It stands no chance of becoming law under the Obama administration. The White House issued a veto threat Monday, calling the bill an “assault on a woman’s right to choose.” The Democratic Senate also has not scheduled a vote on the legislation.

However, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, justified the vote as a response to the recent murder conviction of Philadelphia physician Kermit Gosnell for abortion procedures conducted in his medical clinic. “Listen, after this Kermit Gosnell trial and some of the horrific acts that were going on, the vast majority of the American people believe in the substance of this bill, and so do I,” Boehner said.

Read more at USA Today.

The Treasury Department released a copy of Lew’s much-improved signature Tuesday, which is fortunately much more legible than the one he used in the past.

His signature, like that of past Treasury Secretaries, is featured on every bill printed under his or her tenure so the bill can be authorized as legal tenure.

Unfortunately, having a signature that looks like a series of loops doesn’t quite cut it.

Old Signature

Even the president wasn’t too thrilled with his chief financial officer’s penmanship at first.

“It was only yesterday that I discovered that we both share a common challenge with penmanship,” Obama quipped during the press conference announcing Lew’s nomination back in January. ”Jack assures me that he is going to work to make at least one letter legible in order not to debase our currency, should he be confirmed.”

The process to add Lew’s signature to a batch of legal tender takes approximately 18 weeks according to CNN Money, as the Bureau of Printing and Engraving has to create a series of bills with new serial numbers and suffix letters and new plates have to be designed before bills can be printed.

His signature will appear on bills that go into print this fall, starting with the $5 bill.

New Signature

Lew is not the only Treasury Secretary to have his signature edited upon taking office. His predecessor, Timothy Geithner, also had to modify his signature when submitting it to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.

The Government Accountability Office released a new report Monday stating that some transactions involving the use of virtual currency should be subject to federal taxes.

The transactions the government is specifically targeting with the new taxes are those made in an “open-flow” virtual currency system, which involves transferring virtual money to pay for real goods and services that can result in real-world profit. Other transactions, such as those made in a “closed-flow” virtual currency system where virtual currency is used to buy virtual goods and services like those in an online game, will not be subject to federal taxation, however.

The GAO conducted its report after the Senate Finance Committee requested that the agency investigate virtual currencies, their tax compliance risks and how the Internal Revenue Service has addressed these risks.

The report also found that the IRS could be doing more to inform taxpayers that their virtual transactions may be taxable.

“The fact that misinformation is circulating and the possibility of growth in the use of virtual currencies outside virtual economies suggest that it would be prudent to take low-cost steps, if available, to mitigate potential compliance risks,” the report reads.

According to the report, approximately 11 million Bitcoins were in circulation as of May 1st, and the price of one Bitcoin fluctuated between $5 and $20 from May 2012 to February 2013. In April, the price of a single Bitcoin varied between $79 and $237. The report also approximated that the number of Bitcoin transactions made in a day ranged from 8,000 to 70,000 during that time period. 

The fluctuations in Bitcoin should not be surprising, however, as the report states that its exchange rates are known to be volatile.

The magazine’s cover features a black-and-white portrait of the Kentucky Republican standing tall and stoic in a suit-and-tie. But it’s his left hand that draws the most attention, as his fingers are crossed, something which a senior editor at TNR claims wasn’t photoshopped at all.

Just to recap about our amazing Rand Paul cover image: Its not doctored, and we didn't ask him to do it. He just did: http://t.co/1pGsMURVtp

— Noam Scheiber (@noamscheiber) June 17, 2013

The article accompanying the confusing cover photo doesn’t exactly spell out exactly why the Kentucky senator’s crossed fingers are adorning the magazine cover, however that hasn’t stopped people from speculating.

Incidentally, the senator posted a poll on his Facebook page Tuesday afternoon asking supporters why they think he’s crossing his fingers. The most popular answer was that Paul “wasn’t at all interested in running for president” in 2016.

The photographer responsible for the cover, Platon Antoniou, also told TNR in a separate interview that Paul was “very defensive” about the shoot but wouldn’t reveal how he got the senator to pose with his fingers crossed.

“Senator Paul was probably convinced that any serious portrait photographer is not really going to be a member of the Tea Party movement,” he said in the interview. 

Unsurprisingly, TNR leaves no stones unturned in its attack of the junior senator, questioning his Tea Party Politics and honesty in its piece “The Real Rand Paul (Can’t be Trusted).” In the article, TNR Senior Editor Julie Ioffe, the piece’s author, discusses the senator’s quirks and his “reputation as an eccentric” – which apparently includes one of his transgressions being his habit of buying his own coffee or lunch after becoming a senator. She also explores in-depth of the political relationship between Paul and his father, former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Texas), and takes a deep dive into his potential bid for president in 2016.

ProAbition, a whiskey bar and restaurant, is known for throwing grand parties themed anywhere from The Great Gatsby to Bonnie and Clyde. It has also become known for attempting to enact a ‘heels-only’ dress code on its female patrons.

The dress code began innocently enough. A flyer announcing a Saturday night post-dinner hours event told patrons that apparel such as tennis shoes and baggy attire were just not acceptable for such an upscale establishment. But the dress code also included special instructions for women.

“Ladies: No flat shoes or sandals. Must have heels. Exception will be made if injured.”

Now according to the restaurant, that flyer was for a specific event. But the powers of social media and women in flat shoes did not delay.

ProAbition soon saw a bevy of angry comments on their Facebook page, demanding the desegregation of women in heels and women in ballet flats.

Even though Sorrelle Williams, a local business owner in Riverside, sells high-end clothing which ProAbition would probably love on their female patrons, she was one of many who took to Facebook to angrily discredit the heels dress code, calling it “ignorant.”

ProAbition did clarify their dress code via Facebook. “Guys: No shorts, baseball hats, baggy clothing, flip-flops, or t-shirts. Dress to impress,” the restaurant wrote.

For the women, the dress code remains a bit ambiguous, sans any mention of stilettos. “Ladies: Please keep it classy and dress to impress.”

“We have put a lot of time, money, and effort into creating ProAbition; and we will to create and maintain an atmosphere that is consistent with our vision,” the restaurant said in another post. “With that, we believe the people — our customers, and friends that come to ProAbition are the biggest part of that atmosphere. That is why we have a dress code — to promote and maintain this atmosphere for the enjoyment of all.”

