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House speaker tells Senate Democrats: act on security funds U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner blamed Senate Democrats on Wednesday for an impasse over legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which secures U.S. borders and oversees counterterrorism efforts. Using salty language, Boehner insisted the Senate must make the next move on the legislation, which Republicans in the House have written so that it also blocks President Barack Obama's actions on immigration."The House has done its job. Why don't you go ask the Senate Democrats when they are going to get off their ass and do something other than to vote 'no'?" Boehner said at a news conference after meeting with fellow House Republicans.With the clock ticking toward a Feb. 27 deadline for funding the department, more than 40 Senate Democrats have voted three times this month to block consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill that has already been approved by the House.The Democrats want to fund the department but oppose House amendments that strip funding from Obama's executive orders in 2012 and 2014 lifting the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants.Republicans charge that Obama overreached with his 2014 executive order shielding undocumented parents of U.S. citizens from deportation, as well as the 2012 order aiding undocumented child immigrants.The president has threatened to veto the House-passed measure, and Democrats are insisting on a "clean" funding bill with no immigration restrictions.One moderate Senate Republican on Wednesday called for a such a clean Homeland Security bill, breaking with most in his party who are still insisting on blocking Obama's executive orders on immigration."I would think that we ought to strip the bill of extraneous issues and make it just about Homeland Security," Illinois Senator Mark Kirk told reporters in a Capitol corridor. "The American people are pretty alarmed, as they should be, about security."Another moderate Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, has proposed revisions that would only block Obama's November immigration order. But she said on Wednesday that she had not yet found any Democrats interested in her approach.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said on Tuesday the Senate was "stuck" and that the next move was up to the House. While insisting it was still the Senate's turn to act, Boehner indicated he was not angry with McConnell over the Senate paralysis.Republicans control just 54 seats in the Senate, and 60 votes are needed to clear procedural hurdles.

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Battle lines emerge in Congress over Obama Islamic state war plan House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday Republicans want a "strong, robust" authorization for military action against Islamic State, underscoring sharp differences with Democrats over President Barack Obama's plans for the campaign.A day after Obama sent his proposed authorization to Congress, Boehner told a news conference he and his fellow Republicans wanted to give U.S. military commanders enough flexibility to defeat the militant group wherever it exists."I want to give our military commanders the flexibility and the authority they need to defeat the enemy," Boehner said. "If we're going to win this fight, we need a strong robust strategy and a strong, robust authority." While Republicans said Obama included too many restrictions in the plan, such as a pledge there would be no "enduring" involvement by U.S. ground troops, the president's fellow Democrats worry the plan is too broad.Many Democrats - particularly the most liberal members of the House - said they wanted a blanket prohibition on U.S. ground combat forces. Some also called for geographic restrictions on combat, which are not in Obama's draft proposal.Both the Senate and House must approve the war authorization for it to take effect. Leaders of both chambers promise to hold hearings and briefings in the coming weeks as lawmakers debate and amend the proposal.The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, acknowledged that it will be difficult for Obama's measure to pass. "It is going to be hard" for Republicans and Democrats to reach consensus, she told a weekly news conference. Republicans control a majority of seats in both the House and Senate, but there are too many objections from members of both parties for the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) to pass without bipartisan backing.Obama has also called for both parties to get behind the plan, in order to show the world - and Islamic State militants - a united front.Boehner was asked if he thought a plan could pass. He did not give an answer, saying only, "Let's take it one day at a time."

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Oklahoma bill would protect clergy who won't perform gay marriages Oklahoma state representatives voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to advance a bill that would provide immunity from lawsuits to clergy who refuse to conduct marriages for same-sex couples.The bill, approved by 88-7 in the state House of Representatives, would protect clergy members from any civil claim or cause of action if they refuse to preside over or recognize a marriage of same-sex couples because of their conscience or religious beliefs. The measure next goes to the state Senate for consideration.The bill's sponsor, Republican Representative David Brumbaugh, said many pastors asked for the legislation after a federal judge overturned Oklahoma's ban on gay marriage in January 2014.The ministers are concerned about being sued under public accommodation laws if they turn away same-sex couples who want to marry, he said. "It's not about discrimination or anything like that, it's just that we want to make sure they were protected," Brumbaugh said.Brumbaugh said he was not sure if any states had approved similar bills.The bill is one of several proposals before the Republican-dominated Oklahoma Legislature intended to protect the interests of people who object to the lifting of the gay marriage ban.Gay rights supporters have said they would challenge the proposed measures in court if they become law.

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Obama slams Staples, big companies on healthcare: 'Shame on them' - BuzzFeed U.S. President Barack Obama singled out office supply company Staples Inc as undercutting his healthcare reform law and said large corporations should not use the health insurance issue as an excuse for cutting wages, the news website BuzzFeed reported."It's one thing when you've got a mom-and-pop store who can't afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers ... but when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers’ wages, shame on them,” Obama said in an interview with BuzzFeed.The Affordable Care Act requires companies with more than 50 employees to pay for health insurance for people who work 30 hours a week or more. Reuters has reported that some businesses are keeping staffing numbers below 50 or cutting the work week to less than 30 hours to avoid providing employee health insurance.  Staples, the No. 1 U.S. office supplies retailer, has told its employees not to work more than 25 hours per week, according to a Buzzfeed report on Monday.Staples Chief Executive Officer Ronald Sargent brought home $10.8 million in total compensation in 2013. The company reported net profit of $620.1 million through Feb. 1, 2014."There is no reason for an employer who is not currently providing health care to their workers to discourage them from either getting health insurance on the job or being able to avail themselves of the Affordable Care Act,” Obama said in the interview Tuesday."I haven’t looked at Staples stock lately or what the compensation of the CEO is, but I suspect that they could well afford to treat their workers favorably and give them some basic financial security, and if they can't, then they should be willing to allow those workers to get the Affordable Care Act without cutting wages," Obama said.Staples shot back on Wednesday, saying the company's policy on part-time workers was more than a decade old and not a response to the 2010 health care law, known as Obamacare."Unfortunately, the president appears not to have all the facts," Staples spokesman Kirk Saville said in a statement. "It's unfortunate that the president is attacking a company that provides more than 85,000 jobs and is a major tax payer." The U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticized Obama's remarks, which it said were based on "incomplete facts.""We're happy to see the president finally acknowledge that some of his policies are far too costly for mom-and-pop shops," said Blair Latoff Holms, spokeswoman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "It's unfortunate this administration continues to publicly challenge companies and in this instance apparently with incomplete facts."Nearly 7.5 million people have signed up for 2015 Obamacare health plans through HealthCare.gov with demand increasing as the Feb. 15 enrollment deadline approaches, according to government figures.Staples and No. 2 office retailer Office Depot Inc announced last week a $6.3 billion plan to join forces to compete against big box stores and online rivals.

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Alaska lawmaker wants to follow Arizona, Hawaii and drop daylight saving An Alaska lawmaker on Tuesday said the state should ditch the twice-yearly time switches required by daylight savings time and join Arizona and Hawaii in sticking to one standard time, matching a similar proposal in Washington state.State Senator Anna MacKinnon said switching the clocks is a health issue involving more than just the inconvenience of changing six or seven clocks in your house and car. MacKinnon, a Republican who introduced a bill to end the practice, said March's time switch plunges Alaska residents back into winter-like darkness and cited studies linking the time changes to spikes in heart attacks, suicides and workplace accidents. "The closer to the poles you are, the more dramatic the change is," MacKinnon told Reuters.The proposal, introduced last month, is similar to a bill proposed by a Washington state lawmaker that would take effect in 2016. Hawaii and Arizona both spurn daylight savings time.  MacKinnon's bill appears to have broad support. There are two similar bills introduced in Alaska's Legislature, one each in the House and Senate.Should her bill win approval, Alaska would opt out of daylight saving time in 2017, putting the state five hours behind the East Coast from November to mid-March. MacKinnon, in addressing a Senate committee on Tuesday, shared stories from the state's rural school districts which noted a change in classroom performance resulting from pushing clocks one hour ahead in March.Until 1983, Alaska had five time zones, more than the contiguous 48 states. It now has two time zones, with some of the Aleutian Islands sharing the same time zone as Hawaii.

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Netanyahu speech to U.S. Congress still on for March 3 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives is still scheduled for March 3, a spokesman for John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House said on Monday.A source close to Netanyahu's office had said Israeli officials were considering amending the format of the speech to perhaps have the prime minister speak in a closed session of Congress or in smaller meetings with lawmakers.Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined comment on that report.The invitation has caused consternation in Israel and the United States, largely because it is viewed as Netanyahu, a hawk on Iran, working with the Republicans to thumb their noses at Democratic President Barack Obama's approach to nuclear negotiations with Iran.

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Obama to GOP: Stop playing games with attorney general pick President Obama chastised Republican senators for delaying a vote on Loretta Lynch as the nation's attorney general, saying Lynch has been "languishing" for over four months awaiting confirmation. "No one can claim she's unqualified.No one's saying she can't do the job.Senators from both parties say they support her. This is purely about politics," the president said in a video address. "First, Republicans held up her nomination because they were upset about the actions I took to make our broken immigration system smarter and fairer.Now they're denying her a vote until they can figure out how to pass a bill on a completely unrelated issue."The Republican-backed bill in question -- the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act -- faces Democratic opposition in the upper chamber because of an alleged anti-abortion provision.Last Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would withhold a vote on Lynch's confirmation because of Democrats' resistance to the legislation."We can't pass the trafficking bill right now," the Kentucky senator told CNN. "And I wanted to hold a vote on the attorney general, but if I can't get this bill through first then I'm going to have to delay the confirmation vote." Others in the Democratic Party, including former Secretary of State and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, have already scolded Republican senators for delaying Lynch's confirmation. But Mr. Obama's weekly address marks the first time the president has personally expressed his frustration with the political posturing since McConnell threatened last week to postpone the confirmation vote.Lynch, a career prosecutor and the current U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, was tapped to lead the Justice Department soon after Eric Holder announced his resignation from the top post in September. Lynch was nominated in November and has already faced the Senate Judiciary Committee in a confirmation hearing. "Republican leaders in Congress won't even let her nomination come up for a vote," the president said, saying that her wait for a vote on the Senate floor will be "longer than the seven previous attorneys general combined."The president reminded his viewers that "Republicans promised that Congress would function smoothly with them in charge." "Here's a chance for them to prove it," Mr. Obama said. "Congress should stop playing politics with law enforcement and national security."In their own weekly address, Republicans pushed for their party's newly proposed balanced budget, which "started the monumental task of confronting America's chronic overspending.""Republicans have put forward a responsible plan that balances the budget in 10 years with no new tax hikes, that protects our most vulnerable citizens," Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, said in a video. "It strengthens our national defense, and it improves economic growth and opportunity for hard-working families." Republicans in Congress unveiled plans this week for their budget, which included drastic cuts to Medicare and other social programs. And the House Budget Committee Thursday, led by Republican legislators, approved a sweeping balanced budget along party-line votes; it is expected on the House floor next week for debate. Enzi, an accountant and chair of the Senate Budget Committee, stated the need for this Republican balancing as he slammed the White House for overspending and cited America's total debt of $18 trillion."It is time to begin this responsible accounting in Washington because while you can lie about the numbers, the numbers never lie," the Wyoming lawmaker said, referring to administrative spending and taxing as "the worst kept secret in America.""Congress is under new management," he said, "and by working together to find shared ground on common-sense solutions, we can deliver real results and real progress."

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Text, timing of Obama AUMF request for Islamic State still in works: source The final text of President Barack Obama's request to Congress for new authority to use force against Islamic State fighters is still in the works as talks with lawmakers continue, a source familiar with the White House's outreach said on Tuesday.The United States is leading an international coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, but Obama has said he would ask Congress for a formal Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) for the fight."The final text of the AUMF and timing for delivery will not be locked until we are able to complete these robust consultations and consider all of the feedback we have received," said the source, who described a series of extensive discussions between White House officials and lawmakers over the past month. Lawmakers and congressional aides said they expected to receive language from the White House as early as Wednesday giving at least an outline of what the administration would like to see in an authorization. White House spokesman Josh Earnest, speaking to reporters at a daily briefing on Tuesday, said the language would come as early as this week but declined to give a specific date.Both Republicans and Democrats said there had been unusually close consultations between the administration and Capitol Hill on the Islamic State AUMF.Fueled by outrage over the death of aid worker Kayla Mueller, the last-known U.S. hostage held by Islamic State militants, as well as the slaying of journalists and a Jordanian pilot, lawmakers said they planned quick hearings on the authorization, and a vote within weeks of Congress' return from a Feb. 16-20 recess."I think we ought to bring it to the floor relatively soon, which I think we could do in March," Representative Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House of Representatives, told reporters on Tuesday.John Cornyn, the number two Republican in the Senate, told reporters he appreciated Obama's consultations."I think it's really an important step, and I think Congress will treat it with the sort of gravity and seriousness that it deserves," he told a news conference.

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Republicans 'irresponsible' for security funds delay: White House The White House said on Wednesday that it was "irresponsible for Republicans in Congress" to play politics with funding for the Department of Homeland Security that is slated to expire at the end of the month unless a compromise is reached."What's clear now is they have painted themselves into a corner," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

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China's Xi says hopes U.S. pays attention to Tibet, Taiwan concerns China's President Xi Jinping told U.S President Barack Obama during a telephone call on Wednesday he hopes the United States will pay attention to China's concerns on Tibet and Taiwan and that the issues will not interfere with China-U.S. ties.Xi said the two sides should expand military, economic, energy, and environment cooperation, according to the official Xinhua news agency.Obama has invited Xi for a state visit to Washington in September.

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Pentagon defends 2016 budget request that exceeds spending caps Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work on Tuesday defended the Pentagon's decision to ask Congress for a 2016 budget that far exceeds federal spending caps, saying several years of cuts have hurt the military's ability to modernize to meet future threats."The stark reality is that the military modernization programs of our potential competitors are in hyper-drive," Work told a Navy convention. "We see nations, as well as non-state actors, developing capabilities that threaten the technological overmatch we rely on ... as we fight our nation’s wars."Work, the Pentagon's chief operating officer, said heavy use of U.S. forces overseas even as the department was being forced to cut spending in recent years had eroded the military's current readiness and limited its ability to invest in new technologies. To address those shortcomings, Work said, President Barack Obama sent Congress a spending proposal for 2016 that calls for a Pentagon base budget of $534 billion, plus $51 billion in funding for wars overseas, mainly the conflict in Afghanistan.The base budget would exceed federal spending caps by about $36 billion for the fiscal year beginning in October, a level Work said was needed to rebuild the U.S. military after 13 years of war and to fully implement the president's defense strategy, which calls for renewed focus on the Asia-Pacific region."The leaders of this department believe firmly that any reduction in funding below resource levels in this budget, or a broad denial of requested compensation and efficiency initiatives, submitted as part of this request, would make the overall risks to the strategy unmanageable," he said.The budget request set up a debate in Congress over whether to continue deep cuts to federal discretionary spending or to amend the limits set in a 2011 law that sought to narrow the U.S. budget deficit. The caps required the Pentagon to reduce planned spending by nearly $1 trillion over a decade.Work told the naval conference that even as the Pentagon dealt with shrinking budgets and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, larger potential rivals like Russia and China had been assessing U.S. military strengths and developing technologies to counter them.He said in some areas Russia was investing at levels not seen since the peak of the Cold War in the mid-1980s, "modernizing a military that was once in steep decline."China's defense budget, he said, had grown by about 500 percent between 2011 and 2016, with its military "rapidly fielding new weapons and systems."

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Kansas governor rescinds protections for gay state workers Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican re-elected in November, on Tuesday rescinded an executive order issued by a Democratic predecessor that offered protections for gay and bisexual state workers.Brownback said he was rescinding a 2007 order signed by former Governor Kathleen Sebelius that established a "protected class of rights" for state employees specifically for sexual orientation and gender identity.In its place, Brownback said he was issuing an executive order that would boost state employment-related aid for veterans and disabled people, while reaffirming the state's "commitment" to employment practices that do not discriminate based on "race, color, gender, religion, national origin, ancestry or age." Thomas Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, said Brownback's order was an outrage and erases job protections for gay, lesbian and transgender employees who had trusted they would be safe from harassment and discrimination."If you work for the state, and have felt comfortable being 'out' at work knowing you had protection from bigotry, that protection is gone," Witt said in a statement on the group's website.Brownback has been open about his opposition to same-sex marriage during his long career in public office, which included stints in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He was elected governor of Kansas in 2010.

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Same-sex marriage begins in parts of Alabama, thwarted in others Same-sex couples began marrying in parts of Alabama on Monday, acting on the strongest signal yet from the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of gay marriage ahead of an expected ruling, but numerous state judges avoided granting marriage licenses to gay couples in apparent defiance of the high court.The Supreme Court earlier in the day cleared the way for Alabama to become the 37th state where gay marriage is legal by refusing a request by the state's Republican attorney general to keep them on hold until it decides later this year whether laws banning gay matrimony violate the U.S. Constitution.But same-sex couples in 42 of Alabama's 67 counties encountered difficulties in getting marriage licenses, gay rights advocates said, with some counties refraining from issuing licenses to gay couples and others shutting down their marriage license operations altogether. This followed an order by Roy Moore, the conservative chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, instructing probate judges to issue no marriage licenses to gay couples despite a federal court ruling in January throwing out the state's gay marriage ban, effective on Monday.Moore's chief of staff said the directive still stood despite Monday's U.S. Supreme Court action.In Birmingham, dozens of same-sex couples married at the courthouse and an adjacent park, where they were greeted by supporters supplying cupcakes along with a handful of protesters bearing crosses and Bibles.Wiping away tears, Eli Borges Wright, 28, said he was overjoyed to be marrying the man he has been in a relationship with for the past seven years. "After all of these years, I can finally say this is my husband," he said.The scene contrasted to that in other parts of the state, from Tuscaloosa, where gay couples were refused marriage licenses, to Shelby County, where the marriage license department was shuttered.In Mobile, attorneys for gay couples filed a federal contempt motion against Probate Judge Don Davis over the county's marriage license division being shut, which was denied on technical grounds. 'SOW CONFUSION' Ronald Krotoszynski, a constitutional law expert at the University of Alabama School of Law, said state probate judges are obligated to follow the federal ruling but that many likely fear losing their elected judgeships by acceding too quickly."It makes the courage of the judges that have followed the federal order all the more remarkable," he said. Gay rights advocates were critical of judges hindering gay marriages, and of Moore for provoking them."Justice Moore couched his order in a desire to create clarity, but its only effect has been to sow confusion," said Adam Talbot, a Human Rights Campaign spokesman.Moore is no stranger to controversy. In 2003, he was removed from office after defying a federal order to take down a Ten Commandments monument he had erected in the state's judicial building. He was returned to his post by voters in 2012.U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled in January that Alabama's same-sex marriage prohibition was unconstitutional, putting her decision on hold until Monday.Two of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, dissented from the decision not to further delay gay marriage in Alabama.In a dissenting opinion, Thomas wrote that the high court's actions in allowing marriages to go ahead "may well be seen as a signal of the court's intended resolution of that question."In April, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in cases concerning marriage restrictions in four states. A ruling, due by the end of June, will determine whether the remaining 13 state bans can remain intact.

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Obama asks Congress to authorize U.S. war on Islamic State U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday sent Congress his long-awaited formal request to authorize military force against Islamic State, meeting swift resistance from Republicans as well as his fellow Democrats wary of another war in the Middle East.Republicans, who control Congress and say Obama's foreign policy is too passive, want stronger measures against the militants than outlined in the plan, which bars any large-scale invasion by U.S. ground troops and covers the next three years.Obama acknowledged that the military campaign is difficult and will remain so. "But our coalition is on the offensive. ISIL is on the defensive, and ISIL is going to lose," he said in a televised statement from the White House. With many of Obama's fellow Democrats insisting the plan is too broad because it includes no blanket ban on ground troops, it could be difficult for the authorization to pass, even though six months have passed since the campaign began.Obama consulted with Republicans and Democrats in writing the resolution, and said he would continue to do so. He said the time frame was intended to let Congress revisit the issue when the next president takes office in 2017.The proposal says Islamic State "has committed despicable acts of violence and mass execution." Its militants have killed thousands of civilians while seizing territory in Iraq and Syria in an attempt to establish a hub of jihadism in the heart of the Arab world.They have also generated international outrage by beheading western aid workers and journalists and burning to death a Jordanian pilot.Obama sent his request to Congress a day after his administration confirmed the death of Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old aid worker who was the last known American hostage held by the group.Both the Senate and House of Representatives must approve Obama's plan. Lawmakers said they would begin hearings quickly as Republicans made clear they thought the plan fell short. The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, told reporters he was sure the plan would change as it moved though Congress. "I'm not sure the strategy that has been outlined will accomplish the mission the president says he wants to accomplish," he added.Obama has defended his authority to lead an international coalition against Islamic State since Aug. 8 when U.S. fighter jets began attacks in Iraq. The formal request eased criticism of Obama's failure to seek the backing of Congress, where some accused him of breaching his constitutional authority.SEEKING A UNITED FRONTWith Republicans in control of Congress after routing Obama's Democrats in November elections, the president also wants lawmakers to share responsibility for the campaign against Islamic State and present a united front.The plan does not authorize "long-term, large-scale ground combat operations" such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.Obama said those operations would be left to local forces, but lawmakers worried they would not step up. "What is the role, really, that regional partners are playing in this battle against ISIL?" asked Democratic Senator Tim Kaine.The draft allows for certain ground combat operations including hostage rescues and the use of special forces. It permits the use of U.S. forces for intelligence collection, targeting operations for drone strikes and planning and giving other assistance to local forces.Many Democrats, especially liberals in the House, said Obama's proposal was too broad. They want any authorization to place stricter limits on the use of ground troops and expressed concerns Obama set no geographic limits on the campaign."The language ... is very broad, very ambiguous," said Democratic Representative Adam Schiff. "None of us really know what 'enduring offensive combat operations' means."It was the first formal request for authority to conduct a military operation of Obama's six years in office. If passed, it would be Congress' first war authorization since then-President George W. Bush's 2002 authority to wage the Iraq War.Obama's objection as a U.S. senator to that authority helped fuel his successful 2008 campaign for the White House.Obama's text includes a repeal of the 2002 Authorization for the Use of Military Force. But it leaves in place an open-ended authorization, passed days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, for a campaign against al Qaeda and affiliates.Rights groups and many lawmakers said they want the new AUMF to set an end date for the 2001 authorization, which the White House has invoked to carry out drone and missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen and Somalia.Obama said he remained committed to working with Congress to "refine, and ultimately repeal" it.

