California officials face mounting criticism from union leaders over plans to let retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. enroll shoppers in President Obama’s healthcare expansion.

The state wants employees at Wal-Mart and other retailers to help consumers learn about their options and assist them in buying federally subsidized private insurance. These plans are part of state efforts to implement the federal healthcare law and reach out to 5 million Californians eligible for new coverage starting in January.

Labor …

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HARTMANN: Rand Paul is filibustering the President’s nomination of Mr. Brennan to head the CIA. Now, this is really important and it’s important for a reason that probably you have not thought of. I think a lot of people haven’t considered this in the context of its impact on what I’m going to talk about here.

Back in July of 2009, this is four …

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An exclusive golf course backs onto a spacious two-storey house. A coiled green garden hose lies on the lawn. The grey-slatted wooden shutters are closed. And, like the other deserted luxury houses in this gated community near Bryan, Texas, nothing moves.

Retired Colonel Jim Steele, whose military decorations include the Silver Star, the Defence Distinguished Service Medal, four Legions of Merit, three Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart, is not at home. Nor is he at …

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In the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown, the US government launched a vast investigation, but it still doesn’t want you to know the details of what it found.

In January 2011, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) created by Congress put out its final report. But it only released a portion of all the source documents it scoured, so last year the government accountability group Cause of Action filed a lawsuit seeking the release of …

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas soon will have the nation’s most restrictive abortion law — a near-ban on the procedure from the 12th week of pregnancy onward — unless a lawsuit or court action intervenes.

Lawmakers in the Republican-dominated Legislature defied Gov. Mike Beebe, overriding the Democrat’s veto. The House voted 56-33 on Wednesday to override Beebe’s veto, a day after the Senate voted to do the same.

The votes come less than a week after the …

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The export of polar bear skins, teeth and paws from Canada will continue unabated after a bitter debate at the world’s biggest wildlife summit ended in defeat for a US proposal to outlaw the trade.

The US, strongly supported by former cold war foe Russia, had argued that while climate change and the increasing loss of the Arctic sea ice on which polar bears hunt was the greatest threat to the 20,000 remaining in the wild, …

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The State Department’s recent conclusion that the Keystone XL pipeline “is unlikely to have a substantial impact” on the rate of Canada’s oil sands development was based on analysis provided by two consulting firms with ties to oil and pipeline companies that could benefit from the proposed project.

EnSys Energy has worked with ExxonMobil, BP and Koch Industries, which own oil sands production facilities and refineries in the Midwest that process heavy Canadian crude oil. Imperial …

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In the high desert city of Lancaster, Calif., not too far from where telephone pole-hoarding folk hero Alan Kimble Fahey was forced to demolish his home and where a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad known only as The Bride had her nuptials officially ruined, mayor R. Rex Parris recently announced a pioneering update to the city’s residential building code: Starting on Jan. 1, 2014, all newly constructed single-family homes must include a …

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Strike Debt, one of the offshoot groups of Occupy Wall Street, has planned a week of action March 16-23 in response to what it calls a “healthcare emergency.” A majority of personal bankruptcies in the United States are linked to medical bills with 75 percent of people declaring bankruptcy even though they have health insurance.

“These debts are literally killing patients, students, providers and communities,” Strike Debt states at its website. “They deepen the already entrenched …

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Last week, Bloomberg Businessweek ran a magazine cover featuring gross caricatures of black and Latino people swimming in money, feeding it to their dogs, and burning it for warmth. This cover led Colorlines’ Channing Kennedy to ask, “Would a more racially diverse and equitable newsroom at Bloomberg have presented this mess?”

As the American Prospect’s Jamelle Bouie points out, the problem isn’t just the racist caricatures. “The whole cover plays into the widely-debunked myth that unreliable …

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