The restaurant, which opened earlier this year, has a menu featuring an impressive whisky list and entrée such as hamburgers, specialty pizzas and flatbreads to diners.  The “A” in the logo is upside-down to represent the mathematical symbol meaning “for all.”

“We found it quite appropriate, as mathematics is the universal language understood and spoken by all in terrestrial nature, music, and the cosmos,” the restaurant’s website said.

But apparently that “all” doesn’t include women in flats.

Powell confessed that she was befuddled by the question on NBC’s “TODAY” show Tuesday morning, however she did manage to follow up her statement with a far more articulate response to the panel’s question.

“This is not OK,’’ Powell told “TODAY” show host Matt Lauer. “It needs to be equal pay for equal work. It’s hard enough already to earn a living, and it shouldn’t be harder just because you’re a woman.”

The 21-year-old added that her nerves got the better of her Sunday night.

“I was so excited, and I was so nervous, and I got up to this top-five question,’’ she said. “I was the first one. I got up, and the question was a little bit confusing to me, and I just started speaking without really processing.’’

The show also interviewed Miss USA winner Erin Brady, a 25-year-old from Connecticut, who sympathized with Powell over her answer. 

“You’re nervous for her because you know that in a matter of seconds, that can be you,’’ Brady said. “You’re going to have a similar question. You are in front of millions of people.”

Watch Powell’s do-over on the “TODAY” show below.

Criminals beware — this neighborhood watch is packing heat.

Neighbors in a Milwaukie, Ore. residential area have taken security measures into their own hands after disappointment in local law enforcement and neighborhood watch initiatives.

Homemade flyers reading “This is a Glock block. We don’t call 911” accompanied by an image of a Glock handgun have been posted around the neighborhood by a newly-formed group.

“We don’t feel neighborhood watch is sufficient, and we don’t feel the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office is sufficient,” the group’s organizer Coy Toloman told the local news station KOIN on Monday.

An increase in petty crime like vandalism and stolen lawn ornaments has caused aggravation among residents of the unincorporated Clackamas county neighborhood. And they have now decided to take control.

After witnessing a man steal a statue off her front porch and unsuccessfully trying to apprehend him, Tolomon was persuaded to obtain her concealed carry permit.

“I will defend myself and my home,” she told the local news.

According to Toloman, most of her Milwaukie neighbors are also permitted to carry. Toloman and her neighbors feel that by publicizing their willingness to use guns for self-defense purposes, thieves in the neighborhood with the intention of committing bolder crimes might now think otherwise.

While the Clackamas County Sherriff’s office appreciates the passion for safety these residents have, continued collaboration between the police and people is recommended.

“We recognize that gun ownership is a right, but it comes with a lot of responsibility and really knowing that you’re ready to deal with an alarming event, that comes with even more responsbility,” Sergeant Robert Wurpes of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office told Red Alert Politics.

The Sherriff’s department also voiced concern that the flyers might inadvertently be advertising the presence of firearms to be stolen from one’s house.

Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated it is highly unlikely that he will bring a bill to the floor that does not have the support of a majority of House Republicans, who are generally opposed to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The Speaker has come under heavy pressure from conservatives to not rely on Democrats to push an immigration bill through the House.

Read more at ABC News.

In a blow to Arizona’s efforts to toughen its voter ID standards, the high court on Monday ruled 7-2 that states could not unilaterally require would-be voters to prove citizenship in order to use a federal registration form. The court ruled that because the federal “Motor Voter” registration law — which created the form — doesn’t require that documentation, Arizona could not on its own demand it.

In response, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and David Vitter, R-La., announced an amendment to the Senate immigration overhaul that would explicitly allow states to impose those requirements.

In a statement, Cruz said the Supreme Court ruling leaves a “hole in federal law” that must be addressed.

Read more at Fox News.

Masik Collegiate Fragrances creates perfumes and colognes solely for colleges and is already available at 11 schools, including the University of North Carolina, Penn State University and the University of Alabama. The company donates a portion of the proceeds to scholarships and athletic funds at the individual schools.

According to the company’s website, signficant thought is placed into each formula before the final concoction is produced. Among the characteristics that help determine what the school’s scent will be are the ”school colors, mascot spirit, traditions and history, landmarks and architectural style, campus trees and flowers, mission statements, college town character and themes in the alma mater and fight songs.”

At Auburn University in Alabama, for example, the company wanted to ‘stay true to the Orange and Blue’ and mixed  ”watery mandarin, chilled grapefruit, and an iced mineral water accord” of the school. The scent for the University of North Carolina includes a ”lychee champagne accord” to bring out the “undeniable allure of Carolina Blue.”

It is still yet to be seen what the elixir for Virginia Tech will be, but last Friday potential Hokie scents were set up in the Virginia Tech University Bookstore for students to sample and vote on. The perfume will be released in August, just in time for students to buy it in advance of the fall semester. 

“Well I think it’s a great idea and somebody had a great idea I mean it’s something,”David Wilson, the associate director at the VT Bookstore, told CBS Roanoke. ”Virginia Tech is a big brand. There’s lots of merchandise. This is something  that up till now hasn’t been there.”

Just a day after footage was released showing Lil Wayne walking back and forth on the flag during the filming of a music video, the rapper tweeted about the incident, claiming it was an accident.

I didn't step on the flag on purpose! It's a scene in a video where the flag drops behind me and after it drop it's just there as I perform

— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) June 18, 2013

While the rapper cleared up speculation about whether or not the flag drop was intentional — it was — that really doesn’t make the situation any better.

First, according to the U.S. flag code, Lil Wayne’s usage of the flag is considered disgraceful, even before he stepped on it:

“The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.”

“The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.”

Second, Lil Wayne clearly realized that he was walking directly on the flag. While his tweet shows that was not his intention during the music video shoot, he did nothing to stop it from happening at the time. The commendable thing to do would have been to stop the shoot when he realized he could not perform his ‘moves’ without walking on the American flag.

But then again — that flag should never have been on the ground anyway.

Watch the video below:

The bill, which grants individual states the authority to make online and catalog retailers collect taxes at the time of a transaction, passed in the Senate last month by a vote of 69 to 27.

“This bill is a mad bill and unfortunately it passed the U.S Senate,” Cruz said during the press conference. “The reason that it passed and it passed with significant margin is because you have a lot of lobbyists in Washington who are supporting this bill…Small businesses don’t have lobbyists in D.C.”

