National News

Residents of Hawaii, Utah, and South Dakota were the most likely to be "thriving" in the first half of 2012 based on how they rate their lives today and their expectations for their lives in five years. Residents of West Virginia and Maine were the least likely to be thriving.

Medicare.gov is publishing quality-of-care and patient- satisfaction information on more than 4,000 hospitals around the country that participate in Medicare and Medicaid.

Taxpayers will lose even more on the auto bailout than previously thought, as the Treasury has just revised its estimate upward to $25 billion. This may still underestimate the losses to come....

After this long and difficult struggle we are told that all criminal charges are dismissed, even though some of the accused had already pled guilty....

Obamacare has already "ended Medicare as we know it."

Last night...our opponent immediately turned to name calling and finger pointing to define us. But that is exactly what is wrong with politics today. There are too many politicians who just want to point out problems and too few who want to find solutions.

That's the number of American people who approve of the job that Congress is doing, and my opponent is one of the ‘12-percenters,’" Governor Lingle said.

Between 1999 and 2002 Hanabusa short changed the Hawaii ERS--launching today’s multi-billion dollar Hawaii pension crisis. Now she’s lining up with the most unpopular politician in Hawaii—Neil Abercrombie—in support of his efforts to gut the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act.

"Our way of life is being threatened because of the failure of D.C. politicians like my opponent. They failed Hawaii and they failed America. She failed us," said Governor Linda Lingle.  "She put her political career and her party ahead of the people."

At Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell's direction, Alaska's major oil and gas producers and pipeline company TransCanada have shifted focus from a big pipeline to the Lower 48 to one leading to an LNG export plant in Southcentral Alaska....

“I have held hundreds of town-hall meetings in my district explaining why we have to take bold reform steps, and I’ve found treating people like adults works.  All those ads pushing elderly woman off the cliffs don’t work anymore if you lay out the problem.”

We will honor you, our fellow citizens, by giving you the right and opportunity to make the choice:

• What kind of country do we want to have?
• What kind of people do we want to be?

Yesterday, I joined my former congressional colleague Brian Baird (D-WA) in an extended interview with the Washington Post. Brian and I discussed whether Congress can still compromise.

Do not “turn yourself in” before the rules are announced and the application process is in place. -- FACE 

Electronic diversion, together with the Great Recession and its after-effects, has buffeted postal services throughout the world. Nevertheless, the majority of foreign posts in high- and medium-income countries have remained profitable ....

At least 60 percent of firms are estimating Obamacare will raise their health care costs, according to a new study released Wednesday by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm.

The US is poised to divert around 40 per cent of its corn into ethanol because of the Congress-enacted mandate despite “huge damage” to the crop because of the worst drought in at least half a century, José Graziano da Silva, director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, warned....

Access to doctors looms as an important issue in 2014, when under the federal health law, the number of Medicaid patients -- now 60 million -- will increase by as many as 16 million.....

...American motorists are now burning about as much corn in their cars as is fed to all of the country's chickens, turkeys, cattle, pigs and fish combined....

Obamacare limits patient choice through expansive federal regulation of the insurance market, government interference in the decisions patients make with their doctors, and increased dependence on government health programs....

...the technologies being used to burn the biomass are outdated, and as a result have been fined for violating air-pollution or water-pollution standards....

In June 2012, seven environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claiming that lead bullets are poisoning both wildlife and humans....

If the President truly wanted to lower gas prices, he would work to increase supply. But when given the opportunity, he has done the opposite.

"This case does not involve a fundamental right or suspect classification, such as the race-based classification at issue in Brown v. Board of Education...."

The shore side LNG infrastructure that is to accompany TOTE’s plan may help other transportation industries in Puget Sound follow TOTE in converting to LNG.

...Robert Rector and Kiki Bradley first broke the story on July 12 that Obama's Health and Human Services Department (HHS) had rewritten the Clinton-era reform to undo the work requirements....

The House and Senate are in recess until Monday, September 10.... 

Several trillion meals containing genetically engineered food ingredients have been consumed by people around the world, and not a single adverse effect has been documented.

The emails released between Solyndra stakeholders and Obama Administration officials show that Solyndra's investors knew the company was a bad bet for taxpayers, but the Administration wanted the energy loan guarantee program to be perceived as successful....

"Disruptive technologies can putter around the margins … for years … But if they get better or cheaper, at some point they can suddenly take off, challenging the status quo."

...in three states -- Hawaii (+9), Vermont (+7), and New Jersey (+6) -- Obama's job rating is at least six points higher than the total percentage of Democrats....

Recognizing that the new focus on the Asia-Pacific region is a national strategy and one not just for the Defense Department alone, U.S. Pacific Command is reaching out to its interagency and non-governmental partners to roll it out in an efficient, well-coordinated manner.

According to the Labor Department's July jobs report, the unemployment rate ticked up to 8.3 percent, 12.8 million Americans are out of work, and 5.2 million have been out of work for at least a half a year....

In 16 states, his approval rating averaged below 40%, with residents of Utah, Wyoming, and Alaska least approving.

A little-known organization with U.S. Pacific Command is bringing together military and law-enforcement capabilities to combat drug-related transnational crime in the Asia-Pacific region ....

But don't worry.  Environmentalists are working day and night to stop fracking and restore CO2 output to Gorewellian levels....

Efforts to protect the environment in America have ignored the most powerful force for improving the environment: free people....

The problem was not Stalin’s Iron Curtain, scoffed Frank Marshall Davis in his usual incendiary language, but “G.M.’s iron curtain,” being raised by “General Motors’ Hitlers.”

Across the country, fewer than half of primary care clinicians were accepting new Medicaid patients as of 2008....

... they urged for a legal declaration that criticism of Islam in the U.S. be considered racial discrimination, potentially under the Title VI anti-discrimination laws ....

In a press release announcing the campaign, Owens encouraged black pastors and the black community to “withdraw their support for [Obama].”

Today signals the beginning of a season of impossible decisions for employers who, for reasons of conscience, have not been paying for abortion....

Asians -- Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Filipinos, Vietnamese and Koreans -- are the nation's wealthiest, most highly educated and most aspirational voting demographic.

Obama's Labor Department on Monday issued "guidance" to the states, telling them that a federal law requiring advance notice of mass layoffs does not apply to the layoffs that may occur in January as a result of automatic budget cuts known as "sequestration."
 

On the late Milton Friedman's 100th birthday today, his words are truer than ever: "There is no respect in which inhabitants of a low-income neighborhood are so disadvantaged as in the kind of schooling they can get for their children."

• Senate: Tax Cut Extension – Passage
• Senate: Cybersecurity – Cloture
• House: Tribal Land Leases – Suspension
• House: Levee Construction – Suspension
• House: Oil and Gas Drilling – Passage
• House: Federal Reserve Audit – Suspension
• House: Regulatory Overhaul

...forcing nearly all employers to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization services.  Beginning August 1, employers must amend their health insurance offerings to include these drugs and services. And if they don't? How about a fine of $100 per employee per day for non-compliance....

"Unfortunately for the people of Hawaii, this type of resume-padding behavior is business as usual for Hirono, who is well versed in taking credit for the achievements of others."

"In any expansion of gaming, we must make sure that the unique circumstances surrounding tribal sovereignty are maintained in any legislation." 

... BRT projects to receive at least 80 percent federal funding share each fiscal year. These provisions provide a significant opportunity for communities seeking to invest in BRT....