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Republicans hit impasse on security, immigration bill U.S. congressional Republicans hit an impasse on Tuesday over a Homeland Security funding bill that would block President Barack Obama's immigration actions, with Senate leaders suggesting the House of Representatives try another approach.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republicans could not get around Senate Democratic opposition to the House-passed legislation, which failed to get the 60 votes needed to clear procedural hurdles in three separate votes last week."I think it's clear we can't go forward in the Senate," the Kentucky senator told reporters. "So the next move obviously is up to the House." Congress needs to act by a Feb. 27 deadline to renew the spending authority for the Department of Homeland Security, a massive agency that spearheads domestic counterterrorism efforts and secures U.S. borders, airports and coastal waters.The House version of the spending bill also would defund Obama's executive orders in 2012 and 2014 lifting the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants. The president has threatened to veto the House-passed measure, and Democrats are insisting on a "clean" funding bill with no immigration restrictions.Although many of the critical protective functions of the department would continue even if funding lapses, the agency would be forced to idle about 30,000 employees, or 15 percent of the workforce, at a time of heightened worry about terror attacks.The Senate's No. 2 Republican, Texas Senator John Cornyn, said the upper chamber could try again to take up the bill but said he doubted anything would change."We tried three times. I guess we could try more times in the Senate but I suspect the outcome would be the same," said Cornyn, who is Senate majority whip.The inability of the Senate's new Republican majority to act on the measure has frustrated Republicans in the House, and they showed little inclination on Tuesday to act again just because the Senate cannot."Until there is some signal from those Senate Democrats what would break their filibuster, there's little point in additional House action," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said the most likely outcome to the impasse would be passage of a bill continuing department funding for a short time while Republicans reconsider their options.

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U.S. derails amendment to toughen nuclear safety pact: diplomats The United States has derailed a proposal to toughen nuclear safety standards by amending a global atomic treaty, diplomats said, with opponents of the move arguing it would get mired in lengthy parliamentary ratification.Months of wrangling about the future of the 77-nation Convention on Nuclear Safety (CNS) culminated at a Vienna meeting diplomats feared could expose divisions over safety standards four years after the Fukushima disaster in Japan.Switzerland had put forward a proposal to amend the CNS, arguing stricter standards could help avoid a repeat of Fukushima, where an earthquake and tsunami sparked triple nuclear meltdowns, forced more than 160,000 people to flee nearby towns and contaminated water, food and air.But Russia and the United States opposed an amendment of the CNS, diplomats told Reuters. The gathering approved a Vienna Declaration on Nuclear Safety on Monday endorsing the main ideas of the proposed amendment, such as refitting old nuclear plants and minimizing off-site contamination in case of accidents. But it does not create a piece of international law.Some opponents of amendments argued the lengthy process of pushing them through national parliaments would run counter to the aim of increasing safety standards quickly.Changing the convention itself to be more punishing could have been off-putting for countries already reluctant to fully submit themselves to peer reviews, some diplomats said."The ratification process for an amendment would have distracted the focus of the contracting parties to pursue full participation," one senior U.S. official said. Critics of an amendment say U.S. industry has already spent billions of dollars on improving nuclear safety since Fukushima."Opposition was mainly politically motivated as it would have been hardly possible for some countries to domestically ratify a changed convention," Hans Wanner, head of the Swiss nuclear watchdog, said in a statement posted on the internet."Many countries also fear massive cost increases by committing to refit older facilities," he said.Rafael Grossi, Argentina's ambassador in Vienna and head of the conference, said that what might look like a weaker document to some is a practicable solution to others. "We tried to concentrate on what was achievable now," he told reporters.

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Obama readying request to use force against Islamic State The White House will ask Congress by Wednesday for new authority to use force against Islamic State fighters, congressional aides said on Monday, paving the way for lawmakers' first vote on the scope of a campaign that is already six months old.The United States is leading an international coalition against Islamic State, and President Barack Obama launched an air campaign in August against the militant fighters, who have killed thousands of people while seizing swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria. The administration's failure so far to seek a formal Authorization to Use Military Force for the campaign has caused some members of Congress to express concern that it overstepped the president's constitutional authority. Others have said that lawmakers should weigh in on an issue as important as the use of military force. The administration has said the campaign is legal, based on authorization passed under President George W. Bush in 2002 for the Iraq War and in 2001 for fighting al Qaeda and associated groups. Nancy Pelosi, leader of the House of Representatives' Democrats, told reporters last week the White House would seek an authorization that would last three years. She said there had not yet been decisions about the geographic scope of an authorization or what limits would be placed on combat troops - "boots on the ground."That issue is expected to be a major sticking point in debate. Many Democrats want to bar sending in U.S. combat forces, but several Republicans have insisted it would be inappropriate to limit military commanders.Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said hearings on the administration's request would start quickly.The Obama administration had been in close consultations with lawmakers before making its formal request, which could make the approval process move more quickly, he said."There have been serious consultations, and there will be more serious consultations," he told reporters at the Senate.Obama is also expected to seek a repeal of the Iraq war authorization, but not the 2001 authorization, which passed days after the Sept. 11 attacks.Congressional aides told Reuters on Monday that was still the expectation for Obama's request, given discussions between the administration, lawmakers and congressional staffers. They requested anonymity because they were speaking about private consultations.The White House has declined to comment on the timing or details of the request.

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Clinton's paid speaking tour ends with a call for bipartisanship "We really need camps for adults," Hillary Clinton said, citing a "fun deficit" in America. "You can have the red cabin, the blue cabin, have to come together and actually listen to each other." It was a light moment during the presidential hopeful's appearance here Thursday, tailored to her audience: hundreds of camp professionals gathered for the American Camp Association's annual tri-state area convention. She reminisced about the kind of bipartisanship that seems to elude Washington today."It used to be in Washington you could not escape your adversaries on the political other side because you were always together," she said on stage to Jay Jacobs, a camp owner and fellow prominent Democrat from New York, as she recalled her own time as a senator. "I realized that I might be opposed to somebody's bill today and then working with that person tomorrow." Clinton, who recently took to Twitter to express her frustration about Republicans on Capitol Hill, from the letter written by GOP senatorsto Iran to the recent budget proposal, called for more "relationship building" between elected officials. "I've said many times that people who claim proudly never to compromise should not be in the Congress of the United States because I don't think I or anybody have all the answers," she said. "I think we can actually learn things from each other, novel idea." Her appearance Thursday raised eyebrows when it was first announced by the ACA last year, because of the high fees that the former Secretary of State's speeches can command. The fee for this speech was not disclosed but, for the first time, the ACA sold tickets for front-row, "premiere seating" at the event.Clinton also used this speech to talk about the importance of early education and preserving the environment, both aspects of the summer camp experience. Though she never went to "sleep away" camp herself, Clinton described what she had learned from her daughter Chelsea's experiences. "They're often safe havens in the storms that blow across everyone's life," she said, "places where people can get back to basics and remember or learn for the first time what's really important."She added: "Our families today come in all sizes and shapes but I believe not only here in our country but around the world most people want the same things: a good job, safety and security, the chance to build a better life for themselves and their kids."Clinton stayed away from discussing her private emails, foreign donations to her family's foundation or her potential bid for the presidency. But now that her now-infamously high-priced speaking engagements have seemingly come to an end, a formal announcement is expected in the coming weeks.

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White House chides Israel leader's party after win The Obama administration admonished Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political party on Wednesday, accusing it of using anti-Arab rhetoric ahead of the Israel election. A spokesman said President Obama still believes in Palestinian statehood - even if Netanyahu no longer does.In its first public response to Netanyahu's triumph in the election, the spokesman said the White House was "deeply concerned" about divisive language emanating from Netanyahu's Likud Party. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the party had sought to marginalize Israel's minority Arabs, an apparent reference to social media posts the Likud distributed that warned Israelis about the danger of high turnout by Arab voters. "These are views the administration intends to convey directly to the Israelis," Earnest said. And while Earnest said Mr. Obama would be calling Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory, he acknowledged the U.S. would have to re-evaluate the best way to bring about a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - a cornerstone of U.S. Mideast policy for years. In a veer to the right just before the election, Netanyahu reversed his former position and said he now opposes the creation of a separate Palestinian state. "Based on those comments, the U.S. will evaluate our position going forward," Earnest told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One on a flight to Cleveland for an event focused on U.S. manufacturing.Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Netanyahu shortly after the election to congratulate him, Earnest said, and Mr. Obama was to do the same in the days ahead. Downplaying any suggestion the president was delaying that call, Earnest pointed out that after previous Israeli elections, Mr. Obama had waited until the Israeli president had formally tasked the leading candidate with forming a new government. Israel's largely ceremonial president is expected to take that step soon. Earnest said he didn't expect Netanyahu's victory to have a negative impact on nuclear negotiations the U.S. and world powers are conducting with Iran, noting that the Israeli leader's views on the issue are well known. Netanyahu railed against those talks earlier this month in a speech to Congress that was perceived as a rebuke to Mr. Obama. Netanyahu drew criticism as Israelis were voting Tuesday after a midday post on his Facebook page contended high Arab voter turnout was endangering his Likud Party's rule. "Arab voters are going to the polls in droves. Left-wing organizations are bringing them in buses," he said.

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Physician Ben Carson eyes May announcement of presidential bid Retired surgeon Ben Carson on Sunday said he could form a committee to explore a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination this month and make a formal announcement in May."That's a reasonable time frame," Carson told "Fox News Sunday" when asked by host Chris Wallace about the timing of an exploratory committee and formal announcement. "We're putting all that together."Carson, a former Fox News contributor who is popular with Tea Party conservatives, ranked fourth among possible Republican candidates in a recent Fox News poll of potential voters in Iowa, coming in behind former Florida Governor Job Bush, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. The poll showed growing support for Carson, a bestselling author and conservative commentator, with 10 percent of potential voters saying they would vote for Carson, up from about 8 percent last year.

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Styles differ but U.S. presidents make fitness a priority Whether the request was for a treadmill on Air Force One, an elliptical trainer by the White House pool, or a rower adjacent the Lincoln bedroom, when the Oval Office called, fitness trainer Ted Vickey answered. As the former executive director of the White House Athletic Center during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Vickey served their fitness demands.While their styles differed, Vickey said each president made fitness a priority. â€œBoth Clinton and Bush were big outdoor runners but Clinton would also like to run outside the gates, talking to people,” Vickey recalled. “Bush was a more private exerciser; the elder Bush enjoyed speed golf.”Although the presidents didn’t use the Athletic Center, which was built for staffers in 1987 under the Reagan Administration, Vickey was familiar with their fitness routines.Bush used exercise as a way to manage his day, said Vickey, who installed a folding treadmill on Air Force One so the 43rd president could work out on a trip to Colombia.Vickey also converted a room near the Lincoln bedroom into a fitness center.“One day the Oval Office called: 'We need you to get us a bike, elliptical and rower, delivered to West Wing and we want it tomorrow,'” Vickey said.During Bush's tenure the size of the member-supported White House Athletic Center doubled to over 8000 square feet. Bush encouraged his staffers to work out during their day. “Center membership increased during his term,” Vickey said. Jessica Matthews, senior health and fitness expert for the American Council on Exercise, said the presidents were wise because research has shown the benefits of exercise for people in high-stress positions, from increasing productivity to avoiding depression and burn out.“Pilot studies have pointed to reduced stress levels after even a single bout of exercise,” she said.Vickey, who left the White House in 2005, believes fitness is still a priority for the president.“I know President Barack Obama is big on basketball,” he said. “He’s obviously a golfer and I know he brought his personal trainer with him from Chicago.”Now based in California and the head of FitWell LLC, a corporate fitness management company, Vickey said presidents set an example for others to follow.“If the president of the United States can find an hour in the day to work out, what’s our excuse?” he added.

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Netanyahu considering changes to Congress speech after criticism Israeli officials are considering amending the format of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned address to the U.S. Congress next month to try to calm some of the partisan furor the Iran-focused speech has provoked.Netanyahu is due to address a joint session of Congress about Iran's nuclear program on March 3, just two weeks before Israeli elections, following an invitation from John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the house.Boehner's invitation has caused consternation in both Israel and the United States, largely because it is seen as Netanyahu, a hawk on Iran, working with the Republicans to thumb their noses at President Barack Obama's policy on Iran.  It is also seen as putting Netanyahu's political links to the Republicans ahead of Israel's nation-to-nation ties with the United States, its strongest and most important ally, while serving as a pre-election campaign booster.As a result, Israeli officials are considering whether Netanyahu should speak to a closed-door session of Congress, rather than in a prime-time TV address, so as to drain some of the intensity from the event, a source said.Boehner's spokesman, Michael Steel, said the speech was still scheduled to go ahead as planned on the appointed date but he declined to comment on the report that Israeli officials were considering amending the speech's format. Another option is for the prime minister to make his speech at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington the same week, rather than in Congress. "The issue has been under discussion for a week," said a source close to the prime minister's office. "(Netanyahu) is discussing it with Likud people. Some say he should give up on the speech, others that he should go through with it."But Netanyahu told voters from the Russian speaking community on Monday evening that he was determined to discuss Israel's objections in Washington to an emerging deal with Iran but he did not say if that meant a public speech in Congress."I am ... determined to go to Washington to present Israel's position to the members of Congress and the American people," Netanyahu said, repeating that nuclear weapons in Iran's hands would constitute an existential threat to Israel. An opinion poll by Israel's Army Radio on Monday said 47 percent of people think Netanyahu should cancel the address, while 34 percent say he should go ahead with it.Since the issue arose, there are signs it is having an impact on his poll ratings ahead of the March 17 election.Obama said his decision not to meet with Netanyahu followed basic protocol of not meeting with world leaders before an election."Some of this just has to do with how we do business, and I think it's important for us to maintain these protocols because the U.S.-Israeli relationship is not about a particular party," Obama said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington. A poll by the Times of Israel on Monday showed Netanyahu's Likud would win 23 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, four fewer than the center-left opposition. Earlier polls showed Likud and the opposition alliance neck-and-neck on 24 seats. Speaking on radio last week, Israel's deputy foreign minister suggested Netanyahu had been "misled" about the speech, believing it to be bipartisan when the Democrats were not entirely on board.While that may have created some room for Netanyahu to get out of it if the pressure at home and from Washington becomes too great, it may be too late.If he withdraws now it may make him look weak with core voters. Furthermore, he needs an opportunity to play up his tough-on-Iran credentials before election, with national security an overriding issue for voters.

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Exclusive: U.S., China to discuss repatriation of Chinese fugitives Senior U.S. officials will meet in August with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the possibility of repatriating Chinese officials who have fled to America with billions of dollars of allegedly stolen government assets, according to a State Department official.The issue is a thorny one, as no extradition treaty exists between the U.S. and China. That has made America, and other countries such as Australia and Canada, attractive destinations for Chinese officials fleeing the country and a haven for the assets they have allegedly stolen.Western governments have long been reluctant to hand over suspects because of a lack of transparency and due process in China’s judicial system. International human rights groups say torture is used as a tool for extracting confessions in Chinese interrogations. Government officials convicted of corruption have been sentenced to death. Officials from both countries met for two days in the Philippines last month, with the U.S. delegation led by David Luna, the U.S. State Department's senior director for National Security and Diplomacy.Luna confirmed to Reuters that he attended the meetings and said talks will reconvene in August and will include law enforcement and legal experts. The countries will share specific intelligence on allegedly corrupt Chinese officials and stolen assets and will also discuss potential ways to send the fugitives back to China.The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment, as did the country's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party's anti-corruption body.Alternatives to extradition exist, U.S. officials say, including deportation for violations of U.S. immigration law.Canada, which has no formal extradition treaty with China, has recently expelled suspects wanted by Beijing, including Lai Changxing. Lai, a businessman wanted for corruption, was sent back to China from Canada in 2011 on the promise that he would not be executed. He was sentenced to life in prison.Last year Chinese officials said more than 150 "economic fugitives", many of them described as corrupt government officials, were in the U.S. Neither country has publicly provided a figure for how much stolen money has been smuggled out of China and into the U.S.But the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity group, which tracks illegal outflows from countries, estimates that between 2003 and 2012, $1.25 trillion of illicit cash left China. Some of that moves around the world through dummy bank accounts and other means, and once in the United States, it is often invested in real estate, making its original source hard to trace.The preliminary talks between U.S. and Chinese officials were held on January 27 and 28 in Clark, Philippines, as part of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) international working group, called ACT-NET. The group, which involves multiple APEC countries, including Russia, was formed in Beijing in August 2014 to fight cross-border corruption. The talks took place amid an intensifying and far-reaching anti-corruption drive in China by President Xi Jinping, and a ramping up of efforts between the U.S. and China, including the sharing of criminal intelligence, to crack down on cross-border corruption.ALTERNATIVES TO EXTRADITIONIt was agreed after the talks that more formal negotiations within the ACT-NET forum will take place in August back in the Philippines, which chairs APEC for 2015. The U.S. delegation will likely include officials from the State Department, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security, Luna said.Luna said law enforcement officials from both countries will discuss specific cases and possible joint investigations into Chinese fugitives and stolen assets."There are alternatives to extradition”, Luna told Reuters. He said legal avenues being explored to potentially circumvent the lack of an extradition treaty between the U.S. and China include the United Nations convention against Corruption, and the U.N. convention on Transnational Organized Crime.    Luna said there is no formal agreement to return stolen assets to China, but the issue is "part of an ongoing bilateral dialogue, there are ongoing cases, and it is a priority." He refused to divulge details about any specific investigations.The U.S. has applauded China’s recent anti-corruption campaign and is invested in helping in the fight, and more generally in fighting international corruption. Part of the APEC leaders’ declaration after their 2014 summit in Beijing was a commitment to “deny safe haven for corrupt officials and their illicitly-acquired assets.”In December Luna's boss, William Brownfield, the State Department's assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said both countries had identified "a finite number" of alleged Chinese fugitives "and agreed to develop a strategy to address each of those."Brownfield spoke after a December meeting in Beijing of the US-China Joint Liaison Group on Law Enforcement Cooperation, a separate forum from the APEC group that met in the Philippines.Heading the Chinese delegation in the Philippines, according to an agenda seen by Reuters, was Cai Wei, deputy director general of China's Department of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Supervision. Also present was Chen Long, director of the Department of International Cooperation.

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China's Xi to make first state visit to U.S. as both flag problems Chinese President Xi Jinping will make his first state visit to the United States in September, China said on Wednesday, after both countries' leaders laid out possible areas of friction in a telephone call.The world's two biggest economies have been trying to ease tension over everything from trade and human rights to exchanges of accusations of hacking and Internet theft. U.S. President Barack Obama called for "swift work" by China to narrow differences on cyber issues, the White House said, as the two sides started planning for Xi's visit to Washington. Last May, the United States charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into U.S. companies to steal trade secrets. China showed its anger over the allegations by shutting down a bilateral working group on cyber security.In a phone call with Xi, Obama said he looked forward to welcoming him to Washington for the state visit, the White House said in a statement late on Tuesday.China's Foreign Ministry said Xi had accepted Obama's invitation and would visit in September. Xi and Obama had an informal summit in California in 2013, and Obama made a state visit to Beijing last November.Xi flagged his areas of concern to Obama during the conversation, saying he "hopes the U.S. side can pay attention to China's concerns on the Taiwan and Tibet issues, and prevent China-U.S. relations from suffering unnecessary interference".China has been angered in the past by U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan, which has been ruled separately since defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island at the end of a civil war in 1949.Beijing also regularly warns against foreign support of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, whom it sees as a "splittist" seeking to establish an independent Tibet.Obama and the Dalai Lama both attended a prayer meeting in Washington last week, angering Beijing.However, the two countries also work closely on many important international issues, such as efforts to curb the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea."The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to coordinate closely on security challenges, including by jointly encouraging Iran to seize the historic opportunity presented by P5+1 negotiations," the White House added.The nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France aim at clinching an accord to ease Western concern that Iran could pursue a convert nuclear weapons program, in return for lifting sanctions that have ravaged its economy.Negotiators have set a June 30 final deadline for an accord, and Western officials aim to agree on the substance of that deal by March.China said Xi and Obama had also discussed North Korea and this year's 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two.

