Romney Ahead In GOP Presidential Poll

Robert Siegel talks to Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center about the GOP presidential field. Mitt Romney is ahead; and Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are way behind in the public mind. Herman Cain did surprisingly well, with a third of the polled saying they had heard of him.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/02/136897404/romney-ahead-in-gop-presidential-poll?ft=1&f=1014

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Obama's White House Counsel Resigning

President Obama's top lawyer at the White House is resigning to return to private practice and represent Obama as his personal attorney and as general counsel to Obama's re-election campaign.

Bob Bauer will be replaced by his top deputy, Kathy Ruemmler, a former assistant U.S. attorney best known as a lead prosecutor in the Enron fraud case.

The move, announced Thursday, means Bauer, 59, will still play a central but outside role in advising a president who is seeking re-election in a time of divided government.

The 40-year-old Ruemmler will take over the job as Obama's top in-house counsel and manager of a White House law office charged with juggling the domestic, national security and congressional oversight challenges confronting the president.

In a statement, Obama praised Bauer as a friend with exceptional judgment who will remain a close adviser. As to his new White House-based counsel, Obama said: "Kathy is an outstanding lawyer with impeccable judgment. Together, Bob and Kathy have led the White House Counsel's office, and Kathy will assure that it continues to successfully manage its wide variety of responsibilities."

Bauer has been part of Obama's circle since Obama was a freshmen senator in Washington, and now returns to the campaign counsel role he had when Obama ran in 2008. He has long been a go-to lawyer for Democrats on matters of political law and is married to Anita Dunn, a Democratic communications operative who formerly worked in Obama's White House.

Bauer will leave his White House post at the end of June. In a style typifying the low-key nature of transitions in the counsel's office, the news came in the form of a press release.

Ruemmler's fast rise in the legal community was cemented by her role in the successful federal prosecution of the Enron executives whose company imploded because of accounting tricks and shady business deals that cost people thousands of jobs and tens of billions in stock value. She was the co-lead prosecutor and delivered the closing argument on behalf of the government in the trial, and later won the Justice Department's highest award for her work in the Enron investigation.

Ruemmler (pronounced RUHM'-luhr) has been the primary deputy counsel at the White House since January 2010.

She joined the Obama's administration in 2009 as the principal associate deputy attorney general at the Justice Department. Before that, she was a litigation partner at Latham & Watkins in Washington from 2007 to 2009, and an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia from 2001 to 2007. Ruemmler worked for Clinton's White House counsel's office from 2000 to 2001 during an embattled time of congressional investigations of the Democratic president at the end of his second term.

Ruemmler will be Obama's third White House counsel. His first, Greg Craig, resigned in 2009 amid questions over his handling of the president's promised closure of the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison, which remains open despite that pledge.

Source: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/politics/~3/DfRwnxdlOT0/

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Report: 'Global War On Drugs Has Failed'

A study by the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which includes former world leaders, says governments should explore legalizing marijuana and other controlled substances. It also concludes that the U.S. should change its anti-drug policies from being guided by anti-crime approaches to ones rooted in health care, human rights.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/02/136880386/report-the-drug-war-has-failed?ft=1&f=1003

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Why Going Rogue Won't Work (The Atlantic)

Sarah Palin is dominating the political conversation. But if she really wants to be president, she's going about it all wrong. Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/96905140?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Feds Shut Bus Line After Fatal Virginia Crash

Federal regulators have shut down East Coast discount bus service Sky Express after a crash in Virginia that killed four people and sent more than 50 others to hospitals.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued an unsatisfactory safety rating and prohibited Charlotte, N.C.-based Sky Express from operating interstate transportation. It said in a statement Tuesday the bus company violated multiple federal safety regulations.

A Sky Express bus headed to New York City swerved off northbound Interstate early Tuesday, hit an embankment and overturned about 30 miles north of Richmond.

The driver, Kin Yiu Cheung, was charged with reckless driving and police say his fatigue was a factor in the crash. Federal documents show the company has a particularly poor safety record.

Gail Parenteau, a spokeswoman for Sky Express, confirmed the so-called out-of-service order issued by the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration but said the company had suspended service on almost all of its buses as soon as it learned of the accident.

Transportation Department spokeswoman Candice Tolliver said the ban is indefinite.

Over the last two years, the company, incorporated in North Carolina in 2004, has been involved in several accidents, according to federal records. It also has been cited for 46 violations of drivers being fatigued over that same time.

Sky Express offers $30 bus trips between New York and 15 cities in North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. It also goes to Washington, D.C.

The carrier is part of an industry of inexpensive buses on the highways of the East Coast that offer cheap fares, convenient routes and in some cases free wireless Internet. The industry is in the fifth year of a boom, but a string of fatal accidents also has prompted calls for tougher federal regulation.

The bus departed Greensboro, N.C., on Monday night and was headed to Chinatown in New York City with 59 people aboard. Cheung, 37, of Flushing, N.Y., was released from an area jail Tuesday night on bond and the National Transportation Safety Board was investigating.

According to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration records, Sky Express Inc. buses have been involved in four crashes, with an injury or fatality — it didn't specify which — during the two-year period that ended May 20.

The company offered its condolences to the families of the four women killed and said it would cooperate fully in the investigation.