He added that at a time when we desperately need more economic growth, “the worse thing that we could be doing is be putting 23 billion dollars of new taxes on small online retailers, hammering them, hammering jobs…that doesn’t make any sense at all.”

Paul, who has been one of the primarily opponents of the proposed “Internet sales tax,” echoed Cruz’s remarks.

“One of the only things known to really stimulate the economy is to leave more money in the economy,” Paul said. “Proponents of this bill say, ‘Oh, it will raise 23 billion dollars in taxes’, but that’s 23 billion dollars the economy will no longer have.”

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (R), and Heritage Action for America’s Michael Needham were also present at the press conference.

The group argued that the “Internet sales tax” would damage small businesses – and ultimately the national economy – should it pass in the House. They also highlighted the advantages that the act gives large corporations, essentially preventing newer and smaller businesses from opening. 

“The greatest challenge facing the United States is that we do not have sufficient growth of the economy. If this Marketplace Fairness Act is enacted, it is anti-growth, anti-business, anti-jobs and anti-opportunity in this country and that’s why it should be defeated,” Gilmore said. 

The suit, which was filed in the New York Supreme Court Monday, seeks to recover claimed unpaid wages and overtime wages for a class that’s believed to be greater than 100 former interns at the record company.

It was filed less than a week after a federal judge in New York ruled that two interns working on the set of Fox Searchlight’s 2010 movie “Black Swan” were improperly classified as unpaid interns. However, this suit differs from the “Black Swan” suit because it alleges that New York labor laws were violated – not that the interns were improperly classified as interns and not employees under the Fair Standards Labor Act.

Justin Henry, the intern who started the class action suit, alleged in the suit that he worked at Atlantic Records between October 2007 and May 2008 answering phones, faxing papers, filing papers and retrieving lunch for paid employees. He would start at 10am and leave around 5 or 6pm five days a week, but was sometimes required to stay later.

The suit also alleges that there was no academic or vocational training as part of the internship, and that Henry was doing work that should have been done by paid employees.

According to one of Henry’s lawyers, Maurice S. Pianko, the statute of limitations for violation of New York labor law is six years – potentially allowing Henry to recoup wages and attorney’s fees from WMG.

This is the second lawsuit filed by the organization “Intern Justice” – led by Pianko – as part of its “Fair Wage Summer” campaign.

Proposed class action lawsuits have also been filed against Condé Nast publications, the publisher of several magazines including Gentleman’s Quarterly, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, and Hearst Magazines, whose publications include Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Harper’s Bazaar magazines.

During the Senate Budget Committee’s Tuesday hearing on the Department of Education’s fiscal 2014 budget, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan testified that the sequester is having a dramatic impact on education.

“Other countries are not managing their education by sequester,” Duncan said, after pointing out that the United States falls behind many other nations in the success of its education program.

In her opening statement, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wa.) also blamed the sequester for our country’s failures in education, again pushing the Obama administration’s ‘Big Bad Sequester’ rhetoric.

“I am very concerned about this sequester and it’s impact on middle-class families and children,” she said.

She accused the Republicans of putting forth a fiscal 2014 budget that makes no attempt to roll back the sequester in “a balanced or fair way.”

Countering the Obama administration’s talking points, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) pointed out that the Department of Education’s spending had increased per student, but there had not been a direct student success return on that investment.

“You’ve got to get past the sounds bites,” Duncan told Johnson.

“You’re trying to get past the numbers,” Johnson shot back.

Johnson also asked about how many education systems were unionized in other countries. The Secretary said he didn’t have the numbers before him.

“Many, many,” Duncan assured Johnson.

During the hearing, Duncan again pushed the universal preschool system President Obama proposed during his 2013 State of the Union address — despite the fact that studies show universal preschool might actually harm children instead of help them.

Jared Marcum, a student at Logan Middle School in Logan, W.Va., was officially charged with obstructing an officer late last week according to CBS affiliate WTRF.

“Me, I’m more of a fighter and so is Jared and eventually we’re going to get through this,” Allen Lardieri, Marcum’s stepfather, told WTRF.  ”I don’t think it should have ever gotten this far.”

“Every aspect of this is just totally wrong,” he added. “He has no background of anything criminal, up until now and it just seems like nobody wants to admit they’re wrong.”

In the meantime, Marcum’s lawyer, Ben White, is working on getting the charges against him dropped before his July 11 court date.

“In my view of the facts, Jared didn’t do anything wrong,” Ben White, Jared’s attorney, told WTRF.  ”I think officer Adkins could have done something differently.”

Both prosecuting attorney Michael White and the Logan Police Department refused to respond to speak publicly about the case.

Marcum first wore the NRA t-shirt to school back in April, when he was first arrested on charges of obstruction and disturbing the education process after refusing to turn his shirt inside-out and getting into an argument with a teacher.

During his suspension, several of Marcum’s friends wore similar NRA shirts in solidarity of their friend. Marcum also chose to wear his NRA shirt to school on his first day back from the suspension; however, none of those students were arrested or suspended for wearing the pro-gun T-shirts.

“I can announce I’m not wearing the Speedo on the Fourth of July, that’s something I’m happy to announce,” the Republican said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Tuesday in response to a question about his political ambitions.

He also reminded the “Morning Joe” crew that they were welcome to come back to the Jersey shore anytime – as long as they vowed not to wear Speedos.

Christie, who is considered a frontrunner in the race for president in 2016, also announced on the show Monday that he will not decide anything about the race before 2015. Instead, he wants to focus on serving as governor of New Jersey, a job he is largely expected to be re-elected to this November.

“Let me keep doing my job,” he said. “When those decisions need to be made, I’ll make them.”

The governor also offered some advice to the party, which has in some ways ostracized him for his so-called bromance with President Obama in the wake of Superstorm Sandy last fall.

“After you lose two elections, you want to win. I think our party should be focused on making sure we nominate the best possible candidate to get elected in 2016,” Christie stated.

“We’re not doing what we’re doing on the state level, where we’re being enormously successful,” he added. “We’ve got 30 of 50 Republican governors in this country. Why? At the state level, they see the Republican Party as being doers, we actually get things done for people and we’re pragmatists and we bring people together—and we do so without violating our principles.”

Watch Christie’s interview on “Morning Joe” in full below.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

h/t Washington Examiner

Perry was visiting Connecticut in the hopes of persuading gun manufacturers like Stag Arms, PTR Industries and Sturm Ruger & Co to move to Texas.