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Obama seeks some limits on ground troops for Islamic State fight U.S. President Barack Obama will propose to Congress on Wednesday a new three-year authorization for the use of force against Islamic State with limits on U.S. combat troops' involvement, lawmakers and congressional aides said.Obama has defended his authority to lead an international coalition against Islamic State since Aug. 8 when U.S. fighter jets began attacking the jihadists in Iraq. But he has faced criticism for failing to seek the backing of Congress, where some accuse him of breaching his constitutional authority.Facing pressure to let lawmakers weigh in on an issue as important as the deployment of troops and chastened by elections that handed power in Congress to Republicans, he said in November he would request formal authorization for the use of military force (AUMF). An outline of that request, expected to be handed to Congress on Wednesday, could stir debate over how U.S. troops should be deployed and the extent of U.S. engagement in Iraq and Syria.The proposal would allow the use of special forces and advisors for defensive purposes but bar "enduring offensive ground forces," lawmakers and aides said. It would not, however, set geographic limits for the campaign against the group.Until now, Obama has justified U.S. air strikes in Iraq and Syria under a 2001 authorization passed after the Sept. 11 attacks and a 2002 authorization used by President George W. Bush in the Iraq war.The new proposal would repeal the 2002 authorization but leave in place the 2001 AUMF, which has been invoked by the White House to carry out drone and missile strikes against suspected al Qaeda militants in Yemen and Somalia.VOTE IN MARCH?Fueled by outrage over the death of aid worker Kayla Mueller, the last-known U.S. hostage held by Islamic State militants, as well as the slayings of journalists and a Jordanian pilot, lawmakers said they planned quick hearings on the authorization, and a vote within weeks of Congress' return from a Feb. 16-20 recess.Both Republicans and Democrats said there had been unusually close consultations between the administration and Capitol Hill on the authorization.Many of Obama's fellow Democrats, war-weary after more than a dozen years of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, say they will oppose any AUMF that includes "boots on the ground."Obama's opposition to the Iraq War helped propel him to victory in the 2008 campaign and bringing troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan has been a focus of his presidency. "I worry that this AUMF gives the ability for the next president to put ground troops back into the Middle East," said Senator Chris Murphy, adding that that would be a sticking point for himself and many other Democrats.Some hawkish Republicans oppose restrictions on military commanders such as a ban on ground troops. Others are calling for a more extensive authorization allowing U.S. forces to challenge President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, where a four-year-long civil war has fueled the rise of the Islamic State group."If the authorization doesn't let us counter Assad's air power, I think it will fail," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican foreign policy voice.The White House has declined to discuss the specific time frame or details of its planned AUMF.

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Israel's Netanyahu says will proceed with speech to U.S. Congress Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fending off criticism at home and abroad, said on Tuesday he remained determined to speak before the U.S. Congress next month on Iran's nuclear program."I am going to the United States not because I seek a confrontation with the President, but because I must fulfill my obligation to speak up on a matter that affects the very survival of my country," Netanyahu said in a statement."I intend to speak about this issue before the March 24th deadline and I intend to speak in the U.S. Congress because Congress might have an important role on a nuclear deal with Iran," he said. He said Israel had a profound disagreement with the world powers negotiating with Iran because their offer "would enable Iran to threaten Israel's survival".Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.Netanyahu is due to address a joint session of Congress about Iran's nuclear program on March 3, just two weeks before Israeli elections, following an invitation from John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the house.Boehner's invitation has caused consternation in both Israel and the United States, with detractors saying Netanyahu, a hawk on Iran, is working with the Republicans to thumb their noses at President Barack Obama's policy on Iran.It is also seen as putting Netanyahu's political links to the Republicans ahead of Israel's nation-to-nation ties with the United States, its strongest and most important ally, while serving as a pre-election campaign booster.Obama on Monday defended his decision not to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his upcoming Washington visit as following basic protocol of not meeting with world leaders just weeks before an election.

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U.S. lawmakers put currency cheating on trade agenda U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled bipartisan legislation to stop trading partners from manipulating exchange rates, and a senior Democrat vowed to keep pushing for rules against currency cheating in trade deals.The bill would make deliberate weakening of currencies, which makes a country's exports cheaper, equivalent to an export subsidy under U.S. trade law, meaning it could be offset by import duties.The top Democrat on the House Committee on Ways and Means, which has jurisdiction over trade, said the bill complemented a push to include rules against currency manipulation in a trade deal the United States is negotiating with 11 trading partners, including Japan. Negotiators hope to wrap up the Trans-Pacific Partnership within months. "The importance of raising this in the legislation and within TPP is to put currency manipulation into the mix of trade negotiations and trade discussions," Representative Sander Levin, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters on a call to explain the legislation.Fred Bergsten, former U.S. Treasury assistant secretary for international affairs, said the bill would probably not have a huge effect on trade flows, but it was important to send a signal that currency manipulation would not be tolerated."Currency manipulation is the number one protectionist issue of the 21st century," he said.Bergsten and colleagues at the Peterson Institute for International Economics say trading partners' currency manipulations have driven up the U.S. current account deficit by $200 billion to $500 billion per year, leading to the loss of 1 million to 5 million jobs.The new bill is a streamlined version of previous legislation that passed the House and Senate in separate years. It stops short of setting a new test for the U.S. Treasury to determine currency manipulators, as previous legislation did.The House of Representatives bill is also supported by Democrat Tim Ryan and Republicans Tim Murphy and Mo Brooks. In the Senate, Democrats Sherrod Brown, Debbie Stabenow and Charles Schumer and Republicans Jeff Sessions and Lindsey Graham will introduce the bill.The Obama administration has said it is wary of attaching currency provisions to trade agreements.

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Oregon attorney general opens probe into Governor Kitzhaber Oregon's attorney general is investigating allegations surrounding Governor John Kitzhaber and his fiancée about a potential conflict of interest between her role in the governor's office and her private consulting business. Democrat Kitzhaber, in a letter dated Monday, asked Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, also a Democrat, to investigate the matter. The attorney general responded that a probe was already under way."My office has already opened an investigation into this matter. I appreciate your intent to fully cooperate,” Rosenblum said in a letter to the governor.  Kitzhaber, who was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term in November, has been dogged for months by mounting allegations that fiancée Cylvia Hayes used her role in his office for personal gain. It was not immediately clear when Rosenblum, who last week characterized the allegations against the governor as troubling, had opened the investigation. Neither her office nor the governor's would respond beyond the letters. The probe by the attorney general's office appeared to be in addition to a review by the state's ethics commission of whether Hayes’ acceptance of consulting contracts may have violated state ethics rules.  The state's flagship newspaper, The Oregonian, last week called on Kitzhaber, whom it had endorsed for re-election last year, to resign. Kitzhaber has said he has no plans to step down, and promised to cooperate with the attorney general's probe."I deeply regret that this situation has become a distraction from the important work of our state and look forward to your review and its conclusions," he said in the letter. Adding to woes facing the governor, media reports last week revealed that Hayes received $118,000 in previously undisclosed consulting fees in 2011 and 2012 from the Washington-based Clean Economy Development Center while advising the governor on energy policy.Kitzhaber did not disclose Hayes’ income from the Clean Economy group on his annual economic interest statements despite disclosing other fees she had received via consulting contracts. He has said the couple did not see it as a potential conflict of interest and therefore did not feel it had to be reported.He recently announced Hayes will no longer have a policy role in his office.Â

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Judge rules for NSA in warrantless search case A U.S. judge on Tuesday ruled in favor of the National Security Agency in a lawsuit challenging the interception of Internet communications without a warrant, according to a court filing. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White in Oakland, California wrote the plaintiffs failed to establish legal standing to pursue a claim that the government violated the Fourth Amendment. The ruling is the latest in litigation over the government's ability to monitor Internet traffic, and how it balances national security priorities against privacy.  Attorneys for the plaintiffs, who are AT&T (T.N) customers, could not immediately comment on the ruling, and a Department of Justice spokesman could not be reached. The lawsuit alleges the government collects Internet communications, filters out purely domestic messages, and then searches the rest for potentially terrorist related information. Plaintiffs claim the lack of a warrant, combined with an absence of individualized suspicion, violates the Fourth Amendment.However, White ruled that the plaintiffs did not present enough specific evidence about the program to establish their right to sue. The possible disclosure of state secrets further precludes plaintiffs from moving forward on the claim, even if they had legal standing.The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Jewel et al. vs. National Security Agency et al., 08-4373.

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McCain mocks Obama's "temper tantrum" over Israel Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, has a few words for President Obama: "Get over your temper tantrum, Mr. President." McCain issued the blistering criticism Sunday in a CNN interview, admonishing the president's reaction to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent re-election."Look, there was a free and fair democratic election, the only nation in the region that will have such a thing," the Arizona lawmaker said. "The president should get over it. Get over your temper tantrum, Mr. President. It's time that we work together with our Israeli friends and try to stem this tide of ISIS and Iranian movement throughout the region, which is threatening the very fabric of the region." McCain, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security committee, was responding to comments the president issued after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won re-election in a tight political race. After Netanyahu's victory, Obama's administration chastised the prime minister's Likud party for what the White House deemed anti-Arab rhetoric, saying it was "deeply concerned about their campaign language." When CNN host Gloria Borger pressed McCain on his belief that "the president is letting his personal feelings toward Netanyahu get in the way of important policy issues," the veteran legislator did not hesitate to confirm it."I am convinced of it," McCain fired back, "because, either that, or [Mr. Obama] is delusional. I am not sure which." "Bibi's rhetoric concerning an election campaign pales in comparison as to the threat, the direct threat, to the United States of America of ISIS," McCain continued, pillorying the "Orwellian" situation. "The president has his priorities so screwed up, that it's unbelievable. Bolstering reports that the U.S. was entering an increasingly strained relationship with Israel, the president's words were not received kindly by other members of Congress as well.House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California, also denounced the president's views in a Sunday interview on CBS' "Face the Nation." "This is about the mutual concern we have for Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon," McCarthy told host Bob Schieffer. "I will tell you that the special relationship that America has with the Israeli people transcends any of the politics. This administration should be better than this, that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been re-elected." The White House also derided Netanyahu's decision not to support a two-state resolution to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- a change of heart for the prime minister from a position he'd officially endorsed since 2009."Based on those comments, the U.S. will evaluate our position going forward," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday.In light of Netanyahu's new positions, Obama had asked top advisers to the White to conduct a review of other possible resolutions -- according to officials, the "likely outcome" of which could be an acceptance of a United Nations Security Resolution that recognizes the state of Palestine.McCain excoriated that possibility, telling CNN that "of course [the president] shouldn't be considering it.""If he does that, then -- and it would be approved by the U.N., then the United States Congress would have to examine our funding for the United Nations," the Arizona senator said. "It would be a violation because of the president's anger over a statement by Bibi, by the prime minister of Israel. It would contradict American policy for the last at least 10 presidents of the United States."

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Wisconsin Governor Walker declines to say whether believes in evolution Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a potential U.S. presidential candidate, on Wednesday declined to say whether he believed that humans evolved from other life forms, a theory widely supported by scientists but rejected by many American voters."That's a question a politician shouldn't be involved in one way or the other," Walker said during a question-and-answer session at Chatham House, a London think tank.Walker is visiting the United Kingdom this week to promote trade with his Midwestern state. The trip also could burnish his international resume in the early stages of the 2016 presidential race.  A potential rival in that contest, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, stirred up controversy during a visit to London last week when he said parents should have "some measure of choice" on whether to vaccinate their children.Walker has studiously avoided controversy on his visit. At Chatham House, he declined to offer opinions on international matters like the fight against Islamic State, saying those issues should not be addressed while traveling outside the United States.When asked by the moderator whether he accepted the theory of evolution, Walker also declined to answer."I'm here to talk about trade, not to pontificate," he said. "I love the evolution of trade in Wisconsin."Scientists widely agree that humans have evolved from other life forms over the course of millions of years, as English naturalist Charles Darwin first proposed in 1859. But the theory of evolution is rejected by many evangelical Christians, who view it as conflicting with the Bible's story that the universe was created in seven days.More than four in 10 Americans reject evolutionary theory and believe that God created humans in their present form, according to a Gallup opinion poll conducted last June. Creationism runs strongest among older, more religious and less educated voters, the survey found. Other polls have found that Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe in creationism.Walker has emerged as an early front-runner in what could be a crowded field of Republican candidates vying to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 2016 election.The Wisconsin governor topped opinion polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the first contests in the 2016 campaign will take place, after a strong performance at a conservative forum last month. He has built a nationwide network of donors over the course of three hard-fought elections since 2010.In a statement, Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Holly Shulman said, "All Walker showed today was the same ducking and dodging Wisconsinites know all too well, and that we've come to expect from the 2016 GOP field, whose policy positions are just too divisive to share."

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Unusually large Republican 2016 field sparks 'staff primary' With a dozen Republicans thinking seriously about running for president in 2016 and 10 more talking up the idea, it's a good time to be an experienced campaign hand. Potential candidates are scrambling to sort through the rosters of campaign veterans in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire and elsewhere in a talent search that reflects the fact that the Republican field for 2016 is the largest in recent memory.The competition, dubbed by some as a "staff primary," aims to find the right of mix of get-out-the-vote organizers, digital experts, fund-raising stars and messaging professionals able to set up a functioning campaign."There is a known universe of operatives with many of them headquartered in early primary states," said Republican strategist Kevin Madden, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney in his 2012 presidential campaign. "Right now I think the contest is focused on all the candidates trying to go after that universe of staffers."As many as 21 Republicans are in various stages of considering a presidential run, far more than the dozen or so who gave it a go four years ago. Of these, probably 10 or 12 are really serious and the rest are testing the waters or are trying to promote their personal brand.Every ideological slice of the Republican spectrum is represented, from mainstream former Florida Governor Jeb Bush to Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a favorite of the small government Tea Party movement, to libertarian Kentucky Senator Rand Paul to retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a former Fox News personality.Others exploring presidential runs include New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and former Texas Governor Rick Perry.The field is so large because there is no nominee-in-waiting as there is in the Democratic arena, where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is widely seen as having a lock on the Democratic nomination should she choose to run. There is also a younger generation of Republican leaders eager to make their mark like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is 47, and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, 43.PALIN, TRUMP FLIRTAlso, several Republicans have found it profitable for their careers or personal brands to flirt with a candidacy. Personalities like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and businessman Donald Trump frequently appear at Republican events but have made no actual moves toward a candidacy.Because of that, many Republican officials believe the actual number of people who will formally launch campaigns could be closer to the usual 10. Rubio, for example, is under pressure to run for re-election in his home state and could easily set his sights on future presidential campaigns instead of 2016."There's a big difference between talking about running and actually running," said Republican strategist Scott Reed. "Anyone can talk about running, anyone can go to New Hampshire and Iowa. There's a very select few who actually file the papers and enter the race."The better-known candidates, who are seen as having a solid chance to advance beyond Iowa and New Hampshire in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, are the most likely to attract top staff talent.Bush's hiring of top Iowa operative David Kochel, who was a Romney backer in 2012, was a major boost to his Iowa prospects, and now other Romney loyalists in other states are listening to offers and searching for the right home. The move by Christie to place former aide Matt Mowers as executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party gave him an early opening in the key state. Mowers left the job last month amid speculation he would join Team Christie.Walker, who wowed conservatives at an Iowa event last month, is on a mini-surge in Iowa and New Hampshire but has yet to develop much of an organization in New Hampshire."He has yet to come to New Hampshire," said Mike Dennehy, a long-time Republican campaign veteran who has signed up to work for Texas Governor Rick Perry. "He doesn't even know anyone here."When candidates seek top-level talent in states like New Hampshire or Iowa, they sometimes have to sell themselves. Political operatives look for personal chemistry as well as direct access to the candidate, who also needs to demonstrate they are serious about competing in the state.Being a top operative in an early state can be a career booster. White House press secretary Josh Earnest was the Iowa communications director for Barack Obama in his winning 2008 presidential campaign. Sara Taylor Fagen was a top Iowa staffer in George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and wound up as a senior White House political aide."Each cycle produces new talent that we may not have heard from yet. One of the advantages of being in Iowa is top talent tends to be cultivated here,” said Iowa Republican strategist Tim Albrecht.

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Secret Service deputy director steps down The deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service is leaving his post, the agency said on Monday, in the latest top level departure this year after a series of high profile security lapses.A.T. Smith has accepted another position within the Department of Homeland Security effective Tuesday, the Secret Service said in a statement.Smith has served as deputy director since April 2012 and was responsible for daily operations, including 6,500 employees, at the agency charged with protecting the president, it said. â€œDeputy Director Smith has had an exceptional law enforcement career spanning nearly 29 years within the United States Secret Service. His contributions to the agency have been invaluable,” said Secret Service Acting Director Joseph P. Clancy. In January, the Secret Service forced aside four senior officials while another has opted to retire.The departures represent a house-cleaning within top management. The Washington Post reported last month that some members of Congress had expressed concern to the administration about Smith's continued presence in the top leadership.Recent lapses by the agency include allowing a knife-carrying man to jump a fence and run into the White House in September in one of the worst security breaches since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.An independent review of the agency released in December cited a leadership crisis at the agency and recommended an outsider be brought in to challenge an insular culture.

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Senate panel backs Carter for Secretary for Defense The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee voted 25-0 on Tuesday to back Ashton Carter as President Barack Obama's next Secretary of Defense, paving the way for what is expected to be an easy confirmation in the full Senate as soon as Wednesday.The 26-member panel voted 25-0, with one member not voting.Carter, 60, a former Pentagon No. 2 seen as a technocrat, was nominated to be Obama's fourth defense secretary after Chuck Hagel resigned under pressure last year. Although many Senate Republicans are sharply critical of Obama's defense policies, Carter's confirmation has gone far more smoothly than Hagel's two years ago.Carter served as deputy defense secretary, the Pentagon's number two position, from 2011 to 2013. He was also the Defense Department's chief weapons buyers from 2009-11 when he led a major restructuring of the F-35 fighter jet program.At his confirmation hearing on Feb. 4, Carter underscored his determination to boost the U.S. defense budget, drive down the cost of new weapons and make sure new technologies are delivered to troops more quickly.He also told lawmakers he was leaning in favor of providing arms to Ukraine but later cautioned that the focus of the international community's efforts to handle the crisis must remain on pressuring Russia economically and politically.

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Gay rights advocates in Alabama sue for right to marriage licenses A U.S. judge in Alabama said on Tuesday she will hear arguments later this week on whether to force a local judge to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a day after officials in most of the state refused to do so in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court.Lawyers for same-sex couples unable to obtain marriage licenses in Mobile County filed separate legal challenges against the county's probate court judge late on Monday, part of a series of events echoing the civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s.Mobile County was the most populous of the 42 of Alabama's 67 counties that continued to refuse to provide marriage licenses to gay couples on Tuesday, advocates said, down from 52 counties a day earlier.  U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade, a President George W. Bush appointee who struck down the state's ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional in a ruling that took effect on Monday, scheduled a hearing for Thursday.The U.S. Supreme Court, in a strong signal in favor of gay marriage, refused on Monday to grant a request by Alabama's Republican attorney general to keep the weddings on hold until the high court decides later this year whether laws banning gay matrimony violate the U.S. Constitution.But Roy Moore, the conservative chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, ordered state judges to defy Granade's ruling and uphold the state's gay marriage ban. Moore, who was removed from office in 2003 after refusing a federal order to take down a Ten Commandments monument he had erected in the state's judicial building before being returned to his post by voters in 2012, has in fighting gay marriage used legal arguments and rhetoric that recall Southern resistance to racial integration.In a recent letter to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley on the subject of gay marriage, Moore both advocated for asserting states' rights and decried federal "judicial tyranny." Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, in his noted 1963 inaugural speech in which he vowed to maintain segregation, spoke of federal intervention into state affairs as "the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South." 'THE WORDS ARE IDENTICAL' "It's not just that the words are similar," said Ronald Krotoszynski, a constitutional law expert at the University of Alabama School of Law. "In some respects, the words are identical." But while elected officials in the Deep South have long profited politically by demonizing federal power, the parallels between the current situation and the civil rights struggle go only so far, said Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign. Unlike Wallace, Bentley has not defied the federal courts, she noted, and there has been little popular resistance to gay nuptials on the ground. In an interview, Moore rejected the parallels between his positions and those of Wallace."Those decisions regarded racial inequality and this is about an institution that had existed for hundreds and even thousands of years before the U.S. Constitution took effect," he said. Bentley did not immediately respond to a message left with a spokeswoman.In the case before Granade, gay rights advocates said any order she issues will apply specifically to Mobile but could compel other judges to begin issuing licenses."We don't think it will be necessary to sue each of them, but we can if need arises," Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in an email. The center is representing some of the plaintiffs.Krotoszynski and other legal experts say Alabama judges will ultimately have little choice but to follow the federal court's ruling.

