Dems call GOP Homeland Security strategy a political blunder

Dems call GOP Homeland Security strategy a political blunder
Russian investigators: Nemtsov killing may be provocation
Congress averts Homeland Security shutdown
Democrats caught between Obama, Netanyahu on speech
GOP leaders are struggling to show they really are in charge
House passes one-week funding extension for Homeland Security
U.S. appeals court says Boston bomber trial can stay in city
New York's exploding manhole covers pose unexpected winter hazard
U.S. sets out 'bottom lines' for Iran nuclear deal
Jeb Bush’s biggest CPAC win: No gifts for Democrats
Missouri murder spree shatters tiny community's comfort zone

Posted: 28 Feb 2015 08:56 AM PST

Democrats are losing some skirmishes over the Department of Homeland Security, but many feel they are winning a political war that will haunt Republicans in 2016 and beyond.

Russian investigators: Nemtsov killing may be provocation

Posted: 28 Feb 2015 08:16 AM PST

MOSCOW (AP) — Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition leader and sharp critic of President Vladimir Putin, was gunned down Saturday near the Kremlin, officials said. Nemtsov was killed just a day before a protest planned against Putin's rule.

Congress averts Homeland Security shutdown

Posted: 27 Feb 2015 10:37 PM PST

Feuding lawmakers fund the agency only until March 6, forcing Congress to revisit the issue next week.

Democrats caught between Obama, Netanyahu on speech

Posted: 28 Feb 2015 12:10 AM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jewish House Democrats personally offered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a chance to lower the political temperature after he accepted a Republican invitation to speak to Congress next week on Iran — a less provocative, closed-door session.

GOP leaders are struggling to show they really are in charge

Posted: 28 Feb 2015 04:47 AM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two months into full Republican control of Congress, GOP leaders are struggling to demonstrate they really are in charge.

House passes one-week funding extension for Homeland Security

Posted: 27 Feb 2015 08:05 PM PST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a one-week funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security late on Friday, in time to avert a partial shutdown for the agency at midnight. The two-thirds majority vote, which came with support from Democrats a few hours after the House failed to pass a three-week extension, buys time for Congress to sort out a longer-term funding solution for the domestic security agency. (Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

U.S. appeals court says Boston bomber trial can stay in city

Posted: 27 Feb 2015 08:43 PM PST

(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled the trial for the accused Boston Marathon bomber can go ahead in the city, over attempts from his attorneys to change the venue on the basis an impartial jury could not be seated so close to the site of the 2013 attack. The split three-judge panel of the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals backed District Judge George O'Toole, who has three times rejected pleas by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's lawyers to move the trial out of Boston, where the bombing killed three people and injured 264. "We are unable to conclude that it is clear and indisputable that the petitioner cannot receive a fair trial by an impartial jury in the Eastern Division of Massachusetts," the judges wrote in the 80-page opinion.

New York's exploding manhole covers pose unexpected winter hazard

Posted: 28 Feb 2015 04:05 AM PST

By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Reuters) - Salvatore Grillo was walking his Labrador retriever near Brooklyn's Prospect Park on a cold morning in February when he heard what sounded like a muffled explosion. Police said an underground blast had blown a cast-iron manhole cover skyward and the heavy metallic disk came crashing down on his head. In the snowy first week of February, Consolidated Edison Inc, the local utility, tallied about 600 "smokers," fires and occasional explosions involving manholes, part of a seasonal surge that plagues New York every winter. "These incidents are yet another example of New York City's outdated infrastructure.

U.S. sets out 'bottom lines' for Iran nuclear deal

Posted: 27 Feb 2015 10:09 PM PST

The United States set out what it called its "bottom lines" to reach a deal with Iran to rein in its nuclear program, ahead of new talks next week. Washington had stuck to its guns that it wanted a "good deal" and had agreed to several extensions of the negotiations "because we have held firm to certain bottom lines," a senior US administration official said. "We will only accept an agreement that cuts off the different pathways to the fissile material that Iran needs for a nuclear weapon," the official stressed. US Secretary of State John Kerry will leave at the weekend for Switzerland, where he will meet once again with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Jeb Bush’s biggest CPAC win: No gifts for Democrats

Posted: 27 Feb 2015 01:19 PM PST

The ex-Florida governor addresses complaints conservatives have made about him.

Missouri murder spree shatters tiny community's comfort zone

Posted: 27 Feb 2015 05:56 PM PST

A rural Missouri county that had zero homicides last year spent Friday reeling after seven people were murdered by a man who police said went on a house-to-house shooting rampage in the middle of the night.