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The U.S. economy added 216,000 jobs in March to beat economists’ predictions

Senate Democratic leaders won quick praise from seniors this week when they vowed to close the nettlesome coverage gap in Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, but left unmentioned was the looming battle.

I keep trying to get confirmation of what former Sen. Bob Graham has been been saying about the CIA keeping erroneous records of what it told Congress in 2002

Pic by adactio, via Flickr Despite recent reports suggesting the FDA’s screening process for gulf seafood contaminants leaves room for improvement, state officials remain confident in the product’s safety. Last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonpartisan environmental advocacy group, filed a petition with the FDA, demanding that the agency “recognize the hazards posed by PAHs in seafood and set a health protective standard.” Researchers with the NRDC suggest that the FDA has failed to properly assess levels of PAHs (Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) in seafood that was likely affected by last year’s gulf oil spill.

The third ballot: Michael Steele - 51 Mike Duncan - 44 Katon Dawson - 34 Saul Anuzis - 24 Ken Blackwell - 15 Patrick Ruffini’s nightmare of a

I noticed in Massachusetts that the idea of backroom deals and horse-trading to bring on extra votes in the Senate -- to get the bill to 60 -- was far more

This will hardly come as a surprise to anyone who watched the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in which her answers were careful

On Tuesday, two groups called on Sen. Amy Klobuchar to sign on as a cosponsor of a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) noting that she is the only Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee who has not taken that step

Mohammed Jawad, the Afghan boy seized for allegedly throwing a grenade at U.S. troops and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay ever since, may be on his way home to

Gov.

Former Denver Post editor Gil Spencer died in New York this morning at the age of 85.

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich (Pic by Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons ) GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s recent call for a humane path to immigration enforcement makes him the most recent conservative voice calling for solutions that encompass something more than the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. Color Lines , a daily news site “in service to racial justice ,” writes today that Gingrich’s”remarks were a reminder of how far the right has moved on immigration, and how twisted the immigration debate has become for both parties. It’s too soon to say, but Gingrich’s remarks could be a sign that Republicans are ready to heed growing calls from within their own party to temper the anti-immigrant rhetoric and stop alienating Latino voters.” At last week’s CNN GOP presidential debate focused on national security, Gingrich said, “I don’t see how the — the party that says it’s the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century.

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain (Pic by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr) The GOP presidential candidates and Florida Republicans disagree on many issues, but they mostly agree that K-12 education policies should be designed at the local level and that the federal government should play a limited role. According to Education Week : The Republicans running for president may be working to stand out from the pack on some issues, but it already appears that most of the nine current candidates are largely united when it comes to K-12 policy: They want to dramatically shrink the federal role

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is scheduled to hold a briefing today on bullying and “peer-to-peer” violence in K-12 public schools . Specifically, the commission will concentrate on students targeted due to their race, national origin, religion, disability, gender or LGBT status and on what the appropriate federal response should be going forward, with a focus on student needs, programs and the enforcement efforts of the U.S

Felix Salmon at Portfolio brings up something I’ve been meaning to mention as well: AIG, the giant insurance company bailed out by government to the tune of

Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar voted in a Senate committee hearing Thursday to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Both testified that DOMA hurts same-sex couples who are legally married in several states.

According to a new international report, the United States is falling behind most of the developed world in the well-being of mothers and children. The U.S. was ranked 31 out 164.

The same group that helped open the door for a Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money in elections is now trying to slam

The rise of gay pride is a sign delivered by God that the end of the world will begin in just a few short days on May 21. At least that is the prophecy of former Coloradan Harold Camping, the 89-year-old founder, president, and general manager of the radio network Family Stations Inc., the network that launched the end-of-world-campaign. Christian Gay and lesbian groups say they aren’t so sure, and a professor at Iliff School of Theology says the claim that the world will end as the result of God’s wrath on a particular group of people transforms the end of the world prediction from a humorous story to a very dangerous one.

Former U.S.

In a speech Thursday at the Commonwealth Club of California, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann batted down suggestions of student loan and debt forgiveness that have come out of the Occupy Wall Street movement, saying the movement isn’t offering permanent solutions.

A few months ago, reports surfaced that the Florida Legislature was rejecting grants from the Affordable Care Act — some of which provided money for child abuse and neglect prevention. Initially, child advocates were upset over a missed opportunity to reconcile budget shortfalls in programs run by Healthy Families Florida and Healthy Start Coalitions. Both organizations carry out home visiting programs for at-risk families.

Andrew Breitbart (Pic by Gage Skidmore, via Flickr) During a recent tea party meeting in Boston, political commentator Andrew Breitbart made a slew of controversial comments about the divide between liberals and conservatives. Breitbart, who often appears on Fox News and runs the media syndicate breitbart.com , will be appearing in Orlando on Saturday alongside a host of Florida Republican elected officials. “There are times where I’m not thinking as clearly as I should, and in those unclear moments, I always think to myself, ‘Fire the first shot.’ ‘Bring it on,’” Breitbart said .