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Republicans eye bill to limit U.S. rescues of failing banks Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate are discussing a joint effort to repeal a key section of the landmark Wall Street reform law, seeking to limit the U.S. government's role in supporting financial institutions on the brink of collapse, according to people familiar with the matter.Efforts by Republicans to revamp the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, including its handling of failing banks, went nowhere in the past because the Democrat-controlled Senate defended the law.A new push on the bank resolution issue would still face major hurdles, including a likely veto from President Barack Obama, who has vowed to protect the law, and opposition from the banking sector itself.But this year, Republicans control both houses of Congress, and they hope to reduce the law's reach and rein in the Federal Reserve and other powerful regulators. Some lawmakers who have pushed for changes in how failed banks are administered, including Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, have bigger leadership roles. "We've been meeting every few weeks on the hope that we can produce one, comprehensive product," a Republican aide to the Senate Banking Committee told Reuters, adding that talks involved staff members in the House and Senate.The segment of Dodd-Frank at issue is called Title II or the orderly liquidation authority. It allows U.S. regulators to intervene to manage the collapse of a systematically risky bank, insurer or other major financial company to avoid a messy failure that spreads risk to the broader financial system.Republicans say this process would enable bailouts. They are aiming to repeal that provision, limit the short-term loans the U.S. Federal Reserve offers to firms desperate for cash, and make bankruptcy the only option for failing banks.That would set Republicans, who received more than 60 percent of disclosed financial sector donations in the last congressional election cycle and have historically represented Wall Street's interests on Capitol Hill, at odds with the industry.Wall Street banks worry that without an orderly liquidation plan in place, markets would not be confident they could be cleanly wound down in a crisis. Bankruptcy also would likely be a less forgiving process for banks.Several bank lobbyists told Reuters they were staying quiet for now, while the issue mainly gets attention from lawmakers who are already vocal on financial issues, such as Toomey and House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling.It is not clear whether key leaders such as Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, a Republican, would support the change. Shelby, a longtime opponent of government bailouts, was against Dodd-Frank but backed its bank-resolution provisions in 2010, according to people involved at the time.Because the bill under discussion involves changing the bankruptcy code, it would also go to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Representatives for Senator Chuck Grassley, who leads that panel, and Shelby declined to comment."It's a long shot, but it's possible this year," the Senate aide said.Under Title II, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) would have access to a line of credit from the U.S. Treasury to keep certain bank activities afloat until they can be sold off or wound down. The industry would repay any taxpayer dollars spent in the process.Republicans say this U.S. government involvement with failed financial firms is a new form of bailout. But Democrats believe the new powers protect the financial system."Something that restores the difficulties that we saw in 2008 and 2009 would not be healthy," Senator Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat on the banking committee, said in a conference call with reporters last month.

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Jeb Bush accepts resignation of chief technology officer Republican Jeb Bush's campaign-in-waiting accepted the resignation on Tuesday of a recently hired chief technology officer after a series of insensitive comments were attributed to him.A Bush spokeswoman, Kristy Campbell, said Bush's Right to Rise organization accepted the resignation of Ethan Czahor. Bush, brother of former President George W. Bush, is exploring a run for president in 2016 and is one of the frontrunners for the Republican nomination."While Ethan has apologized for regrettable and insensitive comments, they do not reflect the views of Governor Bush or his organization and it is appropriate for him to step aside. We wish him the best," Campbell said in a statement. Czahor, co-founder of Hipster.com, had deleted a variety of tweets on Monday, several of which had referred to women in a disparaging way, according to news reports.On Tuesday, a liberal opposition research organization, American Bridge, emailed to reporters a link to a story published by Huffington Post, which reported Czahor was found to have made insensitive comments about slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

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Pro-gay marriage signals seen in U.S. Supreme Court action The U.S. Supreme Court's move on Monday to allow gay marriage to proceed in Alabama is the strongest signal yet that the justices are likely to rule in June that no state can restrict marriage to only heterosexual couples.Of the nine justices, only two - conservatives Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia - dissented from the court's refusal to block gay weddings from starting in Alabama. Gay marriage is now legal in 37 states. Thomas acknowledged in a dissenting opinion that the court’s move to allow gay marriages to go ahead "may well be seen as a signal of the court’s intended resolution" as it considers cases from four other states on whether same-sex marriage bans are permitted under the U.S. Constitution. Although only two justices publicly dissented, the court order did not reveal whether any other justices voted to grant the stay. Oral arguments in the cases, which are expected to result in a definitive nationwide ruling on the matter, are due in April with a decision expected by the end of June.Gay rights groups shared Thomas' view.Sarah Warbelow, Human Rights Campaign's legal director, said the justices' action on Alabama "has telegraphed there is virtually zero risk that they will issue an anti-equality ruling this summer." The group also told same-sex couples in the 13 states where gay marriage is still banned to "start your wedding plans now."Thomas' words echoed Scalia's 2013 dissent from the court's decision to invalidate a federal law that denied benefits to same-sex couples. Scalia predicted that the language of Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion in that case would give judges a green light to strike down state gay marriage bans. That's exactly what happened.At the time of that ruling, only 12 of the 50 states permitted gay marriage. That number has now hit 37, with federal judges playing the central role in paving the way for gay marriage in 23 of the 25 states where it has become legal since then.As Thomas noted in his dissent, the court's normal practice would have been to put the Alabama case on hold until it had decided the cases involving the same-sex marriage bans in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan.One of the factors the court considers when deciding whether to put a hold on a lower-court ruling is the "likelihood of success" for the petitioners if the case were to be appealed.The court in recent months has denied similar stay requests from other states, most recently Florida, thus allowing gay marriage to go ahead even while litigation continues.Alabama's case was different as it was the first application to be made after the high court's announcement in January to take the four cases and settle the matter once and for all.

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White House: time for Congress to 'step up to the plate' on anti-Islamic State authorization The White House said on Wednesday that Democrats and Republicans in Congress need to figure out how to work together to approve a draft authorization to use military force in the fight against Islamic State militants."The president, our men and women in uniform are certainly fulfilling their responsibility to keep the country safe. It's time for Congress to step up to the plate and fulfill their responsibility to do the same thing," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at a briefing.

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Netanyahu considering changes to Congress speech after criticism Israeli officials are considering amending the format of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's planned address to the U.S. Congress next month to try to calm some of the partisan furore the Iran-focused speech has provoked.Netanyahu is due to address a joint session of Congress about Iran's nuclear programme on March 3, just two weeks before Israeli elections, following an invitation from John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the house.Boehner's invitation has caused consternation in both Israel and the United States, largely because it is seen as Netanyahu, a hawk on Iran, working with the Republicans to thumb their noses at President Barack Obama's policy on Iran.  It is also seen as putting Netanyahu's political links to the Republicans ahead of Israel's nation-to-nation ties with the United States, its strongest and most important ally, while serving as a pre-election campaign booster.As a result, Israeli officials are considering whether Netanyahu should speak to a closed-door session of Congress, rather than in a prime-time TV address, so as to drain some of the intensity from the event, a source said.Another option is for the prime minister to make his speech at the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington the same week, rather than in Congress. "The issue has been under discussion for a week," said a source close to the prime minister's office. "(Netanyahu) is discussing it with Likud people. Some say he should give up on the speech, others that he should go through with it."But Netanyahu told voters from the Russian speaking community on Monday evening that he was determined to discuss Israel's objections in Washington to an emerging deal with Iran but he did not say if that meant a public speech in Congress."I am ... determined to go to Washington to present Israel's position to the members of Congress and the American people," Netanyahu said, repeating that nuclear weapons in Iran's hands would constitute an existential threat to Israel. An opinion poll by Israel's Army Radio on Monday said 47 percent of people think Netanyahu should cancel the address, while 34 percent say he should go ahead with it.Since the issue arose, there are signs it is having an impact on his poll ratings ahead of the March 17 election.Obama said his decision not to meet with Netanyahu followed basic protocol of not meeting with world leaders before an election."Some of this just has to do with how we do business, and I think it's important for us to maintain these protocols because the U.S.-Israeli relationship is not about a particular party," Obama said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington. A poll by the Times of Israel on Monday said Netanyahu's Likud would win 23 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, four fewer than the centre-left opposition. Earlier polls showed Likud and the opposition alliance neck-and-neck on 24 seats. Speaking on radio last week, Israel's deputy foreign minister suggested Netanyahu had been "misled" about the speech, believing it to be bipartisan when the Democrats were not entirely on board.While that may have created some room for Netanyahu to get out of it if the pressure at home and from Washington becomes too great, it may be too late.If he withdraws now it may make him look weak with core voters. Furthermore, he needs an opportunity to play up his tough-on-Iran credentials before election, with national security an overriding issue for voters.

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Jeb Bush crosses paths with rapper Ludacris Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush crossed paths with rapper Ludacris on Thursday as both men separately addressed the Georgia state legislature. Bush, who's eyeing a 2016 presidential bid, tweeted his apparent excitement about the encounter:Bush spoke before both houses of the state legislature, focusing largely on education policy, and he joked about why he accepted the invitation to speak. "I came here because I was told Ludacris was going to be here," he told the state Senate.Later, before the state House, he added, "I came to see Ludacris, so I've already done that. I appreciate that there's a successful guy who's giving back. And you all giving him this honor is quite appropriate." Georgia lawmakers were recognizing the charitable work done by the Ludacris Foundation, which has donated more than $1.5 million to youth programs in Atlanta. Despite Bush's kind words, it's not clear Ludacris is a fan of the former governor. As he was leaving the statehouse, reporters asked Ludacris which Bush is his favorite, and he responded, "The one outside," according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Greg Bluestein.

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White House issues veto threat for House bills on tax breaks The White House on Tuesday issued formal veto threats for two U.S. House of Representatives bills, one that would permanently extend certain tax breaks for small businesses, and the other that would make permanent the current tax breaks for certain charitable donations.

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Same-sex marriage begins in parts of Alabama, thwarted in others Same-sex couples began marrying in parts of Alabama on Monday, acting on the strongest signal yet from the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of gay marriage ahead of an expected ruling, but numerous state judges avoided granting marriage licenses to gay couples in apparent defiance of the high court.The Supreme Court earlier in the day cleared the way for Alabama to become the 37th state where gay marriage is legal by refusing a request by the state's Republican attorney general to keep weddings on hold until it decides later this year whether laws banning gay matrimony violate the U.S. Constitution.But same-sex couples in more than 50 of Alabama's 67 counties encountered difficulties in getting marriage licenses, gay rights advocates said, with some counties refraining from issuing licenses to gay couples and others shutting down their marriage license operations altogether. This followed an order by Roy Moore, the conservative chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court, instructing probate judges to issue no marriage licenses to gay couples despite a federal court ruling in January throwing out the state's gay marriage ban, effective on Monday.Moore's chief of staff said the directive still stood despite Monday's U.S. Supreme Court action.In Birmingham, dozens of same-sex couples married at the courthouse and an adjacent park, where they were greeted by supporters supplying cupcakes along with a handful of protesters bearing crosses and Bibles.Wiping away tears, Eli Borges Wright, 28, said he was overjoyed to be marrying the man he has been in a relationship with for seven years. "After all of these years, I can finally say this is my husband," he said.The scene contrasted to that in other parts of the state, from Tuscaloosa, where gay couples were refused marriage licenses, to Shelby County, where the marriage license department was shuttered.In Mobile, attorneys for gay couples filed a federal contempt motion against Probate Judge Don Davis over the county's marriage license division being shut, which was denied on technical grounds. 'SOW CONFUSION' Ronald Krotoszynski, a constitutional law expert at the University of Alabama School of Law, said state probate judges are obligated to follow the federal ruling but that many likely fear losing their elected judgeships by acceding too quickly."It makes the courage of the judges that have followed the federal order all the more remarkable," he said. Gay rights advocates were critical of judges hindering gay marriages, and of Moore for provoking them."Justice Moore couched his order in a desire to create clarity, but its only effect has been to sow confusion," said Adam Talbot, a Human Rights Campaign spokesman.Moore is no stranger to controversy. In 2003, he was removed from office after defying a federal order to take down a Ten Commandments monument he had erected in the state's judicial building. He was returned to his post by voters in 2012.U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade, an appointee of President George W. Bush, ruled in January that Alabama's same-sex marriage prohibition was unconstitutional, putting her decision on hold until Monday.Two of the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, dissented from the decision not to further delay gay marriage in Alabama.In a dissenting opinion, Thomas wrote that the high court's actions in allowing marriages to go ahead "may well be seen as a signal of the court's intended resolution of that question."In April, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in cases concerning marriage restrictions in four states. A ruling, due by the end of June, will determine whether the remaining 13 state bans can remain intact.

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Obama looks to raise $2 billion in climate change investments The Obama administration on Tuesday set a goal of raising $2 billion in philanthropic investments to fight climate change, including technologies to slash carbon emissions.The Clean Energy Investment Initiative is seeking investments to try to bridge the "valley of death" - the gap in funding between research and development and commercialization that holds back many clean-energy startup companies - said Brian Deese, deputy director at the White House's Office of Management and Budget.The plan requires no additional U.S. taxpayer money but uses "the convening power and technical know-how of the Department of Energy," said Deese, who announced the plan at an Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) annual conference, outside Washington. ARPA-E is an Energy Department office funding projects that have potential to revolutionize energy markets but are too risky for the private sector to invest in initially.  President Barack Obama has made fighting climate change one of his top priorities. His administration will finalize first-ever U.S. rules to slow carbon emissions from power plants this summer. Several groups have already made commitments to the initiative, according to a White House fact sheet. For example, the University of California's Board of Regents will allocate at least $1 billion of its endowment and pension over five years for investments in solutions to climate change.As part of the plan, the White House will host a Clean Energy Investment Summit in coming months, as a forum for foundations and institutional investors to scale up investment in renewable energy innovation.

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Pennsylvania governor proposes new tax on natural gas extraction Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf on Wednesday proposed a new 5 percent severance tax on the state's booming natural gas extraction industry, a turnabout from his Republican predecessor who opposed such a tax.The measure could generate $1 billion or more, Wolf said again on Wednesday, repeating a figure he touted during his campaign. He said he would use "the lion's share" of the additional revenue to boost education funding. Wolf, a Democrat, ousted incumbent Tom Corbett in November in part because some voters believed Corbett had dramatically underfunded the school system."We have the natural resources to actually do something about the problem here," Wolf said during his announcement, broadcast from Caln Elementary School, about an hour west of Philadelphia. Like other public schools in Pennsylvania, Caln gets about 30 percent of its funding from the state. Wolf noted that Pennsylvania ranks forty-fifth in the nation for state support for education.With its rich Marcellus shale formation, Pennsylvania's industry for natural gas extraction has boomed. It is now second in production behind only Texas, which, like all other major natural gas producing states, already has a severance tax on the value of the gas extracted at the wellhead.Wolf said his proposal is modeled after the severance tax levied in West Virginia.Calling it the Education Reinvestment Act, Wolf said his plan would also add a tax, based on volume of extraction, of 4.7 cents per thousand cubic feet of natural gas. And it would include some protection for property owners leasing their land, he said.If approved by the state legislature, it would go into effect Jan. 1, 2016, and provide revenues for the state beginning fiscal year 2017. The state is facing an estimated budget gap of at least $2 billion, which Wolf is expected to address in his budget proposal on March 3.The measure could face some pushback in the state's Republican-controlled legislature. But some kind of fracking tax stands a chance of passing, as lawmakers from both parties have already proposed their own such taxes in recent weeks ranging from 3.2 percent to 8 percent."I don't think lawmakers are gearing up for gridlock," Wolf said. "Done right, a reasonable tax is actually the best thing for the private sector. This is a reasonable tax. It's been working all around the country."

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Obama acknowledges damage from NSA eavesdropping on Merkel President Barack Obama said on Monday that revelations of U.S. surveillance on German Chancellor Angela Merkel "damaged impressions" Germans hold of the U.S. government.Obama said during a joint news conference with Merkel at the White House that he has worked to restore the confidence of Germany and other global partners since former U.S. contractor Edward Snowden began leaking documents detailing the spying operations of the U.S. National Security Agency in 2013.Snowden revealed that the intelligence agency had been eavesdropping on Merkel's phone calls as far back as 2010.  "There is no doubt that the Snowden revelations damaged impressions of Germans with respect to the U.S. government and our intelligence cooperation," Obama said.Obama said he has been working to review such policies and create greater transparency.Merkel did not take the opportunity to criticize U.S. surveillance, and applauded the U.S. intelligence agencies for their coordination with Germany in combating security threats."The institutions of the United States of America still continue to provide us with a lot of very significant information and we don't want to do without this," Merkel said through an English translator.Obama said he thought Germans should give the United States the "benefit of the doubt" in light of the two countries' recent history of cooperation.

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Obama says military force authorization formed from consulting Congress U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that he consulted Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress before submitting a request for authorization of military force against Islamic State.Obama said the authorization would bar any large-scale invasion by U.S. ground troops, but could authorize certain strikes involving U.S. special forces and would be limited to three years to give his successor the opportunity to reevaluate the situation with Congress.

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Obama to seek new authority for Islamic State fight by Wednesday -congressional aides The White House will ask Congress for new authority to use force against Islamic State fighters by Wednesday, congressional aides said on Monday.The United States is leading an international coalition against Islamic State, and President Barack Obama launched an air campaign in August against IS fighters in Iraq and Syria.But proposed language the administration will send to lawmakers this week would be the first time the administration will ask for a formal Authorization to Use Military Force for the fight.The delay has caused some members of Congress to express concern that the campaign against the militant group overstepped the president's constitutional authority. The administration has said the campaign was legal, based on authorization passed under President George W. Bush in 2002 for the Iraq War and in 2001 for fighting al Qaeda and associated groups.  Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, told reporters last week the White House would seek an authorization that would last three years. She said there had not yet been decisions about the geographic scope of an authorization or what limits would be placed on combat troops - "boots on the ground" - for the fight against Islamic State militants.Obama is also expected to seek a repeal of the Iraq war authorization, but not the 2001 authorization.Aides said on Monday that was still the expectation for Obama's request, given discussions between the administration, members of congress and congressional staffers.

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Exclusive: U.S., China to discuss repatriation of Chinese fugitives Senior U.S. officials will meet in August with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the possibility of repatriating Chinese officials who have fled to America with billions of dollars of allegedly stolen government assets, according to a State Department official.The issue is a thorny one, as no extradition treaty exists between the U.S. and China. That has made America, and other countries such as Australia and Canada, attractive destinations for Chinese officials fleeing the country and a haven for the assets they have allegedly stolen.Western governments have long been reluctant to hand over suspects because of a lack of transparency and due process in China’s judicial system. International human rights groups say torture is used as a tool for extracting confessions in Chinese interrogations. Government officials convicted of corruption have been sentenced to death. Officials from both countries met for two days in the Philippines last month, with the U.S. delegation led by David Luna, the U.S. State Department's senior director for National Security and Diplomacy.Luna confirmed to Reuters that he attended the meetings and said talks will reconvene in August and will include law enforcement and legal experts. The countries will share specific intelligence on allegedly corrupt Chinese officials and stolen assets and will also discuss potential ways to send the fugitives back to China.The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined immediate comment, as did the country's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Communist Party's anti-corruption body.Alternatives to extradition exist, U.S. officials say, including deportation for violations of U.S. immigration law.Canada, which has no formal extradition treaty with China, has recently expelled suspects wanted by Beijing, including Lai Changxing. Lai, a businessman wanted for corruption, was sent back to China from Canada in 2011 on the promise that he would not be executed. He was sentenced to life in prison.Last year Chinese officials said more than 150 "economic fugitives", many of them described as corrupt government officials, were in the U.S. Neither country has publicly provided a figure for how much stolen money has been smuggled out of China and into the U.S.But the Washington-based Global Financial Integrity group, which tracks illegal outflows from countries, estimates that between 2003 and 2012, $1.25 trillion of illicit cash left China. Some of that moves around the world through dummy bank accounts and other means, and once in the United States, it is often invested in real estate, making its original source hard to trace.The preliminary talks between U.S. and Chinese officials were held on January 27 and 28 in Clark, Philippines, as part of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) international working group, called ACT-NET. The group, which involves multiple APEC countries, including Russia, was formed in Beijing in August 2014 to fight cross-border corruption. The talks took place amid an intensifying and far-reaching anti-corruption drive in China by President Xi Jinping, and a ramping up of efforts between the U.S. and China, including the sharing of criminal intelligence, to crack down on cross-border corruption.ALTERNATIVES TO EXTRADITIONIt was agreed after the talks that more formal negotiations within the ACT-NET forum will take place in August back in the Philippines, which chairs APEC for 2015. The U.S. delegation will likely include officials from the State Department, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security, Luna said.Luna said law enforcement officials from both countries will discuss specific cases and possible joint investigations into Chinese fugitives and stolen assets."There are alternatives to extradition”, Luna told Reuters. He said legal avenues being explored to potentially circumvent the lack of an extradition treaty between the U.S. and China include the United Nations convention against Corruption, and the U.N. convention on Transnational Organized Crime.Luna said there is no formal agreement to return stolen assets to China, but the issue is "part of an ongoing bilateral dialogue, there are ongoing cases, and it is a priority." He refused to divulge details about any specific investigations.The U.S. has applauded China’s recent anti-corruption campaign and is invested in helping in the fight, and more generally in fighting international corruption. Part of the APEC leaders’ declaration after their 2014 summit in Beijing was a commitment to “deny safe haven for corrupt officials and their illicitly-acquired assets.”In December Luna's boss, William Brownfield, the State Department's assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, said both countries had identified "a finite number" of alleged Chinese fugitives "and agreed to develop a strategy to address each of those."Brownfield spoke after a December meeting in Beijing of the US-China Joint Liaison Group on Law Enforcement Cooperation, a separate forum from the APEC group that met in the Philippines.Heading the Chinese delegation in the Philippines, according to an agenda seen by Reuters, was Cai Wei, deputy director general of China's Department of International Cooperation in the Ministry of Supervision. Also present was Chen Long, director of the Department of International Cooperation.

