Daily News Channel
Massachusetts sued the U.S. government on Wednesday, challenging the constitutionality of a federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. “We’re taking this action today because, first, we believe that [the Defense of Marriage Act] directly interferes with Massachusetts’ long-standing sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents,” Attorney General Martha Coakley said Wednesday afternoon
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin caught the political world by surprise when she announced that she will resign at the end of July. Her decision has not only rankled political pundits and observers in Alaska and across the country, it has, oddly enough, united Democrats and Republicans in confusion.
No legal "bombshell" or personal scandal lies behind Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s resignation, but off-color jokes by talk-show host David Letterman contributed to her decision to step down, Palin’s attorney said Monday.
Alaskan Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who will succeed Gov.
It’s Friday night, and there have got to be 500 people packed into the Sluice Box, a beer-soaked clapboard honky-tonk at the Alaska State Fair — the state’s biggest event all year — just down the highway from Governor Sarah Palin’s hometown of Wasilla.
The United States put some teeth in its diplomatic signals to Honduras Thursday, stopping some aid programs temporarily to the Latin American country as it grapples with its two-president crisis. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States already “hit the pause button” on some aid programs, even before State Department lawyers make a final ruling on whether to halt assistance.
South Carolina’s attorney general said Thursday he expects a report showing whether Gov. Mark Sanford used any public money on private travels to be released soon. Attorney General Henry McMaster, a Republican who plans to run for governor in 2010, called for an investigation into Sanford’s travel records after the governor admitted he had visited his mistress more times than he previously disclosed.
Minnesota’s Supreme Court has dismissed former Sen. Norm Coleman’s challenge to the state’s November election results and declared Democratic challenger Al Franken the winner. The court’s unanimous, unsigned opinion declared that Franken “received the highest number of votes legally cast” and is entitled “to receive the certificate of election as United States senator from the state of Minnesota.” If the ruling brings an end to seven months of challenges by Coleman, Franken would become the 60th member of the Senate Democratic caucus, a move that gives the party a filibuster-proof majority in the chamber, at least on paper.
It has been a rocky couple of weeks for the Republican Party as high-profile, traditional-values politicians have faced embarrassing sex scandals. First it was Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, who admitted in a news conference two weeks ago to having an affair with a former staffer.
The financial crisis in California grew worse this week as State Controller John Chiang warned that if legislators and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fail to come up with a budget-balancing package, he would begin paying California’s bills with IOUs on July 2.