“I just thought it would be an appropriate thing, since you guys were all so interested in all this, that I should welcome him to the state,” Malloy told reporters outside a meeting Perry was hosting at a restaurant in downtown Hartford Monday.

Malloy then continued to jab the Texas governor, suggesting that Perry instead ”talk about Texas’ higher crime rate, the higher murder rate, and higher assault rate,” according to the Hartford Business Journal.

Perry was all class, however, insisting that his meeting had been completely cordial and that Malloy was very hospitable to him during the visit.

“It’s a rough business. I get that,” Perry told reporters Monday, according to the Connecticut News Junkie. “But so is competition on an athletic field. I hope we can shake hands, realize that we’re just competitors. We’re all Americans first. Your governor was hospitable and civil today and I greatly appreciate that. I hope I am able to reflect that when and if other governors come to my home state, even if they’re in great competition.”

In April, Malloy signed into law several bills that place severe restrictions on gun ownership in the state. Among the restrictions are a ban on assault weapons, universal background checks on all gun sales and the creation of a “dangerous weapons offender registry” to track those convicted of gun crimes in the state. 

Perry also plans to visit New York during his trip to New England, which also passed new gun control laws earlier this year. The visit is part of his $1 million campaign to encourage gun manufacturers in states that have recently passed gun control laws to move to Texas.

Tammy Eppley, 37, was charged Monday with six misdemeanor counts of endangering children, including her 2-year-old daughter, after Westerville police said they found evidence that she laced pancake batter with crushed Benadryl and the sleep aid hormone melatonin.

She may have also put Benadryl, which can make recipients drowsy, into their sippy cups, Westerville police Lt. Paul Scowden told The Columbus Dispatch.

“Tammy was bragging about how they were all perfectly still and being quiet or asleep,” said a police report describing a video Eppley allegedly recorded on her cellphone and sent to a friend.

Read more at the New York Daily News. 

The President gave an exclusive interview on PBS‘ ‘Charlie Rose‘ Monday night, talking about the conflict in Syria, Chinese cyber hacking and PRISM. Rose mentioned that Obama had previously called the balance between security and freedom a “false choice,” something the President stressed again during Monday’s interview.

“We don’t have a sacrifice our freedom in order to achieve security,” he said. “That is a false choice. That doesn’t mean that there are not tradeoffs involved in any given program, in any given action that we take.”

Rose and the President spent about 15 minutes discussing the NSA programs, during which time Obama said he has ‘no problem’ with the agency’s actions.

“What I hear you saying is, ‘I have no problem with what the NSA is doing,’” Rose said partway through the conversation.

“Well, let me finish, because I don’t,” the President responded.

During the interview, the President pointed to airport security or drunk driving checkpoints as systems in place for protection that don’t infringe on the freedom of Americans. He noted that there’s a delicate balance between the two.

“My job is both to protect the American people and to protect the American way of life, which includes our privacy,” the President said.

The President noted that the debate surrounding the NSA programs was “cloudy.” He then tried to clarify the programs, explaining that they simply record phone numbers and call durations, but don’t listen in on phone conversations between Americans. Only phone numbers suspected of being used by people with terrorist ties can be searched in the database, thereby compiling a report — that does not include conversation content — that is turned over the FBI, the President said.

“If you are a U.S. person, the NSA cannot listen to your telephone calls and the NSA cannot target your emails,” he said.

“And have not?” Rose pressed.

“And have not,” Obama responded. “They cannot and have not, by law and by rule, unless they … go to a court and seek probable cause, the same way it’s always been.”

Obama argued that he is not becoming more like former Vice President Dick Cheney, as some have suggested, but is continually calling for checks and balances in the surveillance system. He commended the media and American people for triple and quadruple checking the federal government’s programs.

He added that the government system could be used to compile data on the content of phone calls, but that it would be illegal. It makes sense that the American people would be suspicious of the program, Obama said, and noted that he had asked the intelligence community to divulge as much of the surveillance programs as possible — without jeopardizing national security.

When asked about the actions of NSA leaker Edward Snowden, however, the President refused to comment on if those actions risked national security and whether or not he should be prosecuted.

“I’m not going to comment on prosecution,” Obama said.

But even though the President didn’t outright condemn Snowden’s actions, he did note that revealing too much information can have detrimental effects on American interests.

“We could have carried off the bin Laden raid if it was on the front page of the papers,” Obama said. “I think everybody understands that.”

He added that the public would have to be assured that surveillance programs weren’t infringing on freedoms and had the proper checks and balances, all while continuing the debate on the subject.

The update arrives when users add iOS 6.1 or higher to their devices. AMBER alerts and Emergency alerts can be helpful for AT&T users and anyone wanting to help find missing children. However, those options are optional and therefore are opt-out ready.

Read more at Inquisitr.

The decision is markedly less controversial or influential than the media and partisans on both sides made it out to be.

Although hot button issues like voter ID and voter fraud are peripheral in case, the Court’s opinion (intentionally) didn’t address those matters. The only issue before the Court was whether the federal “motor voter” registration law, which provides for a simplistic voter registration form, could be altered by Arizona to also require proof of citizenship.

That question was apparently a pretty easy call for the Justices. Because the Elections Clause of Article I of the Constitution explicitly gives Congress the authority to make election laws, the Court bluntly ruled that the federal law precludes Arizona from making independent alterations to the form.

The reasoning of the decision was actually similar to that of the 2012 case Arizona v. United States, which overturned three of Arizona’s controversial immigration laws. In that instance, however, Arizona was simply attempting to enforce already-existing federal immigration laws that were being ignored by the Obama administration.

Despite the media attention received by the case, the ruling clearly isn’t a vast, liberal voting rights victory. For starters, Arizona is still free to impose its own requirements on its state-produced voter registration forms, which more than 95 percent of people in Arizona use to register. That means that the vast majority of Arizona voters will have to continue to prove their citizenship prior to being added to the state’s voter rolls.

The Justices also basically handed Arizona a step-by-step guide in the final pages of the opinion illustrating how the state could get its way by pursuing other legal means within the current federal law. For example, Arizona might “assert . . . that it would be arbitrary for the [federal Election Assistance Commission] to refuse to include Arizona’s instruction when it has accepted a similar instruction requested by Louisiana,” hinted Scalia.

