this, a joke?" Speaker of the House John Boehner said in reaction to news this week that yet another "deadline" in the Affordable Care Act had been unilaterally delayed by the Obama administration. Late Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services – which has taken to bragging about "enrollment" numbers that fall millions short of their original goals – announced that the March 31st deadline for open enrollment had become more of a guideline. For those who could not navigate the troublesome Healthcare.gov web portal in time to meet the cutoff date for accessing approved plans, HHS would now keep the portal open and plans available for purchase, as long as users attested to the fact that they were "in line" for processing before the deadline. How, though, will HHS determine who has waited in line because the web portal could not keep up with the demand? Full Story | Top |
| Jon Stewart Reveals the Absurdity of Hobby Lobby's Supreme Court Case Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 06:21 AM PDT  Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, the case in which a craft store chain is claiming the Affordable Care Act's birth control mandate violates its religious beliefs. You may be thinking that a private corporation suing over its religious beliefs sounds asinine. Jon Stewart explained last night that, well, indeed it is. Not only is it the silliest sounding Supreme Court case, as Stewart said, "since 1950's Brown v. Board of Titty Farts," but Hobby Lobby's lawsuit is a thinly veiled attack on Obama's healthcare law as a whole, disguised as an assertion of religious rights. Full Story | Top |
| California drought spurs mini gold rush in Sierra Wednesday, Mar 26, 2014 11:52 PM PDT COLFAX, Calif. (AP) — There's gold in them dry hills! Full Story | Top |
| Obama tells Pope Francis he is a 'great admirer' Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 05:40 AM PDT VATICAN CITY (AP) — A visibly energized President Barack Obama held a nearly hourlong audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday, expressing his great admiration for the pontiff and inviting him to visit the White House. Full Story | Top |
| Watch American University students fail to name single U.S. senator Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 07:28 AM PDT More than a dozen students on the American University campus in the nation's capital were recently asked to name one person currently serving in the U.S. Senate. Just one did. The rest struggled mightily. Full Story | Top |
| Friends Urge Grandma To Let Younger Grandson Be Adopted Wednesday, Mar 26, 2014 10:00 PM PDT DEAR ABBY: I'm 62 and own my own home. I have legal guardianship of my eldest grandson, who is 5. Another grandchild is 2 1/2 and in foster care. I would like to keep both children together because I have been told that in the long run it is better so they won't lose contact with each other. Some friends of mine have been telling me I should let the little one get adopted through the state in a closed adoption. This is really traumatic for me and I'm not sure what to do. Please give me some advice. I love both of my grandchildren and want the best for them, now and in the long term. ... Full Story | Top |
| Putin eyes Russia credit card system after Western sanctions Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 10:05 AM PDT  President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Russia should create its own national payment settlement system, in a bid to reduce economic dependence on the West amid the controversy over Moscow's seizure of Crimea. "In countries such as Japan and China these systems work, and work very well," Putin told lawmakers in televised remarks. We should definitely do it and we will do it," he said, noting that Russia's Central Bank and the government have been looking into the matter. Last week the United States hit more than 20 Russian officials, including some of Putin's closest allies, with sanctions over Moscow's takeover of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| WTF Is ‘Natural Marriage?’ Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 02:45 AM PDT  When a group like the Family Research Council is losing a debate there's only one thing left to do: change the terms. Full Story | Top |
| Son of Malaysia Airlines captain breaks silence about father Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 06:39 AM PDT Ahmad Seth, the 28-year-old son of Malaysia Airlines flight 370 Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shah, broke his silence about the speculation concerning his father and the rumors that he may have hijacked the plane. Full Story | Top |
| GOP hopefuls betting on mega donor in Vegas Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 02:29 PM PDT  LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Republican White House hopefuls gathering on the Las Vegas strip this weekend have not come to woo voters. Instead, the GOP stars are hoping to win over a key patron and, perhaps, his millions of dollars in campaign cash. Full Story | Top |
| Commanders fired in nuke missile cheating scandal Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 05:42 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force took the extraordinary step Thursday of firing nine midlevel nuclear commanders and announcing it will discipline dozens of junior officers at a nuclear missile base, responding firmly to an exam-cheating scandal that spanned a far longer period than originally reported. Full Story | Top |
| 'One in 68 kids has autism' Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 10:19 AM PDT  One in 68 children has autism, a 30 percent rise over the last estimate released in 2012, US health authorities said Thursday. The latest US data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the "proportion of children with autism and higher IQ (is) on the rise," said a CDC statement. Previously, as many as one in 88 US children were known to have autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, a developmental disorder that recent research suggests may originate in the womb. "This new estimate is roughly 30 percent higher than previous estimates reported in 2012 of 1 in 88 children (11.3 per 1,000 eight year olds) being identified with an autism spectrum disorder," said the CDC. Full Story | Top |
| Colorado River begins flooding Mexican delta Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 03:47 PM PDT  LOS ALGODONES, Mexico (AP) — Colorado River water has begun pouring over a barren delta near the U.S.-Mexico border, the result of a landmark bi-national agreement being celebrated Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Airline Apologizes for Insulting 'Deaf and Dumb' Note Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 01:40 PM PDT  James Moehle and Angela Huckaby returned to Texas this week from a beautiful Hawaiian vacation, but the trip home was marred slightly by lost luggage but even more so when the luggage turned up with an insulting note attached. "Please text, deaf and dumb," were... Full Story | Top |
| Obama looking for kindred spirit in Pope Francis Thursday, Mar 27, 2014 02:50 AM PDT VATICAN CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama is holding a historic first meeting with Pope Francis, the pontiff that the president views as a kindred spirit on issues of economic inequality and the poor. Full Story | Top |
| To Defeat GOP's Restrictive Voting Laws, Debunk 'Voter Fraud' Wednesday, Mar 26, 2014 10:00 PM PDT Growing up in Jim Crow Arkansas, Bill Clinton saw how the state's dominant political and racial elite maintained power by suppressing the rights of minority voters who threatened its authority — and as a young activist, worked to bring down that illegitimate power structure. So when Clinton says, "There is no greater assault on our core values than the rampant efforts to restrict the right to vote" — as he does in a new video released by the Democratic National Committee — the former president knows of what he speaks. Not just below the Mason-Dixon Line but across the country, it is Republicans who have sought to limit ballot access and discourage participation by minorities, the poor, the young and anyone else who might vote for a Democratic candidate. No doubt this is why, at long last, the Democratic Party has launched a national organizing project, spearheaded by Clinton, to educate voters, demand reforms, and push back against restrictive laws. Full Story | Top |
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