Which Obama did we elect?

The biggest concern for many in the healthcare debate is the move towards a single-payer heathcare system controlled by the government. Obama denies that this is the direction he wants, but he has advocated it in the past: Which Obama did we elect?

Something fishy in California

The Central Valley of California was once considered the bread basket of America. But now farms all over that region have been allowed to dry up. Now why? Because of a 2-inch minnow on the endangered species list.

Now, environmentalists claim that the fish was getting caught in the water pumps that provided the farms with water, so to protect the tiny fish, the pumps were turned off. And farmers, well, they were left high and dry, and entire communities are now feeling the impact.

Some towns in the area are now facing unemployment rates of up to 40 percent. And many residents are now forced to visit food banks. But the people of that great area, they've had enough, and they're speaking out tonight.

Full Story

Highest civilian honor goes to...Harvey Milk?

Among the 16 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Wednesday were physicist Stephen Hawking, Sen. Ted Kennedy, tennis legend Billie Jean King and the late gay rights activist Harvey Milk.

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official from a major city in the United States. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, and encouraged LGBT citizens to live their lives openly.

Full Story

Good choice for State

Short memory

A poster recently circulated depicting President Obama as the "Joker" has created quite a stir, prompting Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson to call it "politically mean-spirited and dangerous." But comparing the commander in chief to Batman's nemesis is nothing new in American political satire, as former President George W. Bush certainly knows. He appeared in a similar image submitted to Vanity Fair last July.



Full Story

If nothing else, this is the difference McCain would have made as president

WASHINGTON -- Republican Sen. John McCain, his party's failed 2008 presidential contender, announced Monday he'd join the vast majority of the GOP to vote against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who's on track to be confirmed this week as the first Hispanic justice.

McCain's decision, the day before the Senate debates President Barack Obama's first high court nominee, underscored the degree to which Republicans -- even those who, like the Arizonan, represent large Hispanic populations -- have turned against Sotomayor. Conservatives argue she'd bring her own biases to the bench.

Full Story

Gates arrest: Just want to record this for posterity

Obama was asked about Gates' arrest at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night and began his response by saying Gates was a friend and he didn't have all the facts.

"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 — what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

Full Story