At the end of the day, the Court was wise in avoiding the liberal instinct to interpret Constitutional provisions so as to support their favored policy outcome. Unfortunately, good Supreme Court jurisprudence must occasionally overrule good policy.

According to court documents made public last week, the first grade change happened in December 2008, while the last occurred in December 2012. Officials at the Indiana university realized something was amiss when a professor requested that his university computer account password be reset twice, once in November and once in December, because it had been changed it without his permission.

Read more at NBC News.

That’s what an unnamed aide to Sen. Marco Rubio told the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, explaining the Florida Republican’s desire to bring more immigrant workers into the U.S. economy.

For obvious reasons, the quote has already ruffled the feathers of many participants in the immigration debate. Conservative voices like Erick Erickson have accused Rubio of not sticking up for out-of-work Americans at a time when the unemployment rate is 7.6 percent. Labor unions likely won’t love that quote either.

Rubio’s team walked back the aide’s assertion that American workers aren’t “star performers.” Spokesman Alex Conant told the Daily Callerthat his office “strongly objected” to the inclusion of that quote in the piece because Rubio believes “American workers can compete against anyone in the world.”

Read more at ABC News.

Brand appeared on the morning program to promote his comedy tour, The Messiah Complex, but the situation quickly began to go downhill after host Mika Brzezinski leaned over her desk to help the comedian fix part of table that he had accidentally moved out of place.

“Careful, ’cause that’s a low cut dress… I’m only flesh and blood. I’ve got instincts,” Brand stated to the host, who was made visibly uncomfortable by the comedian’s remarks.

But that was just the beginning.

When co-host Brian Shactman began to ask Brand a question, the comedian began to turn his chair and jeer at MSNBC staff who were working at computers off cameras, telling them to “work more quietly” and asking whether they could watch pornography on the office computers.

Things got worse, however, as the comedian began to mock the hosts asking, “Is this what you do for a living?” and stating that they “are typically very, very good at their jobs.”

The comedian then basically took over the program and began acting as if he was the host, posing questions to viewers regarding National Security Agency’s whistleblower, Edward Snowden, and Wiki-leaks’ Bradley Manning.

Brand then went on to ostentatiously hit on host Mika Brzezinski, calling her an inappropriate name and suggesting that she should “lose her ring” on her hand.

In the “What we have learned today” segment, Joe Scarborough, who was absent from the ‘Morning Joe‘ interview with Brand, stated that fans on Twitter seemed to enjoy the strange interaction and called for Brand to replace Scarborough on the morning show.

“They want morning Russell and Mika,” Scarborough stated.

Watch the hilariously awkward interview and the “What we have learned” segment below:

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Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

With so many children in the United States living with a parent who is incarcerated, the beloved children’s show “Sesame Street” took it upon themselves to help make their lives just a bit easier.

The show’s “Sesame Workshop,” which has created videos to help children deal with divorce and parents who are deployed in the military, recently developed the “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration” initiative to help kids who have parents in prison as well as give these families with tips on how to talk to their children about this issue. The online tool kit is aimed toward families with children aged three to eight.

“Sesame Street” even created a new character for the “Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration” tool kit - Alex, a muppet that has a father in jail. Alex will not become a part of the regular show cast, however.

“I just miss him so much,” Alex, who has blue hair, a green nose and wears a hoodie, tells a friend in the video. “I usually don’t want people to know about my Dad.”

The video also attempts to combat feelings of shame and sadness that children with incarcerated parents tend to have.

“Coming from a Muppet, it’s almost another child telling their story to the children,” Jeanette Betancourt, vice president of outreach and educational practices at the Sesame Workshop, told USA Today.

The Incarceration initiative videos are available in English and Spanish on the new ’Sesame Street in Communities’ YouTube channel.

According to a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, one in twenty-eight children in the U.S. have a parent in jail – giving the U.S. the highest incarceration rate in the world.

According to a CNN/ORC poll released Monday, a mere 48 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds approve of President Obama’s job performance. In May, that number was 63 percent.

In total, the president’s approval dropped 17 points among those under the age of 30, according to CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. Young voters and African-Americans were the two most loyal coalitions to the president in 2008 and 2012. 

While Obama won 66 percent of the youth vote in 2008, he only mustered 60 percent of 18-29-year-olds last November. Romney was able to carry those swing voters, increasing the GOP share of the vote from 32 percent in 2008 to 37 percent.

Essentially, if the Democratic Party continues to lose the youth vote at this rate, the GOP has a chance to win it in 2016.

“President Obama’s approval rating with younger voters nosedived because they were the ones who most believed Obama’s hope and change campaign rhetoric. But the campaign is over and all young voters are left with is empty rhetoric, hypocrisy, and the worst kind of government overreach. Americans deserve better from their government,” a spokesman for the Republican National Committee told Red Alert Politics. 

Evan Feinberg, president of the non-profit organization Generation Opportunity, attributes this significant shift among young people to the fact that they have so little economic opportunity in today’s economy.

“They don’t trust that government has their best interests at heart, and don’t believe it will make decisions that will make their lives better,” Feinberg told Red Alert Politics.

The poll also suggests that the recent revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly reviewing the internet and phone data of ordinary Americans is responsible for the drop in Obama’s approval rating. According to the poll, Americans are split on whether the Obama administration was right or wrong in gathering and analyzing phone records for counter-terrorism purposes, while two-thirds of all Americans are in favor of the administration’s gathering of Internet data for similar purposes.

Feinberg says that this difference is probably due to lack of understanding.

“When you ask someone if they would make the password to their computer public, they would never say yes,” he commented.

ORC International conducted the telephone study of 1,014 adults nationwide on June 11-13, 2013. The margin of sampling error for results is +/- 3 percentage points at a 95 percent level of confidence.

The Obamas were in Dublin to accompany President Obama at the G-8 Summit in Belfast, Northern Ireland this week. According to the White House Dossier, the White House paid for the Obama girls’ $3,300 suite at the swanky Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin City Centre under the auspice that their trip had diplomatic significance.

The FLOTUS and her daughters stayed in the “Princess Grace Suite” - a room fit for royalty, literally, because it was often used by Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco and her husband, Prince Ranier. The suite has two guest bedrooms with 100 percent Egyptian cotton sheets, two bathrooms, four phones and three large televisions. It is also equipped with a Nespresso coffee machine and comes with turn-down and butler services.