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Jeb Bush talks immigration, education, releases emails as he eyes 2016 bid In a visit to Florida's state capital on Tuesday, Republican Jeb Bush focused on the politically explosive topics of immigration and education reform, while emails were released from his time as governor there in an effort to burnish his credentials as he eyes a 2016 presidential bid.Bush told a friendly audience of 300 longtime supporters at a $1,000-per-plate luncheon that his party should approach immigration as an opportunity to spur economic growth, a view at odds with hardliners in his party."People, the best and brightest around the world, want to come here, so we should fix our immigration system," he said, also stressing his support for securing U.S. borders. "We have a chance of having 600,000 first-round draft picks every year," he said.The trip highlighted his strength in Florida - the largest U.S. swing state - seen as crucial to the Republican Party's hopes of regaining the White House in 2016.It also showcased how Bush, unlike many Republicans at this early stage of the nomination drive, is not running to the conservative right but instead presenting himself as a mainstream alternative while seeking to expand the scope of the party and appeal to independent voters.Bush, the brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H.W. Bush, is considered a frontrunner in the already crowded field of Republican presidential prospects.He launched the "Right to Rise" political action committee last month to raise money as he explores a campaign. eGOVERNOROn Tuesday, he released thousands of emails from his two terms as Florida governor from 1999 to 2007 along with the first chapter of a campaign-style e-book to show he could connect with constituents at a personal level.Early in his tenure, Bush made public his email address, [email protected], and encouraged people to write to him. In the first chapter of an e-book he is to release, he said he spent 30 hours a week answering emails, earning the nickname "the eGovernor.""Everyone could email me," he writes. "So they did."He and his advisers believe that by releasing large chunks of his communications from his time as governor it will show evidence of a chief executive at ease with connecting daily with people who write to him and responding to their concerns.Bush also discussed education policy at a school reform conference hosted by his Foundation for Florida's Future."I'm for higher standards," Bush told reporters after the event.As he travels the country ahead of a potential White House run, he has faced skepticism from the most conservative wing of his party, which is wary of his support for the "Common Core" national academic standards.Standardized testing was central to the education reforms he championed as governor and Bush has suggested a middle ground could be found."You can alleviate people’s fears that you’re going to have some kind of control by the federal government of content or curriculum or even standards," he said. "I’m against all that."

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House members moving toward legislation for sending arms to Ukraine The Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee are developing legislation seeking to commit the U.S. government to providing "defensive lethal assistance" for Ukraine, congressional aides said on Monday.Representatives Mac Thornberry, the panel's Republican chairman, and Adam Smith, its top Democrat, are "far along in discussions" on a bill to provide such military aid, one aide said.The U.S. Senate and House unanimously passed legislation in December that authorized sending arms for Kiev to help defend itself against a Russian-backed separatist movement. U.S. President Barack Obama signed the measure into law but it gave him leeway over whether or when to send arms and many lawmakers have been pressing for Washington to begin shipments. Obama told a news conference on Monday his administration was looking at all options in handling the crisis in Ukraine, but he has not yet decided whether the United States will provide lethal arms to Kiev.

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Girl Scout troop is among White House Science Fair participants Girl scouts are taking over the White House -- but they're not there to sell cookies. Troop 411 brought its Lego robot to the executive mansion, setting it up for the White House's fifth annual science fair, which aims to bring some of the most innovative experiments and projects by students around the country to Washington.The Tulsa, Oklahoma troop's robot mechanically flips book pages. The girls designed it, they said, to help people who struggle to turn pages on their own, for those who "might have arthritis, [who] mightbe paralyzed, or their arms might not work," one of the scouts volunteered. The science fair is said to be one of President Obama's favorite events. He toured the projects and met the inventors Monday, even stopping by the Girl Scout group and testing out their reading apparatus.Before his tour, the president addressed the group of emerging science entrepreneurs."We want to make sure everyone is involved," Obama said. "We want to increase diversity as well so we get the most out of our nation's talent."The White House also announced more funding for science and technology education, with private-sector pledges totaling over $240 million. CBS News was able to meet some of the students on Sunday, while they were setting up their experiments and displays. Pennsylvania's Wallenpaupack Area High School "InvenTeam" demonstrated their generator, which harnessesthe movement of waves against a boat dock to generate electricity. "With our lake, there's a lot of recreation, a lot of docks," Corine Peifer, 17, said, pointing to poor lighting as a consistent problem for vacationers. "We really need to solve this problem and that's where our device came in." Some of the young participants, even while still in their teens, have begun to make remarkable inroads into some of the most persistent challenges faced by scientists and doctors around the world. Among them, Natalie Ng, 19, of Cupertino, California, who has developed a model that predicts the ability of breast cancer cells to metastasize. Her work may help improve the ability of doctors to predict the risk of recurrence for patients, and to help them develop more targeted, effective treatments.A few of the scientists -- all working on different projects -- have the environment in mind, and the country's energy future. At least three have come up with ways of using waste products as biofuel.Representatives from across the continental United States -- and even some outside, like the award-winning Virgin Islands rocketry team -- are grateful for the exposure the White House Science Fair affords them, as well as the chance to visit to the nation's capital. "This is our first time in the White House," Stephanie Bullock, from the Virgin Islands, said, glancing around at the crowded room of future tech movers and shakers. "You don't get opportunities like this every day."

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McConnell: U.S. Senate to 'thoughtfully' review Obama force authorization request The U.S. Senate will "thoughtfully" review President Barack Obama's request for authorization to use military force against Islamic State, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday."The Senate will review the president's request thoughtfully," he said on the Senate floor. Senators will "listen closely to the advice of military commanders as they consider the best strategy for defeating ISIL," McConnell said, referring to the Islamic State.

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Obama defends lack of Netanyahu meeting, citing protocols U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday defended his decision not to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his upcoming Washington visit as following basic protocol of not meeting with world leaders just weeks before an election."We have a practice of not meeting with leaders right before their elections," Obama said at a joint news conference German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "Some of this just has to do with how we do business, and I think it's important for us to maintain these protocols because the U.S.-Israeli relationship is not about a particular party," he said.Obama added that if Merkel had an election coming up shortly, she would not have been invited to White House and probably would not have asked for such a meeting.

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Turkey detains 14 people seeking to join Islamic State Turkish security forces detained 13 foreigners and a Turk seeking to cross the border into Syria to join Islamic State militants, Ankara's military said on Wednesday.Turkey has been accused in the past of being lax in controlling the border, which is used as a transit point by foreign fighters joining the civil war in neighboring Syria.The 14 suspects were caught on Monday afternoon in Oguzeli, south of the major city of Gaziantep in southeast Turkey, according to a statement on the website of the General Staff, or military headquarters. After questioning, it said, the foreigners were handed over to police to be deported while the Turk was released on the orders of a state prosecutor.Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Reuters in an interview last month that Turkey would do everything it could to stem the flow of foreign fighters, describing the Syrian conflict as a major national security threat.Turkish authorities have banned some 8,000 foreigners from entering the country over the past year alone because of security concerns, and had further improved coordination with European intelligence agencies, he said.

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Gay rights advocates in Alabama sue for right to marriage licenses A U.S. judge in Alabama said on Tuesday she will hear arguments later this week on whether to force a local judge to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, a day after officials in most of the state refused to do so in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court.Lawyers for same-sex couples unable to obtain marriage licenses in Mobile County filed separate legal challenges against the county's probate court judge, Don Davis, late on Monday.Mobile County, home to Mobile, the state's third-largest city, was the most populous of the 42 of Alabama's 67 counties that continued to refuse to provide marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples on Tuesday, gay rights advocates said, down from 52 counties a day earlier.  U.S. District Court Judge Callie Granade, a President George W. Bush appointee who struck down the state's ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional in a ruling that took effect on Monday, scheduled a hearing for Thursday.The U.S. Supreme Court, in a strong signal in favor of gay marriage, refused on Monday to grant a request by Alabama's Republican attorney general to keep the weddings on hold until the high court decides later this year whether laws banning gay matrimony violate the U.S. Constitution.But Roy Moore, the conservative chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, ordered state judges to defy Granade's ruling and uphold the state's gay marriage ban. Gay rights advocates said any order Granade issues arising from the hearing will apply specifically to Mobile but it could compel other judges to begin issuing licenses."We don't think it will be necessary to sue each of them, but we can if need arises," Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in an email. The center is representing some of the plaintiffs.Most legal experts say the state judges will ultimately have little choice but to follow the federal court's ruling.

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Fed's Yellen to testify before House on February 25 Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen will testify before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Feb. 25, a congressional aide said on Friday.Yellen's appearance at the House committee will come a day after she goes in front of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Both hearings are part of the official, semi-annual appearances the Federal Reserve makes to update Congress on the state of the economy and monetary policy.

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Russia, Ukrainian separatists haven't lived up to agreements: White House The United States is encouraged by efforts to find a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine conflict but is concerned that agreements from previous such efforts have not been honored, a White House spokesman said on Thursday."One concern we have, however, is that previous diplomatic efforts have resulted in agreements that the Russians and the separatists that they back ... didn't live up to," said spokesman Josh Earnest.He cited agreements on withdrawing troops from eastern Ukraine, establishing international monitoring and freeing hostages. "The separatists haven't lived up to a single one of them," he said.

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Boehner sees call for military authorization vs Islamic State soon U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday he expected President Barack Obama to seek congressional authorization soon for using military force against Islamic State and also called for speeding up assistance to Jordan."I'm expecting that there will be an authorization for the use of military force sent up here in the coming days. And we're going to go through a rigorous set of hearings and continue to discuss it," Boehner, the top House Republican, told reporters."It is also going to be incumbent upon the president to go out there and make the case to the American people," as well as help push Congress to pass the authorization, he added.Congressional aides said lawmakers had been told they would receive the White House request next week.Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, told reporters that lawmakers had been talking to the White House about an authorization that would last three years. She said there had not yet been decisions about the geographic scope of an authorization or what limits would be placed on combat troops - "boots on the ground" - for the fight against Islamic State militants. The United States is leading an international coalition against Islamic State, and Obama launched an air campaign in August against IS fighters in Iraq and Syria. The administration has said the campaign was legal, based on authorization passed under President George W. Bush for the Iraq War and fighting al Qaeda and associated groups.White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday Obama wanted a new resolution authorizing force not because it was a "legal necessity" but to show that U.S. political leaders had united around one plan."It is a matter, however, of the president's desire to send a very clear signal to the people of this country, to our allies, and to our enemies that the United States of America and our political system is united behind the strategy," Earnest told reporters.Earlier this week, Islamic State militants drew international condemnation after they posted a video of a captured Jordanian pilot being burnt alive."Jordan is one of our staunchest allies in the region," Boehner said. "There's an awful lot of things already in the pipeline but speeding that process up through the bureaucracy would certainly help the Jordanians in a time of significant need. And I think, frankly, all of Congress would support it."

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Benghazi panel plans to interview Susan Rice, other officials A House panel investigating the deadly 2012 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, plans to interview at least 20 officials including National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former Pentagon chief Leon Panetta and ex-CIA head David Petraeus, the committee said Friday.The list of interviewees - a veritable "who's who" of U.S. foreign policy and national security officials - emerged as Democrats complained about the "unlimited" budget of the Select Committee on Benghazi and its open-ended schedule, as it covers similar ground to earlier investigations.Democrats say the committee's efforts are politically motivated and aimed at undermining the possible presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. She was Secretary of State when the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi attacks killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.  Republicans say Clinton's State Department failed to protect diplomatic personnel. Previous investigations have said that the compound where Stevens died was not well protected, but that the CIA and the U.S. military responded properly.A letter to Democrats dated Thursday from the panel's Republican chairman, Representative Trey Gowdy, detailed whom it plans to interview after April 1.Targets include Rice, who rankled many Republicans soon after the attacks with comments that they were related to protests against a U.S.-made video, rather than being premeditated. This was two months before President Barack Obama was to face voters seeking re-election; Rice was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the time.Others on Gowdy's list include Rice's current deputy, Ben Rhodes; White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough; General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former White House press secretary Jay Carney.White House spokesman Eric Schultz, traveling with Obama to Indiana on Friday, would not say whether administration officials would consent to Benghazi committee interviews, saying he had not seen the committee request.Gowdy wants Clinton to testify to the panel in public, but wants more documents first. By Gowdy's own description, the State Department has already handed over the equivalent of "40 copies of Dr. Zhivago."Democrats this week asked the House Administration Committee for a hearing on the Benghazi panel's spending, saying it could cost over $3 million in 2015 - about $8,000 per day.The Administration Committee rejected the request as "remarkably odd," saying Democrats should have spoken out when the House reauthorized the panel in January. It was created last May and spent $1.8 million last year.

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Jeb Bush, looking to 2016, tackles questions about Bush name Republican Jeb Bush made clear on Wednesday he realizes his famous last name could be a hindrance in a 2016 presidential campaign, and said he would work hard to connect with people and "do it on my own."In a speech designed to lay the foundation for a potential White House run, the former Florida governor mixed attacks against President Barack Obama's Middle East policy with promises to run an optimistic campaign based on conservative principles.But he hewed closely to the mainstream, in a sign that he would try to expand the appeal of the Republican Party in order to make it competitive again in presidential races after losses to Obama in 2008 and 2012. Bush declared that "parents ought to make sure that their children are vaccinated," separating himself from conservatives in his party in the debate over the reach of government. And he did not shy away from his support for immigration reform, despite conservative criticism that he is too liberal on the issue.He did, however, avoid antagonizing conservatives by not mentioning his support for Common Core, an education policy they oppose. But he spoke at length on the need for higher education standards.Bush, who has been out of office since 2007, looked a little rusty on the stump, rapidly reading his prepared remarks to the Detroit Economic Club. But he was more relaxed during the question-and-answer session that followed.As the brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H.W. Bush, he is facing questions about why a third Bush should live in the White House. It was one of the first questions posed to him at the Detroit event."It's an interesting challenge for me," Bush said. "If I were to go beyond the consideration of running, I would have to deal with this, turn this fact into an opportunity to connect on a human level," he said.He would seek to convince people that "I'm on their side" on the issues they care about, he said, and that while he loves his father and brother, he knows that "I'll have to do it on my own."His comments suggested he might not rely heavily on the former presidents to help him in a campaign, other than to tap into the vast donor network the Bushes established.Jeb Bush threaded a fine line over the Middle East. He criticized Obama's handling of the threat posed by Islamic State militants, calling it a result of a U.S. pullback from the region.But he was careful to say U.S. troops should not be deployed every time there is a global challenge, a position that could be intended to put some space between him and his brother's Iraq war."We have to be engaged. And that doesn't necessarily mean boots on the ground in every occurrence," Bush said."Ask Israel today if the United States has their back. Ask Eastern European countries, does the United States have your back. There is a growing concern that we've pulled back," he said.Bush's speech was the first in a series aimed at defining why he is considering a run for the Republican presidential nomination and what policies he would pursue if elected.The former Florida governor leaped into the debate over how to lift middle-class Americans' income without offering specifics on what he would do. He blamed a "progressive and liberal mindset" in Washington for creating "a spiderweb that traps people in perpetual dependence."

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Exclusive: U.S. pressing Cuba to restore diplomatic ties before April - officials The United States is pressing Cuba to allow the opening of its embassy in Havana by April, U.S. officials told Reuters, despite the Communist island's demand that it first be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.A refusal by Cuba to allow the United States to quickly establish an official embassy for the first time in half a century could complicate talks between the Cold War foes, reflecting enduring mistrust as they move to end decades of confrontation.Striking Cuba from the terrorism list could take until June or longer, although the White House is pushing officials to move quickly, said two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the State Department's review to take Cuba off the list. Washington is eager to re-establish diplomatic ties before a regional summit in Panama in April, when President Barack Obama will meet Cuban leader Raul Castro for the first time since 2013, the officials said.The two leaders announced a historic deal on Dec. 17 to restore relations. U.S. and Cuban diplomats will meet this month or in early March in Washington for a second round of talks. While renewing diplomatic relations could happen quickly, the process to normalize, including removing the U.S. trade embargo, will take far longer. Cuba has not made removal from the list a condition for restoring ties, U.S. officials said. But Havana made clear during the first round of talks last month that it first wants to be removed from the terrorism list.GETTING OFF THE LISTFor Cuba, which considers its designation an injustice, getting removed from the list would be a long-coveted propaganda victory at home and abroad. Washington placed Cuba on the list in 1982, citing then President Fidel Castro's training and arming of Communist rebels in Africa and Latin America. The list is short: just Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba.But Cuba's presence on the list has been questioned in recent years. The State Department's latest annual "Country Reports on Terrorism" says Cuba has long provided a safe haven for members of the Basque separatist group ETA and Colombia's left-wing FARC guerrillas.But ETA, severely weakened by Spanish and French police, called a ceasefire in 2011 and has pledged to disarm. And the FARC has been in peace talks with the Colombian government for the past two years, with Cuba as host.Even the State Department acknowledged in its report that Cuba has made progress. "There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups," it said.Cuba raised this issue before January's talks in Havana. A senior official from Cuba’s foreign ministry told reporters on Jan. 20 that it was "unfair" to keep Cuba on the State Department's list."We cannot conceive of re-establishing diplomatic relations while Cuba continues to be included on the list," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It doesn't make any sense that we re-establish diplomatic relations and Cuba continues (on the list)."It is rare, though not unheard of, for the United States to remove entities or countries from its list of terrorist supporters. One entity which was removed following a lengthy and intense lobbying campaign was the Mujahiddin e Khalq, a controversial and cult-like Iranian group. The designation also comes with economic sanctions, and can result in fines for companies that do business with countries on the list, such as a record $8.9 billion penalty that French bank BNP Paribas paid last year for doing business with Sudan, Iran and Cuba.As part of the U.S. shift in policy toward Cuba, the White House ordered a State Department review of Cuba's listing as a state sponsor of terrorism, the U.S. officials said.A U.S. national security official said intelligence agencies were under pressure from senior Obama administration officials to complete their role in the removal process by March."The process is under way," said the official.To finalize Cuba's removal, Obama would need to submit to Congress a report stating Havana had not supported terrorism-related activities for six months, and that Cuba has provided assurances that it will not support terrorism in the future. Cuba would be automatically dropped from the list 45 days later.Getting the embassy open is also tricky.Converting the six-story U.S. interests sections in Havana into a full-fledged embassy after 53 years would require ending restrictions on the number of U.S. personnel in Havana, limits on diplomats' movements and appointing an ambassador. It would allow the U.S. to renovate the building and have U.S. security posted around the building, replacing Cuban police.Cuba also wants the United States to scale back its support for Cuban dissidents when the sides meet again. U.S. administration officials have stood firm both publicly and privately that they intend to keep supporting the dissidents. "I can't imagine that we would go to the next stage of our diplomatic relationship with an agreement not to see democracy activists," U.S. negotiator Roberta Jacobson told a hearing chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio, a vocal Republican opponent of Obama's new Cuba policy.

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Iran nuclear proposal under discussion Lausanne, SWITZERLAND -- Under pressure to appease the skeptical Republican-led Congress, Secretary of State John Kerry is racing to reach agreement with his Iranian counterparts in the coming days. The framework being negotiated would limit Iran's nuclear development for up to 20 years, with the most stringent technical limits hitting during the first 10 years. Additional monitoring would continue into at least the second decade. Iran would also agree to cut the number of centrifuges it has running - that could be used to build a bomb -- from 10,000 to 6,000. That's essentially a 40% reduction, but diplomats emphasized that the exact figures could fluctuate, especially as the more difficult enrichment restrictions and political issues are still under discussion.In return for those concessions, the emerging proposal would also offer quick relief from European Union sanctions and some US sanctions. However, it would not immediately lift the U.N. Security Council blockades. That is a frustration for Iran, which wants the U.N.-related sanctions removed as quickly as possible. A European diplomat told CBS News that was too much to ask given that negotiators wanted to be able to snap those sanctions back into place if Iran were to violate the deal. Another incentive for Iran is the willingness of countries like France to offer guidance on how to improve its nuclear development if it is solely used for energy purposes. Among the stickiest issues: Iran's refusal to agree to restrictions on its military program and its reluctance to allow inspectors to search military bases where some nuclear testing has been suspected. Iran's research and development around its nuclear program is also a concern - as are the clandestine installations at the Fordow nuclear facility. Iran is also arguing against proposals that would restructure its enrichment program to alleviate the fears of the P5+1 nations.A U.S. official said that proposals were under discussion and that there were no written draft agreements being circulated among the negotiators. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke briefly to reporters in between meetings and said that progress had been made. Yet a European diplomat who spoke with CBS News was far more pessimistic, calling the progress not sufficient enough to warrant an accord.

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Top House Democrat hopes Netanyahu speech to Congress doesn't happen U.S. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday she hopes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to the U.S. Congress next month does not take place because Republican House Speaker John Boehner had invited him for political reasons.Pelosi told reporters she still intends to attend the March 3 speech. Netanyahu has been fending off criticism at home and abroad over his decision to accept the invitation to address Congress on Iran's nuclear program two weeks before the Israeli election."As of now, it is my intention to go. It is still my hope that the event will not take place. There's serious unease," Pelosi told reporters. Boehner on Thursday defended the invitation to Netanyahu as "a very good idea." He announced the event last month without first consulting the White House, a move many Democrats considered an insult to President Barack Obama, with whom Netanyahu has always had a testy relationship."There's a message that the American people need to hear and I think he's the perfect person to deliver it," Boehner said. "The threat of radical Islamic terrorism is a real threat. The threat of Iran to the region and the rest of the world is a real threat and I believe the American people are interested in hearing this."Pelosi, who discussed the matter on Wednesday with Israeli Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein, said U.S. ties with Netanyahu were "respectful." But she blamed Boehner for "politicizing" the U.S. relationship with Israel by inviting Netanyahu to speak two weeks before his country's election. The White House said Obama would not meet with Netanyahu because of the election timing.Pelosi said some people who were supporters of both Netanyahu and Israel still thought it outrageous that the House of Representatives would be "used, exploited in that way for a political purpose in Israel, and in the United States."

