Abortion-rights backers want quick action from the president-elect, although they may not press for sweeping changes. Obama has said he is looking to find common ground on reproductive health issues.
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People born and raised in Suffolk County, N.Y., complain about dozens of people living in single-family homes; immigrants complain that they are victimized by locals. An Ecuadorean day laborer was murdered last year, allegedly by teenagers who said they regularly looked for immigrants to bash.
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New jobless claims were unchanged last week at 505,000, matching analysts' expectations, but the four-week moving average of claims dropped to its lowest in almost a year, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated in Kabul on Thursday for a new term amid tight security and ceremonial flourishes. But his second term is already beset by severe doubts that he will be any more effective at tackling the country's rampant corruption.
The Republican Governors Association is holding its annual meeting this week in Austin, Texas. Thanks to recent election victories in Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans are feeling good again. They plan to use those wins to help the party rebound in 2010.
California faces a budget deficit of nearly $21 billion. That's according to a report released Wednesday by a non-partisan budget analyst. The study was released less than four months after legislators patched together a budgetary compromise.
A firestorm erupted this week after an expert panel released recommendations that yearly mammograms aren't necessary for all women under age 50. The criticism isn't surprising, given the emotional valence of breast cancer. But not everyone thinks the panel is wrong.
The uproar over a new mammogram recommendation came at an inconvenient time politically speaking. The Senate is about to take up a health care bill that Democrats don't yet have the votes to pass. Republicans say the study reinforced their nightmare scenario about health care rationing.
Attorney General Eric Holder spent hours testifying on Capitol Hill Wednesday. He defended his decision to send the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four other men to New York to face a criminal trial. Senators spent much of the hearing telling Holder why they think he's wrong.
Documents obtained by NPR show that psychiatrists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center put their concerns about the accused Fort Hood shooter in writing. Two years ago, a top official there wrote an evaluation that harshly criticized Maj. Nidal Hasan's incompetence and unprofessional behavior.
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for another five-year term Thursday. Watching with a critical eye were foreign dignitaries who are pressing Karzai to make his second term in office far better than his first. Karzai promised to prosecute corrupt officials.
A group of Cuban Americans has had unusual success getting House members to change their positions and vote against closer ties with Cuba. New analysis shows some political contributions from the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Pac reached lawmakers within days of them switching their vote.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has unveiled the Democrat's bill overhauling health care. It costs less than the health care bill the House passed earlier this month, and its expansion of insurance coverage is somewhat more limited.
The 60th annual National Book Awards were handed out Wednesday night in New York. Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, a novel about daring, luck and mortality in 1970s New York, won the fiction prize. T.J. Stiles' biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, The First Tycoon, was the nonfiction winner and Keith Waldrop's Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy won for poetry.
Five residents and a business have won a lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers over flood damages from Hurricane Katrina. A federal judge in New Orleans ruled Wednesday that the Army Corps' shoddy oversight of a navigation channel contributed to massive flooding of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward and neighboring St. Bernard Parish. The case has been watched closely by other Katrina victims seeking compensation from the government.
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai promised Thursday to prosecute corrupt government officials and end a culture of impunity, speaking during an inauguration closely watched by the international community for signs that his administration is moving beyond the cronyism and graft of the past five years.
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Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, a novel about daring, luck and mortality in 1970s New York, won the fiction prize Wednesday night at the 60th annual National Book Awards. T.J. Stiles' biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, The First Tycoon, was the nonfiction winner.
The country's spiraling unemployment rate continues to take a particular toll on men. The "he-cession," as it's sometimes called, has hit African-American men especially hard, increasing their unemployment rate to more than 17 percent last month.
Flood victims argued the widening of a navigation channel maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers and subsequent loss of protective wetlands turned the channel into a speedway for the hurricane's storm surge. A federal judge in New Orleans agreed and awarded damages of about $720,000 to four people and a business.
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The State Ethics Commission said probable cause exists on several allegations tied to a three-month investigation into Mark Sanford's travel and campaign finances. Details of the charges — which should include whether the accusations involve civil or criminal allegations — were expected to be released next week.