A number of same-sex spouses and widows who were legally married in Massachusetts have filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that a 1996 federal law discriminates against married same-sex couples by limiting certain protections and benefits that are normally provided to married...

A recent action that received little coverage (other than by BankThink) was the request by Consumers Union that The Treasury Department order the OCC to rescind its preemption regulation. Consumers Union is trying to win the case of Cuomo v. The Clearing House Association, LLC through the back door....

"Anti-death penalty lobby hopes for discreet Obama support," is the AFP report via Google News. In a country that has almost two-thirds support for the death penalty, US President Barack Obama will likely shy away from addressing the issue head on but could signal a discreet change in atti...

As I watched the recent sanctimonious berating of oil company execs by the likes of Sens. Dick Durbin, Patrick Leahy and Chuck Schumer, I realized how far off the track we are in solving the energy crisis. Instead of dependence......

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ---Hunter S. Thompson Whenever pressure is applied to fragile minds, those minds tend to bend. The latest example of an idea that demands a reply of "get bent" is "Own To Rent." As discussed today by Paul Jackson at Housing Wire, thi...

A federal appeals court has reinstated an Air Force reservist's challenge to the constitutionality of the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, ordering the lower court to re-examine the policy under a stricter standard of review. The suit was filed by U.S. Air Force Major Margar...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld a federal law which, in part, makes it a crime to promote or advertise child pornography, whether or not the material actually exists. The "pandering and solicitation" provision of the 2003 federal law prohibits the advertisement, promotion, presentation, dist...

Maroondah’s environmental groups are rallying behind the opportunity to protect the Kilsyth South spider orchid. The Maroondah Leader has reported on the efforts to preserve one of the world’s rarest plants. The Kilsyth South spider orchid was found in 1991 at 6 Tereddan Drive in Kilsyth...

On Monday, David Milstead, the Finance Editor of The Rocky Mountain News, circulated a list of questions to an assortment of heavy hitters in financial services in Colorado (although he appears to have left off a number of others), about the just-announced "Paulson Blueprint" for the reorg...

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