They arrived at the hotel straight from Belfast, where the First Lady introduced the president to a crowd of secondary school students at the city’s Waterfront Convention Centre. While in Dublin the FLOTUS and her daughters visited the library at Trinity College Dublin to explore the family’s Irish roots, and later the Wicklow Mountains National Forest and a special performance of Raindance at the Gaielty Theatre.

They are later expected to return to Belfast to join the president at the G-8 Summit, where they will be greeted by tractor-driving secret service officers dressed up as farmers to protect the family. 

Most U.S. citizens respect the American flag, but apparently rapper Lil Wayne isn’t one of those people, as bootleg footage of his latest music video shows.

The rapper was filming his ”God Bless Amerika” music video when a large American flag behind him was dropped on the ground. Lil Wayne then proceeded to walk back and forth on the flag while rapping.

While it’s a little unclear whether or not the flag was dropped intentionally, the lyrics of Lil Wayne’s song — from his 2013 album “I Am Not A Human Being II” — seem to imply that it was planned.

“My country, tis of thee / Sweet land of kill them all and let them die / So God bless America, this so Godless America,” Lil Wayne raps on the track.

Many people on Twitter lashed out against the rapper. Warning, several of these tweets are NSFW.

So I see lil Wayne is trampling on the American flag, more reasons for me to hate him.

— Clark Kent (@cgbrayman) June 17, 2013

I think its time for Big Wayne to challenge Lil Wayne to a gentleman's duel #respect pic.twitter.com/GOasp4ubPv

— Wayne Garner (@thewaynegarner) June 17, 2013

Lil Wayne will be apologizing for tramping on the American Flag. Endorsement deals don't believe in free speech. http://t.co/xlbyGAgh0Y

— John Bees (@TUC7) June 17, 2013

I would like to request that lil Wayne come over to my neighborhood and try to stomp on an American Flag. I guarantee he gets beat down!

— Ian Doc Singleterry (@docsingleterry) June 17, 2013

Lil Wayne is an attention seeking dumbass;disrespect the nations flag by dancing on it smh. Way to set us back brotha http://t.co/D8o8aC2u4C

— Morgan TREEman (@EURO_JAMerican) June 17, 2013

And the endorsement deal point is an especially good one to make. Earlier this year, the rapper was dropped as spokesman for Mountain Dew after he made a crude reference in one of his songs to lynched Civil Rights figure Emmett Till. Lil Wayne later apologized for the lyrics.

“I have tremendous respect for those who paved the way for the liberty and opportunities that African-Americans currently enjoy,” he wrote at the time.

That “respect” apparently doesn’t extend to the American flag, the greatest symbol of “liberty and opportunities.”

Watch the cell phone video below and see for yourself:

(h/t The Daily Caller.)

An Albuquerque, N.M, man was arrested last week for threatening to blow up a federal building by sending a “a burrito with CO2 explosive inside of it,” NBC News reported.

Brian Demarco, 50, allegedly called the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Public Access Line on June 11, telling them about his burrito bomb. Demarco threatened to send the explosives to the FBI field office in Albuquerque.

According to a criminal complaint filed in the United States District Court of New Mexico, Demarco’s threat wasn’t the first. He allegedly threatened another building in New Mexico’s capital city and had made several terrorist threats to California in the past, Demarco told FBI investigators.

But Demarco called in the threat with the intention of ending up behind bars.

“He wanted to be sent to Federal prison,” the complaint said, according to NBC News. “The caller said that he wanted the voices and sounds to stop.”

According to the complaint, Demarco told the FBI he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

“Demarco stated that he was angry at the U.S. government because the government placed a tracking device inside his head and is watching him, in addition to beaming photons into his head,” the complaint said.

The FBI took Demarco into custody as he was boarding a bus to Amarillo, Texas, at the Albuquerque Greyhound bus station June 13. He faces charges of violating interstate communications and creating a hoax, San Antonio’s NBC News reported.

In an internal letter to colleagues on Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton announced he would depart the agency by the end of July and start working for a private company.

He will be moving to Capital One, the Fortune 500 financial services company, and be based in its McLean, Va., headquarters as head of the company’s compliance office, the company said in a statement.

“He is a skilled leader with great judgment and a proven ability to drive results in a dynamic organization,” Capital One spokeswoman Tatiana Stead said. “Compliance is a high priority for our company, and we couldn’t be more pleased that he will be joining our team.”

Read more at USA Today.

More than a few conservatives and Republicans have been puzzled by Senator – and likely 2016 presidential hopeful – Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) recent positions on immigration reform.

After months of ensuring conservatives that border security is an essential part to any good version of an immigration bill, Rubio voted, along with just four other Republicans, to leave border security out of the immigration reform bill to focus more exclusively on the legalization of millions of Hispanics in the United States illegally. This, rather unsurprisingly, befuddled and angered many conservatives who believe protecting our border is the only way to prevent this immigration fiasco from occurring again in the coming decades.

While some have seen Rubio’s actions as an example of the typical Washington-style sell-out of conservative principles, his actions are simply trying to better position himself for a presidential bid in 2016. Whatever bill emerges from the Senate this month inevitably must go to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for approval. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has already made it clear that Republicans in the chamber will only support an immigration bill that includes provisions for border security, making it extremely unlikely that the Senate bill in its final form will be accepted.

The Texas Republican was dining alone last Thursday when he began munching on the popcorn that’s typically served before meals at the Capitol Hill Club. That’s when Poe, 64, suddenly started choking at the swanky GOP haunt.

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) was seated for dinner right behind the congressman when he and another diner jumped into action. The pair performed the Heimlich maneuver and gave the ailing lawmaker back blows as they yelled for someone to call 911.

A GOP aide who doubles as a physician also rushed over to help, according to the National Review Online, which was first to report the incident.

Read more at The Hill.

Snowden made the comment during a live question-and-answer session with The Guardian newspaper – the paper who had previously outed him at his request – Monday. The former Booz Allen Hamilton contractor, who answered questions sent into the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald via either the paper’s website or the Twitter hashtag #AskSnowden, denounced allegations of him being a Chinese spy and defended his intrinsically patriotic motivation behind the country’s largest political leaks.

“This country is worth dying for,” Snowden said when asked what he would say to others in a similar position of possessing classified information that could improve understanding of civil liberty violations in the U.S. 

“[T]he U.S. government is not going to be able to cover this up by jailing or murdering me. Truth is coming, and it cannot be stopped,” he added.