"This is the first serious accident" involving Sky Express buses, the company said in a statement. "The bus driver has never before been involved in an accident."

The company's drivers have been cited for 17 unsafe-driving violations, including eight for speeding, since 2009, according to a report by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. It received a 62.9 percent rating, meaning it performed worse than nearly 63 percent of comparable transportation companies.

Other recent crashes, including one involving another company in March that killed 15 people returning to Chinatown from a Connecticut casino, demonstrate that the bus industry won't take essential steps to protect passengers' safety unless required by the government, the Senate sponsor of a bipartisan bus safety bill said.

"How many deaths do we have to have before the bus companies are going to start saying, 'Maybe we don't need more time. Maybe we should start doing something about this' with or without the government telling them to," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said. "Sometimes they need government mandates."

Brown and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) have been trying for three years to pass a bus safety bill that would require better training for drivers, seat belts and stronger bus roofs that aren't easily crushed or sheared off to prevent passengers from being ejected in a rollover and to ensure they have enough space inside to survive. The Sky Express bus had no passenger seat belts; only the driver had a seat belt.

The bill was poised for Senate passage last year until Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) placed a hold on it. With Congress closing in on adjournment, and other pressing legislation waiting to be voted on, the bill died. A Coburn spokesman said previously that the bill was costly and unnecessary.

A nearly identical bill was reintroduced earlier this year. Still unclear is whether Coburn, a physician sometimes referred to by Senate colleagues as "Dr. No" for his frequent holds on bills, will try to block the measure again. Brown said Coburn told him several weeks ago he was still undecided.

The bus industry says the problem is limited to a small number of rogue operators and what's needed is tougher government enforcement of existing safety regulations.

"I question how a company like this is allowed to operate," American Bus Association president Pete Pantuso said.

Sky Express' 46 violations for fatigued driving ranked worse than 86 percent of similar companies in that category.

The federal Department of Transportation has proposed requiring buses to have electronic on-board recorders to replace easily falsified paper records of driver hours. The proposals also would make it easier to revoke drivers' commercial licenses following violations.

Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said Sky Express's federal safety report is rife with warning signs. It raises questions about tired drivers and driver fitness in particular, said the advocate group's general counsel, Henry Jasny.

In the area of driver fitness, federal records show that Sky Express has been cited for 24 violations since 2009, including 14 for using drivers who lack English-language skills. Its 99.7 percent rating ranks the company among the worst in that category.

"To drive any commercial vehicle in the United States, you have to have English proficiency," Jasny said. "You don't have to be fluent but you need to be able to communicate with passengers and law enforcement and understand signs on the highway."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/01/136864809/u-s-shuts-bus-line-after-va-crash-kills-4?ft=1&f=1003

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Illinois civil unions law goes into effect

Read more about this story from CNN affiliate WLS.

(CNN) -- Starting Wednesday, same-sex couples in Illinois can enter into civil unions and enjoy many of the legal protections granted to married couples.

In January, Illinois joined five other states in legalizing civil unions. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the law in front of a crowd of cheering residents during a ceremony in a Chicago auditorium.

"We are showing the world that the people of Illinois believe in equality for all," Quinn said January 31. "We look forward to individuals and businesses from across the country choosing to move to Illinois where we believe that everyone is entitled to the same rights."

The provision, which goes into effect Wednesday, is called Senate Bill 1716 and creates the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act.

The new law will allow same-sex and heterosexual couples to enter into civil unions granting them many rights given to married couples.

These rights include automatic hospital visitation rights, the ability to make emergency medical decisions for partners, the ability to share a room in a nursing home, adoption and parental rights, pension benefits, inheritance rights and the right to dispose of a partner's remains, the governor's office said.

"In addition to Illinois, five other states and the District of Columbia have civil unions or similar laws on the books. Those states include California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington," the governor's office said.

But some in Illinois object to the new law.

Illinois Family Institute, a nonprofit group that says it wants to reaffirm marriage in the state, called the law "divisive."

"Gov. Quinn should reject this anti-family bill and reject the efforts of the homosexual lobby to impose this highly contentious and controversial policy on the people of Illinois," David E. Smith, executive director of the group, said earlier.

But couples like Mercedes Santos and Theresa Volpe said the new law will dramatically change their lives.

It gives them the rights that other families have when it comes to their 6-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son, they told CNN affiliate WLS earlier this year.

"Our son actually has some illnesses, so going into the hospital, being able to say that we can both be in the room with him and make decisions without too many questions, just makes it easier for us," Santos said.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/nYNPkRPDEI8/index.html

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Sorry, Charlie! Better Luck Next Time Getting Endangered Species Status

Despite urging from environmental groups, the federal government has decided not to list Atlantic bluefin tuna as an endangered species. It's the huge, majestic fish that's sold around the world as high-end sushi.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/05/27/136719390/sorry-charlie-better-luck-next-time-getting-endangered-species-status?ft=1&f=1007

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Weiner Tries to Move Beyond Twitter Mess

Ben Smith, PoliticoTrying to put last weekend's ambiguous online mini-scandal behind him, Rep. Anthony Weiner told reporters outside his office Tuesday that he's "not going to talk about this anymore."

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2011/06/01/weiner_tries_to_move_beyond_twitter_mess_256432.html

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