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Illinois Senate passes minimum wage hike plan The Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate passed on Thursday a bill to raise the state's minimum wage to $9 per hour this year and to $11 by 2019, snubbing a slower wage hike plan floated a day earlier by the state's new Republican governor.Illinois' current minimum wage is $8.25 and Governor Bruce Rauner proposed on Wednesday in his first state-of-the-state speech, raising it to $10 over the next seven years.The Senate voted 35-18 to pass the bill, which now goes to the lower house, which is also controlled by Democrats but may not pass the bill so easily.Wage growth has remained sluggish in the United States despite an improving economy, and income inequality has become a hot political topic. Nine states have increased their minimum wage since the beginning of the year as the U.S. Congress has not increased the federal minimum.Illinois is one of 29 states with a higher minimum wage than the federal level of $7.25 per hour, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Washington also has a higher hourly minimum than the federal one, and higher than any state minimum at $9.50. "The minimum wage should be a living wage. If you work full-time, you shouldn't have to rely on government support to put food on your family's table or a roof over your head," said Assistant Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Democrat state senator and the sponsor of the legislation in Illinois' upper house.Lightford criticized Rauner's plan as too slow.The Chicago City Council in December voted to gradually increase the minimum wage in the nation's third largest city to $13 an hour by 2019. A number of other cities, from San Francisco, California, to Louisville, Kentucky, have also recently raised minimum wages.

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U.S. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to step down Dr. Margaret Hamburg, who as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for almost six years has overseen public health initiatives ranging from tobacco control and food safety to personalized medicine and drug approvals, is stepping down, the agency said on Thursday.Hamburg, one of the longest-serving FDA commissioners in the modern era, told Reuters in an interview that her decision was prompted by the heavy demands of the job and the sheer length of time she has held the position."This is a very challenging job full of opportunities to make a huge and enduring difference," she said, "but it is 24/7 and there are really really difficult decisions to make."  The 59-year-old, nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in May 2009, was last year named the world's 51st most powerful woman by Forbes magazine.Hamburg's resignation comes at a crucial time for the FDA as Congress pushes initiatives to speed new drug development, and food safety advocates, backed by Obama, back the creation of a separate agency combining the food safety functions of the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Under Hamburg, the agency introduced multiple measures to speed new products to the market. In 2014, the FDA approved 51 new therapies, the most in almost 20 years. In a blog post on Wednesday, Hamburg called the achievement "a testament ... to FDA's innovative approaches to help expedite development and review of medical products that target unmet medical needs."A spokesman for the White House, Josh Earnest, told reporters at a briefing that Obama's nomination to replace Hamburg would have impeccable scientific credentials and merit bipartisan support. The nominee must be confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate.Late last month, the agency named Dr. Robert Califf, a prominent cardiologist and researcher from Duke University, to oversee its drug, medical device and tobacco policy. Califf is viewed by many as a potential successor to Hamburg, whose resignation takes effect in March.Dr. Stephen Ostroff, the FDA's chief scientist, will fill Hamburg's position until a new commissioner is named.CAREER IN PUBLIC HEALTH A long-time public health official with extensive experience fighting AIDS and tuberculosis, Hamburg, who graduated from Harvard Medical School, previously served at the National Institutes of Health before becoming New York City's health commissioner. That public health focus endeared her to patient advocates."Commissioner Hamburg, from day one, has been committed to being a champion for patients," said Ellen Sigal, founder and chair of Friends of Cancer Research. "She has fostered the growth of science and innovation across the agency and really changed how FDA and industry collaborate."Under Hamburg, the FDA, which oversees products representing more than 20 cents of every dollar spent by U.S. consumers, has proposed measures to improve nutrition by limiting dangerous trans-fats in food and requiring restaurants to post calorie counts on menus. It also has beefed up inspections of food and drugs from overseas."She really had an active and visible role on the global stage not only from a medical products perspective but from a food safety perspective," said Erica Jefferson, former acting assistant commissioner for media affairs. During her tenure the FDA has confronted major public health issues, including the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, the abuse of opioid painkillers, the emergence of electronic cigarettes and the outbreak of Ebola and other infectious diseases.Her ride has not always been smooth. She faced hostile questioning by Republicans in Congress following a fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012 that killed dozens of people and sickened hundreds more. In 2011, then Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled the FDA's decision to allow an emergency contraceptive known as Plan B to be sold over the counter to young teenagers. Hamburg insisted Plan B was safe for use and it was approved two years later.Hamburg, whose mother was the first African-American woman to earn a degree from Yale University School of Medicine, was never a crusading commissioner in the way of one of her predecessors, Dr. David Kessler, who fought to bring tobacco under FDA regulation. The FDA eventually gained authority over tobacco in 2009.Hamburg's tenure has disappointed some drug watchdogs, who say the FDA has too often succumbed to industry pressure."Throughout Hamburg's tenure, the FDA has grown even more cozy with the industries that it regulates," Public Citizen said in a statement.Yet it was Hamburg who, in 2011, revoked approval for Roche Holding AG's(ROG.VX) drug Avastin as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer after the company failed to prove that the benefits outweighed the risks. The drug remains on the market for certain types of colon, lung, kidney and brain cancer.And she began a crackdown on poor-quality generic drugs and drug ingredients from India, China and elsewhere.

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Obama cites outcry in reversal on college savings plan President Barack Obama on Friday said that a public backlash to his budget proposal that would have eliminated the "529" tax-free college savings program convinced him to abandon the idea."I'll be honest with you, there were enough people who already were utilizing 529s that they started feeling as if, well, you know, if changing like this in midstream ... it wasn't worth it for us to eliminate it," Obama said, responding to a question at Ivy Tech Community College.The plan to eliminate it was met with an immediate backlash from middle-class savers, as well as Republicans and Democrats in Congress. Obama said he first proposed the change because most people using the tax-free accounts are on “the high end” of earners.But members of his administration “changed our mind,” Obama said because of public outcry.Obama said a plan to pay for making the first two years of community college free would instead depend more heavily on closing tax loopholes.Obama aimed to boost support for the community college plan, one of many proposals he has laid out recently in his State of the Union address last month and 2016 budget on Monday, which are intended to strengthen the middle class.The plan and its $60 billion price tag over 10 years has faced skepticism from Republican lawmakers.Obama noted that he has established 529 college savings plans for his two daughters.

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Obama budget request for hi-tech energy office 'timid': Republican The Senate energy committee's head on Thursday said President Barack Obama's budget request for an agency that funds projects that could revolutionize energy markets - like long-range car batteries and turning bacteria into fuel - was too "timid."The White House's budget for fiscal 2016, released on Monday, includes $325 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. That represented an increase of $45 million over what ARPA-E was allocated for this year but was equal to Obama's original request last year.Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, told reporters on Capitol Hill she saw "great value" in ARPA-E, which was modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. At least two ARPA-E funded companies have gone public in the last several years, including bioengineering company Ceres Inc and power converter maker Ideal Power."I thought that he was pretty timid" with funding for ARPA-E in the budget, she said. "You're going to find me a proponent of ARPA-E."With global temperatures hitting record highs last year, there are signs that many Republicans are beginning to shape their messaging on how to tackle climate change. Research and development has long been seen as a safe issue for both political parties to support as a solution. In 2007, Congress authorized ARPA-E, part of the Department of Energy, when George W. Bush, a Republican, was president. The agency launched in 2009 when Obama allocated it $400 million.

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Putin says leaders to meet in Minsk if sides move closer to agreement Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he planned to meet the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine in Minsk on Wednesday if the sides moved closer to an agreement on implementing an unraveling 2014 peace deal for east Ukraine."Conversation with colleagues from Kiev, Berlin and Paris has just ended. We have agreed to try to organize a meeting of this same format in Minsk," Putin said during a meeting with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi. "We will aim (to meet on) Wednesday if by then we have managed to agree our positions, which we have been discussing very intensively in recent days," Putin added.

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Obama lays out security strategy, warns against 'overreach' President Barack Obama released an updated national security strategy on Friday that committed the United States to lead on pressing world issues but reflected his cautious policy toward foreign intervention.The 29-page memo to Congress, required under law, broadly outlined Obama's foreign policy priorities for the final two years of his presidency. Obama described the most pressing challenges of violent extremism, Russian aggression, cyberattacks and climate change and said they were best addressed by mobilizing international coalitions. But he said the United States needed "strategic patience and persistence" as it does not have infinite resources and said many problems could not be resolved through military might. "We must always resist the overreach that comes when we make decisions based upon fear," Obama said.In the long run, he said U.S. efforts to counter the ideology behind violent extremism were "more important than our capacity to remove terrorists from the battlefield."The document updated a lengthier one issued in 2010, when Obama was only 15 months into the job. Since then, he has been frequently criticized at home and abroad for excess caution.Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a frequent Obama critic, said Obama's approach had led to global chaos and allowed bad actors to flourish, including Islamic State militants, also known as ISIL. "I doubt ISIL, the Iranian mullahs, or Vladimir Putin will be intimidated by President Obama's strategy of 'strategic patience,'" Graham said in a statement.RICE: CRITICS LACK PERSPECTIVEObama renewed the U.S. commitment to lead an international coalition to defeat Islamic State and work with European allies to isolate Russia over its support for rebels in eastern Ukraine - crises that did not exist in 2010.Top White House national security adviser Susan Rice said the White House and European allies were assessing how to ramp up pressure on Moscow through sanctions or military aid."We have not taken a decision yet to up that, the nature of that assistance, to include lethal defensive equipment," Rice said in a speech at the Brookings Institution think-tank. Any decision would be taken only after consultation with European allies, she said. Rice said those who criticized Obama for his reflective approach to emerging crises lacked a broad perspective and were too reactive. "We cannot afford to be buffeted by alarmism in a nearly instantaneous news cycle," Rice said.She said the White House would redouble its efforts on Obama's economic, military and diplomatic "rebalance" to Asia, where he seeks to counter China's growing power.As part of those efforts, Rice said Obama had invited Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to come to the country on state visits.

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California lawmakers seek to end 'personal belief' vaccine exemptions Responding to an outbreak of measles that has infected more than 100 people, two California lawmakers said on Wednesday they would introduce legislation to end the right of parents in the state to exempt their children from school vaccinations based on personal beliefs.California public health officials say 92 people have been diagnosed with measles in the state, many of them linked to an outbreak that they believe began when an infected person from outside the country visited Disneyland in late December.More than a dozen other cases have been confirmed in 19 other U.S. states and Mexico, renewing a debate over the so-called anti-vaccination movement in which fears about potential side effects of vaccines, fueled by now-debunked science, have led a small minority of parents to refuse to allow their children to be vaccinated. "The high number of unvaccinated students is jeopardizing public health not only in schools but in the broader community. We need to take steps to keep our schools safe and our students healthy,” state Senator Ben Allen said in a written statement announcing the legislation he is co-sponsoring with fellow Democrat Richard Pan.The measure would make California the 33rd state to bar parents from opting out of vaccinations based on personal beliefs.Also on Wednesday, a top Los Angeles County health official said that a total of 21 cases have been recorded in the county but that after the initial wave of reports, the number has fallen to four in the latest two-week period. “We're getting to a number of cases that’s manageable, and I'm hopeful that within weeks or a couple of months we will be able to turn the corner on this particular outbreak,” Interim Health Officer Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser told a press conference, although he cautioned that a lag in reporting could still add a few more cases.A day care center at a high school in the Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica closed earlier this week and more than a dozen infants placed under a three-week quarantine after a baby enrolled in the program was diagnosed with measles.Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 after decades of intensive childhood vaccine efforts. But last year the nation had its highest number of measles cases in two decades.Most people recover from measles within a few weeks, although it can be fatal in some cases.

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U.S. defense chief voices fear of north-south NATO divide U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed concern on Thursday about a possible north-south divide in NATO and urged the alliance to tackle multiple security issues at once rather than focusing on only one. Hagel, making his final appearance at NATO as U.S. defense chief, said the alliance faced several challenges, including violent extremism on its southern rim, Russian aggression in Ukraine and training security forces in Afghanistan."I am very concerned by the suggestion that this alliance can choose to focus on only one of these areas as our top priority," Hagel told a news conference. "And I worry about the potential for division between our northern and southern allies." Hagel's remarks came as NATO allies, especially along the northern tier of Europe, are concerned about responding to Russian aggression in Ukraine and Moscow's threatening moves along its northwestern frontier.In southern Europe, countries like Spain and Italy worry about threats from Africa and the Middle East and believe NATO needs to focus more energy there to deal with extremism and trafficking in drugs, weapons and people."It's a growing sort of divide that we’re seeing happen between north and south," said one U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.The official said Hagel had raised the issue at a lunch with other NATO defense ministers, some of whom voiced similar concerns. The U.S. defense chief later mentioned the issue at his news conference."The alliance’s ability to meet all these challenges at once, to the east, to the south and out-of-area, is NATO’s charge for the future," Hagel said."This is a time for unity, shared purpose and wise, long-term investments across the spectrum of military capability," he added. "We must address all the challenges to this alliance, all together and all at once."Hagel spoke as NATO defense ministers met to sign off on a network of command centers in eastern Europe to rapidly reinforce the region in the event of any threat from Russia, as well as two new regional headquarters and a bigger rapid reaction force.They were expected to agree to more than double the size of NATO's existing rapid reaction force - to 30,000 soldiers from 13,000 - and to flesh out details of a 5,000-strong "spearhead" force with a faster reaction time of only a few days.

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Lawmaker says Japan, Canada must cut tariffs under trade pact Canada and Japan must open their markets to farm imports under a Pacific trade pact, the chairman of a U.S. congressional committee responsible for trade said on Thursday, adding that any country that cannot meet the deal's goals should drop out. Negotiators from 12 Pacific countries hope to wrap up talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) within months, but House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said some countries might have to wait for the second round."For TPP, Japan and Canada just have to lower their agricultural tariffs," he said at an event hosted by the Washington International Trade Association.  "Those have to go. And if any of the 12 countries currently in the talks think our standards are too high, well, I’d complete the agreement without them and invite them to join it later."Ryan also said it was vital to pass legislation know as trade promotion authority (TPA) as soon as possible to streamline the passage of trade deals though Congress.Japan is eager to protect sectors including beef, sugar and dairy, although Japanese media have reported the government is considering concessions. Canada uses milk quotas and import tariffs to ensure steady prices for local farmers.U.S. dairy farmers cheered Ryan's remarks. "Too many times in the past, Canada has gotten a pass on its impenetrable tariff wall on dairy imports," National Milk Producers Federation President Jim Mulhern said. Canadian Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, speaking on a conference call with reporters during a visit to Washington, said he was confident Canada would remain in the TPP."There’s a lot of pushing and shoving when you get to these steps in the negotiations. Everyone has defensive and offensive positions," he said, declining to comment on whether Canada would ease back on supply management. Ritz, who has said it would take a "sea shift" for Canada to open its dairy, egg and poultry industries, noted the United States still had to re-enact TPA, which expired in 2007.Under trade promotion authority, the executive branch negotiates, with Congress's input, trade agreements. Once an agreement has been negotiated, under TPA it is fast-tracked, meaning it cannot be amended by Congress and is subject to simple up or down votes in the House and Senate."At the end of the day of course everyone is looking at the ability of the American administration to push through with the TPA,” he said.A group of 70 food and agricultural organizations including Wal-Mart Stores on Thursday urged quick passage of TPA.

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​Ted Cruz appeals to Christian conservatives in 2016 kickoff Texas Sen. Ted Cruz began his 2016 presidential bid with an impassioned appeal to the religious right on Monday, exhorting a cheering crowd at the world's largest Christian college to "join a grassroots army across this nation coming together and standing for liberty.""God's blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe God isn't done with America yet," he said. "I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America, and that is why today, I'm announcing that I'm running for president of the United States."Cruz said the American dream "has enabled millions of people from all over the world to come to America with nothing and to achieve anything," but he warned that the dream is "slipping away." He suggested America's political salvation rests, in part, on the political engagement of conservative Christians. "Today, roughly half of born-again Christians aren't voting," he said. "They're staying home. Imagine instead millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values." Cruz was joined onstage by his wife Heidi and daughters Caroline, 6, and Catherine, 4. He made his candidacy official early on Sunday morning, and he broke the news himself via Twitter, writing just after midnight, "I'm running for president and I hope to earn your support!" The move made Cruz, a 44-year-old freshman firebrand who's popular among the conservative grassroots but viewed warily by the GOP establishment, the first major candidate in either party to launch a 2016 presidential bid. In an announcement video accompanying the tweet, Cruz called for a new round of "courageous conservatives" to rise up and take the country back. "I believe in America and her people, and I believe we can stand up and restore our promise," he said. "It's going to take a new generation of courageous conservatives to help make America great again, and I'm ready to stand with you to lead the fight." Cruz has been a popular figure among right-wing activists since he rode a tea party wave to dispatch an establishment-backed Republican in the 2012 Texas Senate primary. Since arriving on Capitol Hill in 2013, he's feuded with Democrats and Republicans alike, frequently frustrating his own leadership with an uncompromising, starkly conservative approach to governance. Cruz is perhaps best remembered for a 21-hour speech on the Senate floor in 2013 urging lawmakers to defund President Obama's health care law. In September of that year, Cruz successfully urged conservatives in both chambers to defy GOP leadership by refusing to back any government spending bill that funded the law. His intervention was blamed, in part, for the 16-day government shutdown that resulted after the dispute over Obamacare temporarily blocked a spending agreement.He's taken a similarly defiant tack on issues like gun laws, education, and immigration reform, exhorting his party to stand tall instead of moving to the middle to accommodate their opponents. Cruz showcased his aggressively conservative agenda on Monday. He reiterated his commitment to repealing "every word" of Obamacare and called for a "flat tax" that allows "every American to fill out his or her taxes on a post card." He called for "abolishing the IRS," and asked his audience to "imagine a president that finally, finally, finally secures the border." He condemned the federal government for waging an "assault" on religious liberty, and stressed the need to "defend the sanctity of life" and "uphold the sacrament of marriage." He called school choice "the civil rights issue of the next generation," and said he'd like to see the "common core" state education standards abolished. It's an ambitious platform, but Cruz projected confidence that it's all within grasp. "Over and over again when we faced impossible odds, the American people have rose to the challenge," he said. "Compared to that, repealing Obamacare and abolishing the IRS ain't all that tough."Cruz was born December 22, 1970 in Calgary, Canada. Though some have raised questions about whether his foreign birth would preclude him from running for president, most analysts believe he's eligible -- he was a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth because his mom was born in the U.S. In a curious twist, his birthplace also made him a natural-born Canadian citizen, but Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship last year. His family moved in 1974 to Texas, where Cruz spent the rest of his childhood. He graduated valedictorian of his high school in 1988, received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, and received his law degree from Harvard University. He clerked for a federal judge and then-Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, advised the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush, worked for Bush's Justice Department and was appointed Texas Solicitor General before eventually running for Senate. It was likely no accident Cruz chose Liberty University to announce his run. He's has spoken at the university before, most recently in 2014 about the need to protect "religious liberty" in the face of a secularizing culture. The school was founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell, an icon of the religious right, and Cruz has already signaled that he plans to tailor his message to the most conservative wing of his party. "He hasn't really moved to the middle on any major issues," Texas-based Republican strategist Matt Mackowiak told CBS News last week. "He probably is the favorite among the grassroots, because he is a really solid conservative on all three legs of the stool - social, fiscal, and national security. No one speaks to the concerns of the grassroots with greater effect than Ted Cruz. He's the whole package." He dwelt at length on the importance of his Christian faith in his speech at Liberty, recalling a point in his childhood when his father left him and his mother but returned after becoming a born-again Christian. "There are people who wonder if faith is real," he said. "Were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would not have been saved and I would have been raised by a single mom without my father in the household." While his conservative appeals have made him a favorite among the activist set, there are questions about whether Cruz will be handicapped by his poor relationship with the establishment. "There are questions about how much money he can raise, and about the breadth of his appeal, since he also has no shortage of opponents inside the party," Ramesh Ponnuru, a conservative analyst and friend of Cruz's since college, told CBS News. To win the nomination, Cruz will have to navigate what looks to become a crowded GOP field, outflanking his rivals on the right while keeping an eye on establishment favorites like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He's warned Republicans against trusting the establishment to pick winners. Pointing to losses by 2008 nominee Sen. John McCain and 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, Cruz has urged the GOP to nominate a strong conservative or risk defeat for the third consecutive time. "If we nominate a candidate in that mold, the same people who stayed home in 2008 and 2012 will stay home in 2016 and the Democrats will win again," Cruz told a South Carolina tea party convention in January. But there are no shortage of potential candidates who could seek the conservative mantle. Cruz's Senate colleagues like Florida's Marco Rubio and Kentucky's Rand Paul are expected to launch their own bids in the coming weeks, and they've signaled they plan to aggressively court conservative voters themselves. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has also emerged as an early favorite among some parts of the base, and more familiar names like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum are also likely to enter the fray. Perhaps mindful of the hurdles ahead, Cruz was already making attempts to expand his mailing list before his speech was over on Monday,. "I'm gonna ask you to break a rule today and take out your cell phones and text the word 'constitution' to the number 33733," he told the audience at Liberty. "You can also text 'imagine' - we're versatile."