And the truth, according to the whistleblower, is that the 29-year-old is not a Chinese spy. In fact, Snowden believes that rumor is intended to distract the public even more from the government’s misconduct.

“Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn’t I have flown directly into Beijing?” Snowden asked. “I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.”

Since the interview was purely text, however, Snowden clarified his remarks about the accusations later in the interview.

“I have had no contact with the Chinese government,” Snowden said. According to him, he only communicates with journalists, namely those at The Guardian and The Washington Post.

Along with denouncing accusations of being a Chinese spy, Snowden also tackled being called a “traitor” by those such as former Vice President Dick Cheney.

“U.S. officials say this every time there’s a public discussion that could limit their authority,” Snowden said. “U.S. officials also provide misleading or directly false assertions about the value of these programs.”

Snowden apparently didn’t have his feelings hurt over Cheney’s comments, however, and in fact threw him under the bus as well.

“This is a man who gave us the warrantless wiretapping scheme as a kind of atrocity warm-up on the way to deceitfully engineering a conflict that has killed over 4,400 and maimed nearly 32, 000 Americans, as well as leaving over 100, 000 Iraqis dead,” Snowden said. “Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American, and the more panicked talk we hear from people like him, [Calif. Sen. Dianne] Feinstein, and [New York Rep. Peter] King, the better off we all are. If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.”

Snowden made sure to also stress in his interview the importance of what the NSA had done with “the largest program of suspicionless surveillance in human history,” calling out the media for focusing too much on what his girlfriend looks like and not the data seizure.

O’Keefe, the president of Project Veritas, helps empower concerned Americans to become investigative journalists who launch their own investigations into the federal government to create a more ethical and transparent society. The book is available in stores nationwide and online Tuesday.

“People are begging for leadership; people are hungry for leadership,” O’Keefe told Red Alert Politics. “It’s really up to the citizens. This story is about citizen journalists who really took it upon themselves to make a difference and the price they had to pay for that.”

That price, as O’Keefe is well aware of, is one’s reputation and freedom. Many of the lessons told throughout the story are based on his personal experiences, including exposing voter fraud within the Obama campaign, the 2009 ACORN investigation and his break-in at Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) New Orleans office in January 2010.

“[Breakthrough] is a field guide on how to achieve social change in 2013,” O’Keefe continued. “It’s an incredible and entertaining and sometimes tragic, sometimes hopeful story about how to make a difference despite everything working against you.”

But enacting change isn’t easy. He told RAP that the biggest problem that citizens face is fear. In fact, one of the rules that O’Keefe explains in his book is that “They’ll never understand your ideas, but they’ll understand your results.” O’Keefe has even been called a terrorist, a criminal, a racist and a liar while embarking on his many endeavors, however it is the results of his investigations that actually turn heads and led to positive change in the U.S.

“The good news is that this book is helpful. It shows people that you can persevere. You can break through those attacks and still make a difference,” O’Keefe told RAP.

He believes that citizens are the ones on the front lines fighting against the scandals and government injustices, admonishing the mainstream media and encouraging others to do more than just rely on media entities.

“Most mainstream media people are sitting in cubicles in corporate offices or trying to protect their government sources,” O’Keefe added. “Journalists are unwilling to blow the lid open on a lot of things because of ambition, shared politics and a pinch of fear.”

But, according to O’Keefe, that’s good news.

“That’s a great opportunity for citizen journalists,” O’Keefe continued. “We’re on the front lines. We’re the ones that are witnessing things that are happening in local communities.”

The refusal came in the form of a letter dated Friday, reports The Washington Post. The letter stated that the five-year-old “did bring a cap gun in his book bag.” It also charged that some other children were frightened and told school officials that they couldn’t discern if the orange-tipped cowboy-style gun was real or fake.

The unidentified kindergartener had brought the toy gun in his backpack because his friend had brought a water gun the previous day. He later told his mother that he “really, really” wanted his friend to see it.

Read more at The Daily Caller.

Although she struggled with her answer and created one of the most awkward pageant moments in recent history, 21-year-old Powell blamed income inequality between men and women on the state of education in America rather than the types of jobs men and women pursue or other causes that have been proven to cause the gap. Powell was responding to a question from “The New Normal” actress NeNe Leakes.

“I think we can relate this back to education, and how we are continuing to strive…to…figure out how to create jobs right now. I think especially the men are…um…seen as leaders of this, and so we need to see how to…create education better. So that we can solve this problem. Thank you,” Powell said during the finals, which was held at the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.

She ultimately came in third place despite her incoherent performance. Granted, the rest of the top 5′s responses were not much better.

This year’s winner was 25-year-old Miss Connecticut Erin Brady. Brady discussed her thoughts on the recent Supreme Court ruling that criminal suspects may be subject to a DNA swabbing after an arrest. 

“I would agree with this. I think if somebody is being prosecuted and has committed a crime that’s that severe, they should have a DNA test. I think there are so many crimes going on in this world, that if that is one step closer to figuring out who has done it, I think we should absolutely do so,” she said.

Ahead of his arrival in New York on Sunday, the Republican former presidential candidate launched a TV and radio ad campaign trumpeting his state’s record on small businesses.

In $600,000 worth of radio spots that begin airing Wednesday in New York City and Albany, he scoffs at the state’s “‘new’ New York” promotional campaign.

Perry says: “The new New York sounds a lot like the old New York. Higher taxes. Stifling regulations. Bureaucrats telling you whether you can even drink a Big Gulp.”

Read more at CBS New York.

The White House tweeted out a picture taken during the president’s daughter Sasha’s birthday party at Camp David in 2011. In the picture, Obama is seen running across the pool deck donning a water gun as he engages in some friendly fire with Sasha and party-goers.

But in a time where an elementary-school student gets suspended for merely mentioning the word gun, the picture instead stands as an image of hypocrisy, as the White House’s Twitter followers pointed out, The Blaze reported.

Hope all the dads out there have a great Father's Day weekend: http://t.co/JFD34sfklp #QualityTime pic.twitter.com/2UvcSk1VYk

— The White House (@whitehouse) June 15, 2013

Oh, how militaristic! "@whitehouse: ...have a great Father's Day wknd: http://t.co/SuRyvFk9m3 #QualityTime pic.twitter.com/yIU0ges42b"

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) June 15, 2013

Irony? The White House tweeted this pic & it's on their page of favorites. Yet many think toy guns are bad too? pic.twitter.com/FE1jLq3NvV

— Chris Stamos (@Chris_Stamos) June 16, 2013

Children from across the country have reportedly faced suspension for a host of issues involving firearms, from bringing a cap gun to school to nibbling Pop Tarts into the shape of a gun. And Vice President Joe Biden is preparing to relaunch the White House’s gun control efforts — delivering remarks on the issue Tuesday.