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Oregon's largest newspaper calls for Governor Kitzhaber to resign Oregon’s flagship newspaper is calling on the state's Democratic governor, whom it endorsed for re-election last year, to resign amid a controversy over whether his fiancée's consulting work posed a conflict of interest with her role as an unpaid adviser.The call by the Oregonian in an editorial on Wednesday came after Governor John Kitzhaber told a news conference last week that his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, would no longer have a policy role in his office. Oregon's state ethics commission is investigating complaints, including by the Republican Party, about possible conflicts of interest involving Hayes that have raised questions about whether her acceptance of consulting contracts may have violated ethics rules. â€œMore ugliness may surface, but it should be clear by now to Kitzhaber that his credibility has evaporated to such a degree that he can no longer serve effectively as governor,” read the editorial, written by the paper’s five-member board. “If he wants to serve his constituents he should resign.” Kitzhaber has said he would not consider resigning, and had no regrets about his personal relationship with Hayes.“I was elected to serve the citizens of the state of Oregon and I intend to continue to do so," Kitzhaber said in a statement.Kitzhaber, who was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term last year, has been dogged by revelations surrounding his fiancée since she admitted in October she wed an immigrant years ago in a "marriage of convenience." His announcement that Hayes would no longer have a role in his office came after media reports she earned $118,000 in previously undisclosed consulting fees in 2011 and 2012 from the Washington-based Clean Economy Development Center while advising the governor on energy policy.Kitzhaber did not disclose Hayes’ income on his annual economic interest statements despite disclosing other revenue she had received via consulting contracts. He has said the couple did not feel it was required to be reported.The Oregonian reported this week that two people involved with Kitzhaber’s 2010 campaign had helped Hayes find work with organizations looking to influence state policy. “Suffice it to say there's a pattern, and the person who bears the responsibility for allowing it to form and persist is Kitzhaber, who should know better,” the Oregonian said. ”After all, as he pointed out during Friday's press conference, he's been serving in public office on and off since the 1970s.”

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U.S. invites Japan, China leaders for state visits The United States said on Friday it had invited Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to pay state visits this year, in a further sign of President Barack Obama's policy emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region.Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, said Washington had also asked South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indonesian President Joko Widodo to visit this year as part of Washington's moves to increase economic, security and diplomatic engagement with the region.Presenting Obama's updated national security strategy in a speech at the Brookings Institution think tank, Rice said it aimed to "enhance our focus on regions that will shape the century ahead, starting with the Asia-Pacific." The strategy document stressed the risks posed by rival maritime claims in Asia and by nuclear-armed North Korea.It said the United States was responding by modernizing its treaty alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia and the Philippines and by increasing security cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.Washington's Asia rebalance is largely a response to China's rise and increased assertiveness in pursuit of territorial claims, but the document said the United States rejected "the inevitability of confrontation" with Beijing. "At the same time, we will manage competition from a position of strength while insisting that China uphold international rules and norms on issues ranging from maritime security to trade and human rights," it said.Rice highlighted Obama’s visit to India last month, a country the United States sees as a key counterbalance to a rising China. She said the visit had "strengthened a critical relationship which will deliver economic and security benefits for both our nations and the broader region."A White House spokesman said he had no dates yet to release for the Washington visits.Xi was last in the United States for an informal summit in California in June 2013. He met Obama again after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Beijing in November.Abe and Park also visited the United States in 2013, while Obama visited both of their countries last year. Widodo has yet to visit Washington as president. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attended his inauguration in October.

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Top Obama communications advisers to step down, leaving hole in staff President Barack Obama's top two communications advisers plan to step down in the coming months, leaving a hole in his senior staff as the White House tries to keep attention on an ambitious agenda before the 2016 presidential campaign.Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser and longtime member of Obama's inner circle, is stepping down in early March, and Jennifer Palmieri, the White House communications director, plans to leave later this spring.The moves are the most significant shake-up of White House staff since the 2014 midterm election when Republicans gained control of the U.S. Senate and strengthened their majority in the House of Representatives. Obama rejected calls for a shake-up at the time, and has managed to seize the initiative in Washington with changes to U.S.-Cuba policy and a rollout of middle-class-focused ideas in his State of the Union address last month.The White House painted the upcoming departures as a chance to bring in new blood."While their departures are significant, there is indeed value in bringing in new, energized staff with fresh ideas and new perspectives," a White House official said.Palmieri has been reported to be in the running for a top communications job in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's expected presidential campaign. The White House declined to comment on her next move, and a spokesman for Clinton did not immediately return a request for comment.Pfeiffer has advised Obama since his 2008 presidential campaign and is one of the last of the president's close confidants from that period to be leaving his immediate orbit."Like everyone else in the White House, I’ve benefited from his political savvy and his advocacy for working people," Obama said in a statement. "He’s a good man and a good friend, and I’m going to miss having him just down the hall from me."Pfeiffer is fond of sparring with reporters on Twitter and has spearheaded the administration's effort to use social media to spread its message, sometimes seeking to bypass traditional news organizations in the process.Obama has been criticized for relying too much on an insular group of advisers, many from his Chicago-based campaign. But communication gurus such as David Axelrod and David Plouffe, who both spent stints in the White House after helping get him elected, have long since moved on.Pfeiffer has experienced some health difficulties in recent years, including stroke-like symptoms.

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Pratt says growth in F-35 production will help cut costs The Pentagon's plans to fund 50 percent more F-35 fighter jets in fiscal 2016 will help drive down the price of the new plane and its engine, a top official with enginemaker Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, said Thursday.Bennett Croswell, president of Pratt's military engines division, said the company had submitted a proposal for the ninth and tenth batches of engines to the F-35 program office, and he hoped to sign those agreements by the end of 2015.The previous two production agreements lowered the cost of the engine by nearly 8 percent, Croswell said, noting that further reductions were planned for the contracts now under discussion - 60 engines in the ninth batch and 100 in the tenth.The U.S. government signs separate production agreements with Lockheed Martin Corp, which builds the plane, and Pratt, which builds its F135 engine. The Pentagon plans to spend nearly $400 billion to develop and build 2,457 of the radar-evading warplanes over the next two decades.  Croswell welcomed the start of a long-delayed increase in production of the F-35 in fiscal 2016, which funds 57 jets after 38 a year earlier, and said it would help Pratt, Lockheed and other key suppliers drive down the plane's cost.Pratt and Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc, which makes the lift fan for the F-35 B-model, will soon unveil new plans for reducing the cost of the engine, Croswell said. He gave no details.Lockheed and the other key suppliers for the airframe - Northrop Grumman Corp and BAE Systems Plc -launched a similar effort last summer, which maps out specific investments to reduce the cost to build and repair the planes.Croswell said Pratt had also developed plans to upgrade the F135 engine in two separate phases. If the Pentagon accepts and funds the plans, the first upgrades would begin in 2017 or 2018 and reduce the fuel burn of the engine by 5 to 7 percent, Croswell said. The next upgrades would begin around 2022, cutting fuel burn by 15 to 20 percent.The upgrades drew on engine research work funded by the Air Force in recent years, he said. The service included funding for more work on a next-generation engine in its 2016 budget plan.Croswell said Pratt was preparing for the production increase by hiring more people, and it had already opened a second production site in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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Israeli official suggests Boehner misled Netanyahu on Congress speech A senior Israeli official suggested on Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been misled into thinking an invitation to address the U.S. Congress on Iran next month was fully supported by the Democrats.Netanyahu was invited by the Republican speaker of the house, John Boehner, to address Congress on March 3, an invitation Boehner originally described as bipartisan. The move angered the White House, which is upset about the event coming two weeks before Israeli elections and that Netanyahu, who has a testy relationship with Democratic President Barack Obama, is expected to be critical of U.S. policy on Iran. "It appears that the speaker of Congress made a move, in which we trusted, but which it ultimately became clear was a one sided move and not a move by both sides," Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told 102 FM Tel Aviv Radio on Friday.The interviewer asked if that meant Netanyahu had been "misled" into believing Boehner's invitation was bipartisan, a characterization Hanegbi did not contest.Asked whether the prime minister should cancel or postpone the speech, Hanegbi said: "What would the outcome be then? The outcome would be that we forsake an arena in which there is a going to be a very dramatic decision (on Iran)." The invitation has led to criticism of Boehner by Democrats and repeated statements by Boehner and other Republicans explaining their position.Top Democratic lawmaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday the event was "politicized" and she hoped it would not take place - piling pressure on Netanyahu after the White House said it would not meet him during the visit.In addition, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in his capacity as president of the Senate, would usually be present for a joint session of Congress but he is expected to be traveling abroad when Netanyahu is scheduled to speak, an aide to Biden said on Friday.Netanyahu has denied seeking electoral gains or meddling in internal U.S. affairs with the speech, in which he is expected to warn world powers against agreeing to anything short of a total rollback of Iran's nuclear program.A Netanyahu spokesman declined to comment on Hanegbi's comments on Friday. Hanegbi is a senior member of Netanyahu's Likud party.Acknowledging that Democrats had been "pained" by the invitation, Hanegbi said Netanyahu and Israeli emissaries were making "a huge effort to make clear to them that this is not a move that flouts the president of the United States".Yet Hanegbi said the address to Congress could help pass a bill, opposed by Obama, for new U.S. sanctions on Iran."The Republicans know, as the president has already made clear, that he will veto this legislation. So in order to pass legislation that overcomes the veto, two-thirds are required in the Senate. So if the prime minister can persuade another one or two or another three or four, this could have weight," he said.Hanegbi said he was not aware of any Israeli polling that showed the speech would help Netanyahu in the March 17 election, where Likud is running neck-and-neck against the center-left.

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McCain calls for bill requiring U.S. arms to Ukraine if Obama does not act U.S. lawmakers will write legislation requiring the United States to send arms to Ukraine if President Barack Obama does not move to send weapons, Republican Senator John McCain said on Thursday. McCain led about a dozen Republican and Democratic senators at a news conference in pressing Obama to send arms to help Kiev defend itself against a Russian-backed separatist movement."We'll be looking at marking up legislation that calls for it," McCain said. The Senate and House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation in December that authorized sending arms to Kiev. Obama signed the measure into law but it gave him leeway over whether or when to send arms.Lawmakers have intensified their calls for a strong response from Washington to boost Ukraine."This is a fight between a struggling democracy and an autocratic dictatorship and we should take sides," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said.In Kiev on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Obama would decide soon whether to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons to fight separatists.

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Boehner says Pope Francis to address U.S. Congress on September 24 U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday that Pope Francis will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Sept. 24, marking the first time a pope has delivered such a speech.The pope is expected to visit Washington, New York and Philadelphia during his trip to the United States. After the trip was announced last year, Boehner said that he had invited the head of the Roman Catholic Church to speak to lawmakers."On Sept. 24 His Holiness Pope Francis will visit us here at the United States Capitol. That day, His Holiness will be the first pope in our history to address a joint session of Congress," Boehner told reporters during his weekly press conference.

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Biden says Ukraine has right to defend itself against Russia U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday that Washington wanted a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine but added that Kiev had a right to defend itself against Russia and that the United States would provide it with the means to do so."The president and I agree we must spare no effort to save lives and resolve the conflict peacefully. As Chancellor Merkel said today, it's worth the attempt," Biden told a security conference in Munich.But he added: "Too many times President Putin has promised peace and delivered tanks, troops and weapons. So we will continue to provide Ukraine with security assistance, not to encourage war but to allow Ukraine to defend itself." "Let me be clear we do not believe there is a military solution in Ukraine. But let me be equally clear, we do not believe Russia has the right to do what they're doing. We believe we should attempt an honorable peace. We also believe the Ukrainian people have a right to defend themselves," Biden said.

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Exclusive: U.S. pressing Cuba to restore diplomatic ties before April - officials The United States is pressing Cuba to allow the opening of its embassy in Havana by April, U.S. officials told Reuters, despite the Communist island's demand that it first be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.A refusal by Cuba to allow the United States to quickly establish an official embassy for the first time in half a century could complicate talks between the Cold War foes, reflecting enduring mistrust as they move to end decades of confrontation.It would also mark the first major setback since President Barack Obama's historic shift in Cuba policy in December, suggesting one of the biggest foreign policy moves of his administration is struggling to achieve even its first goal. Striking Cuba from the terrorism list could take until June or longer, although the White House is pushing officials to move quickly, said two U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the State Department's review to take Cuba off the list.Washington is eager to re-establish diplomatic ties before a regional summit in Panama in April, when Obama will meet Cuban leader Raul Castro for the first time since 2013, the officials said. The two leaders announced a historic deal on Dec. 17 to restore relations. U.S. and Cuban diplomats will meet this month or in early March in Washington for a second round of talks. While renewing diplomatic relations could happen quickly, the process to normalize, including removing the U.S. trade embargo, will take far longer. Cuba has not made removal from the list a condition for restoring ties, U.S. officials said. But Havana made clear during the first round of talks last month that it first wants to be removed from the terrorism list.GETTING OFF THE LISTFor Cuba, which considers its designation an injustice, getting removed from the list would be a long-coveted propaganda victory at home and abroad. Washington placed Cuba on the list in 1982, citing then President Fidel Castro's training and arming of Communist rebels in Africa and Latin America. The list is short: just Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba.But Cuba's presence on the list has been questioned in recent years. The State Department's latest annual "Country Reports on Terrorism" says Cuba has long provided a safe haven for members of the Basque separatist group ETA and Colombia's left-wing FARC guerrillas.But ETA, severely weakened by Spanish and French police, called a ceasefire in 2011 and has pledged to disarm. And the FARC has been in peace talks with the Colombian government for the past two years, with Cuba as host.Even the State Department acknowledged in its report that Cuba has made progress. "There was no indication that the Cuban government provided weapons or paramilitary training to terrorist groups," it said.Cuba raised this issue before January's talks in Havana. A senior official from Cuba’s foreign ministry told reporters on Jan. 20 that it was "unfair" to keep Cuba on the State Department's list."We cannot conceive of re-establishing diplomatic relations while Cuba continues to be included on the list," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It doesn't make any sense that we re-establish diplomatic relations and Cuba continues (on the list)."It is rare, though not unheard of, for the United States to remove entities or countries from its list of terrorist supporters. One entity which was removed following a lengthy and intense lobbying campaign was the Mujahiddin e Khalq, a controversial and cult-like Iranian group. The designation also comes with economic sanctions, and can result in fines for companies that do business with countries on the list, such as a record $8.9 billion penalty that French bank BNP Paribas paid last year for doing business with Sudan, Iran and Cuba.As part of the U.S. shift in policy toward Cuba, the White House ordered a State Department review of Cuba's listing as a state sponsor of terrorism, the U.S. officials said.A U.S. national security official said intelligence agencies were under pressure from senior Obama administration officials to complete their role in the removal process by March."The process is under way," said the official.To finalize Cuba's removal, Obama would need to submit to Congress a report stating Havana had not supported terrorism-related activities for six months, and that Cuba has provided assurances that it will not support terrorism in the future. Cuba would be automatically dropped from the list 45 days later.Getting the embassy open is also tricky.Converting the six-story U.S. interests sections in Havana into a full-fledged embassy after 53 years would require ending restrictions on the number of U.S. personnel in Havana, limits on diplomats' movements and appointing an ambassador. It would allow the U.S. to renovate the building and have U.S. security posted around the building, replacing Cuban police.Cuba also wants the United States to scale back its support for Cuban dissidents when the sides meet again. U.S. administration officials have stood firm both publicly and privately that they intend to keep supporting the dissidents. "I can't imagine that we would go to the next stage of our diplomatic relationship with an agreement not to see democracy activists," U.S. negotiator Roberta Jacobson told a hearing chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio, a vocal Republican opponent of Obama's new Cuba policy.

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Ex-New York assemblyman convicted of federal bribery charges Former Democratic New York state Senator Malcolm Smith was found guilty on federal bribery charges on Thursday, authorities said, the latest conviction in a string of public corruption prosecutions that have roiled the state capital Albany.The office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara accused Smith, 57, of trying to bribe Republican officials to secure a spot on the 2013 mayoral ballot in the race eventually won by Democrat Bill de Blasio. Smith's first trial on bribery charges ended in a mistrial last year. Smith's co-defendant, former Queens Republican leader Vincent Tabone, 41, was also found guilty of bribery charges on Thursday by the same jury in federal court in White Plains, New York, a spokeswoman for Bharara said. The verdicts came two weeks after Bharara's office charged the powerful state assembly speaker, Democrat Sheldon Silver, with allegedly using his office to generate millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks."Sadly, this was just one of many pockets of corruption this office has uncovered in New York, which has become the 'show me the money' state," Bharara said in a statement following the verdicts.A mistrial was declared in Smith's first trial last summer after defense lawyers complained they had not been notified of more than 70 hours of secret recordings made by a key government informant, many in Yiddish.Smith lost in a primary election last year.A third defendant, former Republican New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran, was convicted last year after his trial went on following the mistrial for Smith and Tabone.Other public corruption prosecutions from Bharara’s office include those of former state Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, who was sentenced last year to three years in prison for bribery, and former Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who pleaded guilty in 2013 to perjury and other crimes and agreed to cooperate in the case against Stevenson.At least 30 New York politicians have faced either legal or ethics charges since 2000.

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Sen. Durbin says GOP is putting Loretta Lynch "in the back of the bus" The second-ranking Senate Democrat on Wednesday accused Republicans of putting the president's attorney general nominee "in the back of the bus" by delaying her confirmation. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois made the comment on the Senate floor as he criticized the GOP over its handling of Loretta Lynch's nomination. She would become the nation's first black female attorney general, replacing Eric Holder, the first African-American in the job. Lynch was nominated last fall and Democrats are growing increasingly agitated over the holdup in confirming her, although they were in control of the Senate for some of that time."Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman nominated to be attorney general, is asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes to the Senate calendar," Durbin said. "That is unfair. It's unjust. It is beneath the decorum and dignity of the United States Senate." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell planned a vote on Lynch's nomination this week but delayed it when the Senate was unable to finish work on a bill to combat human trafficking. That legislation is stalled because of a partisan spat over abortion funding, with Democrats objecting to a provision blocking money in a new victims' fund from paying for abortions in most cases."The Lynch nomination is next on the schedule. The only thing holding up that vote is the Democrats' filibuster of a bill that would help prevent kids from being sold into sex slavery," McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said in response to Durbin. "The sooner they allow the Senate to pass that bipartisan bill, the sooner the Senate can move to the Lynch nomination." Democrats claim Republicans snuck the abortion provision into the trafficking bill without telling them. Republicans note that the language has been there since the bill was introduced early this year, and no one raised objections as it unanimously passed the Judiciary Committee. Democrats insist they weren't aware of it. It's not clear how the issue will be resolved. Both sides say they want to get the bill passed, but Democrats are milking the politics of the dispute. Around the same time Durbin made his racially charged accusation on the Senate floor, female senators held a press conference with women's groups to accuse Republicans of a "war on women." A procedural vote to move ahead on the trafficking measure failed Tuesday when Democrats blocked it, and a similar motion was expected to fail later Wednesday.

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Obama, at prayer event, calls Dalai Lama 'good friend' U.S. President Barack Obama warmly acknowledged the Dalai Lama on Thursday but did not meet him directly at a religious event in Washington closely watched by China, which has warned against any exchange with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.Obama and the Dalai Lama were both at an annual prayer breakfast where Obama spoke about the importance of religious freedom. Obama greeted the Buddhist monk with a bow-like gesture and called him "a good friend" and "a powerful example of what it means to practice compassion and who inspires us to speak up for the freedom and dignity of all human beings." The Dalai Lama was in the audience at a table in the front row across from the president along with senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, a signal of White House support. Obama nodded and smiled at the Dalai Lama, waving after clasping his hands to greet the spiritual leader as the event began. Organizers also recognized the monk, prompting applause. China's Foreign Ministry, asked about the event, repeated its opposition to any country "using the Tibet issue to interfere in China's domestic affairs", but did not directly condemn Obama, likely because there was no face-to-face meeting."The Dalai Lama is a political exile who has long waved the flag of religion to engage in anti-China separatist activities," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.The Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and has infuriated Beijing, which denounces him as a dangerous "splittist" seeking to establish an independent Tibet. He has said he wants autonomy for Tibet and does not advocate violence.The state-run Xinhua news agency, in an English-language commentary issued shortly before the prayer breakfast, took a strong line. "Chumming with a secessionist is playing with fire," it said.Outside the hotel hosting the event, nearly 100 supporters of the Dalai Lama waved Tibetan flags while across the street, about 50 people protested against his presence.Obama and the Dalai Lama are both Nobel Peace Prize laureates and have met three times, most recently in February 2014.At the event, Obama echoed some of the monk's teachings, calling for religious tolerance and noting that too often faith is twisted to justify violence."We see faith driving us to do right but we also see faith being twisted and distorted, used as a wedge or, worse, sometimes used as a weapon," he said, citing recent attacks in Pakistan and Paris.

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Montana moves to lose 'half-breed' from place names A bill that would strip the word "half-breed" and another derogatory term for Native Americans from Montana place names, signs and maps won easy approval on Friday from a state House of Representatives committee. The measure, sponsored by a Republican lawmaker, expands a bill passed by the state legislature in 1999 that stripped place names of the word "squaw," used as a pejorative term for Native American women.The bill striking "half-breed" or "breed" from the titles of 17 geographic sites or features in Montana and renaming them cleared the State Administration Committee in a 20-0 vote and now moves to the full House.Montana tribes have made it a priority to rid the state of place names that contain offensive words that were added to the lexicon at a time when Indians were treated as second-class citizens or even non-citizens, said Gerald Gray, chairman of the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe in north central Montana. "We don't need reminders in this day and age of how severely we were discriminated against," Gray said.If approved by the Republican-led Montana legislature as expected and signed into law by the state's Democratic governor, the measure would see updating of maps, signs and other markers when they need replacing because of age or vandalism.Montana is one of several U.S. states in which the word "squaw" has been removed from place names. The vote comes as the National Football League's Washington Redskins face pressure to change their name. The Oklahoma City Public Schools Board last year voted unanimously to remove "Redskins" as the nickname for a high school after hearing pleas from students and teachers who found the term offensiveThe demeaning reference once appeared in the titles of more than 800 geographic places or features in the United States but it has since been excised from numerous sites in states including Maine and Oregon, according to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. The board must approve or reject name changes proposed by federal and state governments.

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Wyoming Senate rejects Obamacare Medicaid expansion The Wyoming Senate on Friday rejected a bill that would have supported the state's expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, effectively shutting the door for the remainder of year.Opponents of the measure in the Republican-dominated state senate voiced concerns about possible complications with its implementation, and argued that increased health spending would add to the federal debt.A companion bill in the state's House of Representatives was pulled from committee as well on Friday.  "Many Senators campaigned on the promise to not expand Medicaid services," said Senate President Phil Nicholas after a 19-11 vote against the measure, adding that the chamber still worked "incredibly hard" to craft a bill that would have been revenue-neutral.Republican Elaine Harvey, chair of the House Labor, Health and Social Services Committee, said "the House could amend this, but it would be an exercise in futility. The Senate won't pass this no matter what we do."Republican Governor Matt Mead originally opposed any expansion of Medicaid, and had even been among a group of Republican governors who sued the federal government over Obamacare.But changed his mind and in November said that an expansion would help the state make up for $200 million in costs absorbed by hospitals for uncompensated care, and could help more than 17,000 low-income residents."I believe that Wyoming's working poor need health care coverage," Mead said in a statement released after the Senate voted against the bill. "We must recognize what health care means to individuals and to our economy."Mead said the state fought against Obamacare and lost, and that a failure to expand Medicaid would mean "rejecting $120 million dollars meant for Wyoming."Last Tuesday, Indiana became the 28th state to expand the program under the healthcare reform law. The move, supported by a staunchly conservative Republican governor, will extend health coverage to some 350,000 low-income residents.

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Boehner sees call for military authorization vs Islamic State soon U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday he expected President Barack Obama to seek congressional authorization soon for using military force against Islamic State and also called for speeding up assistance to Jordan."I'm expecting that there will be an authorization for the use of military force sent up here in the coming days. And we're going to go through a rigorous set of hearings and continue to discuss it," Boehner, the top House Republican, told reporters."It is also going to be incumbent upon the president to go out there and make the case to the American people," as well as help push Congress to pass the authorization, he added. Congressional aides said lawmakers had been told they would receive the White House request next week.Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, told reporters that lawmakers had been talking to the White House about an authorization that would last three years. She said there had not yet been decisions about the geographic scope of an authorization or what limits would be placed on combat troops - "boots on the ground" - for the fight against Islamic State militants.The United States is leading an international coalition against Islamic State, and Obama launched an air campaign in August against IS fighters in Iraq and Syria. The administration has said the campaign was legal, based on authorization passed under President George W. Bush for the Iraq War and fighting al Qaeda and associated groups.White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Thursday Obama wanted a new resolution authorizing force not because it was a "legal necessity" but to show that U.S. political leaders had united around one plan."It is a matter, however, of the president's desire to send a very clear signal to the people of this country, to our allies, and to our enemies that the United States of America and our political system is united behind the strategy," Earnest told reporters.Earlier this week, Islamic State militants drew international condemnation after they posted a video of a captured Jordanian pilot being burnt alive."Jordan is one of our staunchest allies in the region," Boehner said. "There's an awful lot of things already in the pipeline but speeding that process up through the bureaucracy would certainly help the Jordanians in a time of significant need. And I think, frankly, all of Congress would support it."

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U.S. considers declassifying report on Saudi funding of al Qaeda The Obama administration is considering whether to declassify still-secret sections of a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks which examined Saudi Arabian support for Islamist militants, the White House said on Thursday. Interest in the 28-page section of the report was raised after an imprisoned former al Qaeda operative, Zacarias Moussaoui, said in deposition transcripts filed this week that more than a dozen prominent Saudi figures donated to his group in the late 1990s. Saudi officials have denied this.White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that following a congressional request last year the intelligence community was undertaking a review of the decision to classify the secret section. He did not say when it might be completed. Earnest sought to counter any concern about current U.S.-Saudi ties, saying: "The United States and Saudi Arabia maintain a strong counterterrorism relationship as a key element of our broad and strategic partnership."  Moussaoui said a list of donors from the late 1990s that he drafted during al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's tenure included some "extremely famous" Saudi officials, including Prince Turki al-Faisal Al Saud, a former Saudi intelligence chief.Current and former U.S. officials familiar with the report's classified section, which documented the involvement of Saudi families and entities in financing terrorism, were divided over whether it should be released. Some said it should not be published because it included material that had not been thoroughly investigated, while others, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no good reason to keep it secret. People familiar with the report said most of the material that remained classified originated with the FBI. Philip Zelikow, former executive director of the 9/11 Commission, a separate U.S. government inquiry into the attacks, said it was appropriate that the material was classified and there may still be reason to withhold it."None of the people involved had been interviewed and many relevant documents had not yet been reviewed," Zelikow said.

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Lawmakers want tougher vaccine exemptions amid measles outbreak Several U.S. states are considering laws to make it harder for parents to legally opt out of vaccinating their children, as health officials fight a measles outbreak that has sickened some 120 people in more than a dozen mostly West Coast states.Lawmakers in California, Oregon, and Washington state, which have all had recent measles cases, want to remove exemptions based on personal beliefs, while farther afield, Ohio recently extended a law that covers those entering childcare.All U.S. states require certain vaccines for students for diseases such as mumps, rubella, tetanus, or polio, but school immunization laws grant exemptions to children for medical reasons, including an inhibited immune system. At least 20 states extend exemptions to include a range of personal beliefs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. "I'm a physician and a mother. I don't want my kids exposed to un-immunized kids," said Oregon Senator Elizabeth Hayward, a Portland Democrat. "These are totally preventable diseases."Health officials have reported that more than 120 people across the U.S. have been infected with measles, many of them traced to an outbreak that began at a Disneyland theme park in Anaheim in December. Lawmakers in California, which has 99 confirmed cases, said on Wednesday they would introduce legislation requiring all school children to be vaccinated unless a child's life is threatened. On Thursday, five babies at a suburban Chicago daycare center were diagnosed with measles. All are under 1 year old and would not have been subject to a routine vaccination, which begins at 12 months. In Ohio, a law requiring children enrolled in a licensed childcare facility to be immunized against measles and other diseases takes effect in March, a state Department of Health spokeswoman told Reuters.Oregon, with some of the country's lowest immunization rates, passed a 2013 law requiring parents to obtain a doctor's signature or watch an educational video on vaccination risks and benefits. Colorado forces schools to collect and publish data about vaccination and exemption rates."The vast majority of the exemptions currently being used are the personal ones," said Washington state Representative June Robinson. But some lawmakers are going the other way, backing measures that expand parental freedoms even in the face of mainstream medicine and science supporting vaccinations.Bills in New York State and Montana would add philosophical and personal beliefs to the current medical exemption, while proposals in Mississippi and West Virginia would add exemptions for "medical reasons or conscientious beliefs" and on religious grounds, respectively. Debate over vaccinating has even seeped into the 2016 presidential race, with at least two potential Republican candidates in the last week causing a stir after voicing support for giving parents some choice in whether to immunize their children.

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Obama to seek new authority for force against Islamic State next week: congressional aides President Barack Obama will ask Congress for new authority to use force against Islamic State fighters next week, congressional aides said on Thursday.A House Democratic aide said lawmakers had been told they would receive the White House request next week.And an aide to Senator Bob Corker told Reuters the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee expected Obama to send text of an authorization as soon as next week. Earlier on Thursday, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said he expected Obama to seek congressional authorization for using military force against Islamic State soon and also called for speeding up assistance to Jordan.

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Colorado lawmakers vote down assisted suicide bill After 10 hours of emotional testimony and debate, Colorado lawmakers late on Friday voted down a proposed assisted-suicide law that would have allowed terminally-ill patients to end their lives with prescription drugs.By an 8-to-5 bipartisan vote, the so-called "Death with Dignity" bill was rejected by the Public Health and Human Services Committee in the state's House of Representatives. The measure was sponsored by two Democratic lawmakers."Supporting a concept and a bill are two different things," said committee chairwoman Dianne Primavera, a Democrat, during the hearing. The right-to-die movement gained momentum last year after Brittany Maynard - a 29-year-old California woman with terminal brain cancer - went public with her move to Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, to end her life.  The Colorado proposal would have required two physicians to verify that the patient is terminal, had made both verbal and written statements of their intentions, and was able to self-administer the lethal medications.Hundreds packed the committee room in Denver, as lawmakers heard testimony from both advocates and opponents of the measure.Anita Cameron, who said she suffers from multiple disabilities, told the panel that the proposal lacked adequate safeguards."Doctors often make mistakes on whether someone is terminal or not," she said, adding that her mother was told six years ago that she had just six months to live.Lawmakers also heard testimony from a retired Colorado physician, Charles Hatchette, who made a video in support of the measure shortly before he died from complications of Lou Gehrig's disease last month."There is more to life than just extending its length," Hatchette said on the video played for lawmakers.Oregon, Montana, Washington, New Mexico and Vermont allow some form of assisted suicide, and similar legislation is pending in several other states.A poll conducted last month by Colorado pollster Talmey-Drake Research showed 68 percent of state residents surveyed favored the bill.On Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada overturned that country's ban on assisted suicide.

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Obama's 'Big Data' privacy plans get lift from lawmakers The White House is working with a Republican congressman on the U.S. House of Representatives' leadership team and Democrats in both the House and Senate on a bill to protect data collected from students through educational apps.The legislation, aimed at ensuring kids' data is used only for educational and legitimate research purposes, is the first of President Barack Obama's "Big Data" privacy plans to gain traction in the Republican-controlled Congress.Obama has pushed to do more to protect privacy in an age when consumers leave a trail of digital footprints through smartphones, other personal devices and social media, information that can be collected, analyzed and sold. It is one element of his broad strategy to beef up the nation's cyber laws, an issue that has gained momentum after high-profile cyber thefts of data from companies such as Target Corp (TGT.N) and Home Depot Inc (HD.N).Late on Wednesday, No. 2 U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) said hackers stole personal information on up to 80 million people. The FBI is investigating.Obama's cybersecurity adviser, Michael Daniel, said the latest intrusion was "disturbing" because of its size. He said the hack is an example of the threat that is prompting the White House push forward on working on cyber legislation with Congress."I am trying to make the most of the phrase, 'Never let a good crisis go to waste,'" Daniel said at an online seminar organized by Bloomberg Government.On student data, the White House is working with Representative Luke Messer of Indiana, chairman of the House's Republican Policy Committee, and Democratic Representative Jared Polis of Colorado, an Internet entrepreneur who founded a network of charter schools. The two plan to unveil the legislation in the next couple of weeks."Protecting America’s children from Big Data shouldn’t be a partisan issue," Messer said in a statement.Added Polis: "Legislation is the best way to address parental concerns, while encouraging new developments in individualized learning."The White House has also organized a cyber summit at Stanford University on Feb. 13 to bring together tech, retail and banking chief executives; law enforcement officials and consumer advocates and to build support around its cyber efforts.Later this month, the administration will release draft legislation aimed at giving consumers a say in how their online data is harvested and sold by companies.The White House is also considering using its authority over federal contracting rules to highlight best practices in data collection and use, Daniel said.Big data is an umbrella term for massive collections of data that cannot be analyzed using traditional data processing technology. Technology firms have introduced new products in the past few years to help analyze this information to uncover trends for use in marketing, uncovering fraud and other applications.FEARS OF STUDENT DATA BREACHESA year ago, Obama assigned another senior adviser, John Podesta, to focus on consumer data privacy laws after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified information about government use of Big Data analytics for surveillance.One proposal was for formal rules for protecting data collected in classrooms through software used for testing and personalized learning, a growing market valued at $7.9 billion last year by the Software and Information Industry Association."Particularly in a world where data collection is increasingly ubiquitous and data retention is functionally permanent, it was very important to get that policy right with respect to K-12 students," Podesta said in an interview.A 2013 study by Fordham Law School's Center on Law and Information Policy found many schools had inadequate protections.But there have not been any high-profile cases of student data breaches, said Jules Polonetsky, executive director of the Future of Privacy Forum, a think tank that works on data issues."It's been certainly more a fear of what could happen than any actual significant issues," Polenetsky said in an interview.Privacy concerns last year shuttered plans for a national database of student data by a nonprofit initiative called inBloom Inc funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.A patchwork of state laws has since sprung up.More than 100 companies, including Microsoft (MSFT.O), Google (GOOGL.O), and News Corp (NWSA.O) subsidiary Amplify, have signed a voluntary pledge - which was championed by Representatives Messer and Polis - to prevent misuse of student data."There's wide consensus that having a broad set of standards is essential," Polonetsky said.

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Illinois Senate passes minimum wage hike plan The Democrat-controlled Illinois Senate passed on Thursday a bill to raise the state's minimum wage to $9 per hour this year and to $11 by 2019, snubbing a slower wage hike plan floated a day earlier by the state's new Republican governor.Illinois' current minimum wage is $8.25 and Governor Bruce Rauner proposed on Wednesday in his first state-of-the-state speech, raising it to $10 over the next seven years.The Senate voted 35-18 to pass the bill, which now goes to the lower house, which is also controlled by Democrats but may not pass the bill so easily. Wage growth has remained sluggish in the United States despite an improving economy, and income inequality has become a hot political topic. Nine states have increased their minimum wage since the beginning of the year as the U.S. Congress has not increased the federal minimum.Illinois is one of 29 states with a higher minimum wage than the federal level of $7.25 per hour, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Washington also has a higher hourly minimum than the federal one, and higher than any state minimum at $9.50."The minimum wage should be a living wage. If you work full-time, you shouldn't have to rely on government support to put food on your family's table or a roof over your head," said Assistant Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, a Democrat state senator and the sponsor of the legislation in Illinois' upper house.Lightford criticized Rauner's plan as too slow.The Chicago City Council in December voted to gradually increase the minimum wage in the nation's third largest city to $13 an hour by 2019. A number of other cities, from San Francisco, California, to Louisville, Kentucky, have also recently raised minimum wages.

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Marco Rubio attacks FCC's net neutrality regulation Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is accusing the government of wanting to "crash the party" of the Internet's free market, knocking recent net neutrality regulations voted on by the Federal Communications Commission last month. "While our leaders can't be bothered to fix the many institutions in America that are actually broken, they are eager to 'fix' the one thing in America that works the best," the Republican senator, who is weighing a 2016 bid for the White House, wrote Tuesday in a POLITICO op-ed. "With friends like government, the Internet needs no enemies."Rubio denounced the recent FCC edict that categorizes the Internet as a common carrier, the framework that applies to phone service. The FCC published the rules--in a 300-page document--after a February vote to reclassify the Internet as a Title II public utility. The 3-2 net vote, along party lines, bans Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from selling faster broadband lanes to content companies. "Throughout this debate, Americans have been given a false choice: Either you are for the FCC's plan, or you are for a lawless Internet," the Florida republican said. "This represents a cynical view of free markets and a misunderstanding of government's role in protecting them."The potential presidential hopeful penned his critique as FCC chair Tom Wheeler is set to face more Congressional interrogation over the new rule. Wheeler defended the regulation to the House Oversight Committee Tuesday morning, saying the commission "adopted strong and balanced protections that assure the rights of Internet users to go where they want, when they want." Rubio laid out his objections to the FCC's plan in a Politico op-ed. He complained, "[A]n extraordinary amount of power over the Internet, including case-by-case discretion, would be given to an unelected, unaccountable board that every lobbyist, lawyer and crony capitalist with a vested interest in the Internet will seek to manipulate." Rubio, who serves on the Senate Commerce Committee, also raised the specter of international powers and their authority over internet networks."The move won't turn America into China or Cuba when it comes to government control over our online lives," Rubio wrote, "but it will give federal bureaucrats a foot in the door to start unseating market forces." Wheeler is scheduled to testify before Congress on this issue four more times before the end of the month. He'll have a chance to defend the rule to Rubio in person when he appears before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

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U.S. lawmaker says Japan and Canada must cut farm tariffs Canada and Japan must open their markets to farm imports under a Pacific trade pact, the chairman of a congressional committee responsible for trade said on Thursday, adding that any country that cannot meet the deal's ambitious goals should drop out.In prepared remarks, House Ways and Means Committee Paul Ryan said his main condition for backing trade deals was for them to "go for the gold."Negotiators from 12 Pacific countries hope to wrap up talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) within months, but Ryan said some countries might have to wait for the second round. "For TPP, Japan and Canada just have to lower their agricultural tariffs," he said in his comments prepared for an event hosted by the Washington International Trade Association. "Those have to go. And if any of the 12 countries currently in the talks think our standards are too high, well, I’d complete the agreement without them and invite them to join it later."

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Leaders aim to meet in Minsk on Wednesday on Ukraine crisis: Germany The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France aim to meet in Minsk on Wednesday to continue work on resolving the crisis in Ukraine after holding a conference call on Sunday, a German government spokesman said in a statement."In (the call) they worked further on a package of measures in the context of their efforts on a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine," said Steffen Seibert in the statement."This work will be continued tomorrow in Berlin with the goal of holding a 'Normandy Format' summit on Wednesday in Minsk," he said. He added that signatories of last year's Minsk deal, including representatives of the OSCE, Russia and Ukraine and Russian separatists would also meet in Minsk by Wednesday.

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Allegations against Oregon governor 'troubling': attorney general Oregon's attorney general has labeled as "troubling" allegations against the state's Democratic governor and his fiancée linked to a potential conflict of interest over his future wife's consulting work and her role as an unpaid adviser.Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum's remarks late on Thursday added to woes facing Governor John Kitzhaber, who was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term last year but has faced months of criticism over a string of revelations surrounding his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes."Recent allegations relating to Governor Kitzhaber and Ms. Hayes are very serious - and troubling. My office is considering all of our legal options to ensure that we are best serving the state,” Rosenblum said in a statement.  Her office declined to comment beyond the statement. Kitzhaber, who said last week that Hayes would no longer have any policy role in his office, could not immediately be reached for comment.The attorney general's comments come after the region's flagship newspaper, The Oregonian, this week called on Kitzhaber, whom it had endorsed for re-election last year, to resign. Kitzhaber says he has no plans to step down.Oregon's state ethics commission is investigating complaints, including by the Republican Party, about possible conflicts of interest involving Hayes and whether her acceptance of consulting contracts may have violated ethics rules.Media reports last week revealed that Hayes received $118,000 in previously undisclosed consulting fees in 2011 and 2012 from the Washington-based Clean Economy Development Center while advising the governor on energy policy.Kitzhaber did not disclose Hayes’ income from the Clean Economy group on his annual economic interest statements despite disclosing other fees she had received via consulting contracts. He has said the couple did not see it as a potential conflict of interest and therefore did not feel it had to be reported.The Oregonian reported this week that two people involved with Kitzhaber’s 2010 campaign had helped Hayes find work with organizations looking to influence state policy.Â

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Ex-New York assemblyman convicted of federal bribery charges Former Democratic New York state Senator Malcolm Smith was found guilty on federal bribery charges on Thursday, authorities said, the latest conviction in a string of public corruption prosecutions that have roiled the state capital Albany.The office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara accused Smith, 57, of trying to bribe Republican officials to secure a spot on the 2013 mayoral ballot in the race eventually won by Democrat Bill de Blasio. Smith's first trial on bribery charges ended in a mistrial last year. Smith's co-defendant, former Queens Republican leader Vincent Tabone, 41, was also found guilty of bribery charges on Thursday by the same jury in federal court in White Plains, New York, a spokeswoman for Bharara said. The verdicts came two weeks after Bharara's office indicted the powerful state assembly speaker, Democrat Sheldon Silver, for allegedly using his office to generate millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks."Sadly, this was just one of many pockets of corruption this office has uncovered in New York, which has become the 'show me the money' state," Bharara said in a statement following the verdicts.A mistrial was declared in Smith's first trial last summer after defense lawyers complained they had not been notified of more than 70 hours of secret recordings made by a key government informant, many in Yiddish.Smith lost in a primary election last year.A third defendant, former Republican New York City Councilman Daniel Halloran, was convicted last year after his trial went on following the mistrial for Smith and Tabone.Other public corruption prosecutions from Bharara’s office include those of former state Assemblyman Eric Stevenson, who was sentenced last year to three years in prison for bribery, and former Assemblyman Nelson Castro, who pleaded guilty in 2013 to perjury and other crimes and agreed to cooperate in the case against Stevenson.At least 30 New York politicians have faced either legal or ethics charges since 2000.

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