As many across the Twitter-sphere react to the Father’s Day photo, they’re telling the President, “you should be suspended from the White House.”

Nine store owners and mangers have been arrested on charges of harboring and hiring undocumented immigrants, The New York Times reports. The store owners also stand accused of wire fraud and using fake Social Security numbers to pay their workers.

Federal authorities said that the raids are a part of an investigation into human smuggling, identity theft and money laundering, according to the AP. The respective store owners allegedly helped smuggle the workers into the U.S. from Pakistan.

A majority of the simultaneous raids happened in Suffolk County, Long Island, according to PIX 11 News. The owners of the raided stores will be charged with harboring undocumented immigrants and not paying the minimum wage to their employees.

Read more at Huffington Post.

The American Friends Service Committee “We Divest Campaign Student Leadership Team Summer Training Institute” describes itself as a “five (5) day intensive program for campus [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions] organizers—those with campaigns already running and those hoping to get one launched in the 2013-2014 school year.”

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign was officially launched by a network of pro-Palestinian groups in 2005 and seeks to use economic and cultural boycotts to isolate Israel, force the government’s hand on Palestinian negotiations, and evoke comparisons between the Jewish state and South Africa’s Apartheid regime.

Read more at The Free Beacon.

“Northern Ireland is hosting the World Police and Fire Games later this year — (applause) — which Dame Mary Peters is helping to organize.  (Applause.),” Obama said, according to the official White House transcript.

“Golf fans like me had to wait a long six decades for the Irish Open to return to the North last year.  (Applause.)  I am unhappy that I will not get a few rounds in while I’m here.  (Laughter.)  I did meet Rory McIlroy last year — (applause) — and Rory offered to get my swing ‘sorted,’ — (laughter) —  which was a polite way of saying, ‘Mr. President, you need help.’ (Laughter.)”

Obama used the golf point to transition into making a broader point about social and political change in Northern Ireland.

Read more at The Weekly Standard.

The vote was 7-2, with Justice Antonin Scalia writing for the court. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two members of the court’s conservative wing, dissented.

Several states said that such a law reduces voter fraud, but civil rights groups said it was an effort to discourage voting by legal immigrants. The case was argued and decided at a time when the country is considering how to change its immigration laws.

Citizenship is a requirement to vote in any federal election, and the federal registration form requires people to state, under penalty of perjury, that they are American citizens. States can use their own forms, but they must be equivalent to the federal form.

Read more at NBC News.

Personal health information, or PHI, is highly protected under federal law, but the latest ruling from the Department of Health and Human Services allows agencies to trade the information to verify that Obamacare applicants are getting the minimum amount of health insurance coverage they need from the health “exchanges.”

The ruling, explained on pages 72-73 of the book-thick guidance, does not mention any requirement that applicants first OK the release of their PHI. HHS already allows some exchange of PHI without an individual’s pre-approval, especially when for a “government program providing public benefits.” Officials said the swapping of information is simply meant to help figure the best insurance coverge of Obamacare users.

President Vladimir Putin‘s spokesman denied accusations that the leader kept a Super Bowl ring that New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft wanted back.

Both sides agree that the ring, with its 124 diamonds, changed hands during Kraft’s visit to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2005.

Read more at CNN.

The White House said that Obama had named John Emerson as the next ambassador to Germany. According to the president’s campaign, Emerson raised at least half a million dollars last year for the president’s reelection effort, topping the between $100,000 and $200,000 he netted for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

Read more at The Hill.

The Post spent the past few weeks cruising shotgun in a mobile DNA-testing truck helping doubtful dads find proof of their progeny.

Health Street, the testing company, has two 27-foot Winnebagos — “Who’s Your Daddy?” emblazoned on either side — that rumble through the city seven days a week offering a range of services, including drug and heritage testing.

Read more at The New York Post.

email

The $40 per year email service promises to “not copy, scan, or sell one word of your email account” and to give President Ronald Reagan’s admirers a conspicuous way to express their fondness — through a @reagan.com email address.

And if the government comes knocking?

“The answer would be no,” Michael Reagan, the son of the late president and a part-owner of the email service, told TheDC Friday.

Read more at The Daily Caller.

Cheney appeared on ‘Fox News Sunday‘ with Chris Wallace this week to discuss the NSA’s secret surveillance program, PRISM. The host began by asking the former Vice President’s opinion on Snowden.

“I think he’s a traitor,” Cheney responded. “I think he has committed crimes, in effect, by violating agreements given the position he had.”

He added that this was “one of the worst occasions in my memory” of someone using classified information to do damage to America’s national security.

Wallace also asked the former VP if he thought Snowden was possibly a Chinese spy, since he is presumed to be hiding out in Hong Kong. Cheney responded that he was wary of Snowden.

“I’m suspicious because he went to China,” Cheney said. “That’s not a place where you would ordinarily want to go if you are interested in freedom, liberty and so forth.”

The former Vice President also worried that Snowden wasn’t working alone and that he could have more information about U.S. national security interests — information he might try to sell to the Chinese for sanctuary.

Wallace also asked about the position of people like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who condemned the NSA for collecting the phone records of ordinary Americans. Cheney said the Senator was wrong. He defended the program, saying it only collects phone numbers, but doesn’t collect the personal information of Americans.

The pilot informed air traffic control and landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport where the 310 passengers would disembark, Tawfik Assy, chairman of the state-owned airline, said in Cairo.

Read more at The New York Post

Obama’s decision to wade into the civil war that’s been brewing in Syria is months past due, and is now laced with risk and could backfire, Republicans say. The rebels have been infiltrated by terrorist forces, a no-fly zone might not be successful and the intelligence Obama is using has been bouncing around classified briefing rooms for months.

“I’m glad he’s waking up – it might be too late,” House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) told POLITICO.

The White House has not specified about how it will the rebels Syrian rebels, or what kind of support it would use to encourage the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, who has been accused of killing about 150 of his citizens with lethal sarin gas.

Read more at POLITICO.