Obama holds edge over Romney in general election matchup, poll finds
Boosted by improved public confidence in his economic stewardship, President Obama for the first time holds a clear edge over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a hypothetical general-election matchup, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
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Mitt Romney’s misfire on the national anthem
“We are the only people on the earth that put our hand over our heart during the playing of the national anthem. It was FDR who asked us to do that, in honor of the blood that was being shed by our sons and daughters in far-off places.”
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Editorial Board: A line of would-be immigrants? There isn’t one.
IN THE VENOMOUS debate over illegal immigration, there is a point of agreement between President Obama and some of his would-be Republican rivals, including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. They’d like to see undocumented immigrants “get to the back of the line” for citizenship. Unfortunately, that convergence of views distorts rather than illuminates the debate.
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For some black women, economy and willingness to aid family strains finances
The Great Recession carried special pain for black women like Jane Ladson.
She had always been the one her family turned to when they needed help, and she didn’t hesitate to give it. She helped pay for weddings and rent. She made room for her nephew when her brother died of AIDS. And even now in her 50s, she took in a baby that wasn’t her own.
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A Super Bowl’s spoiled snacks
Media revolutionaries picked an excellent year to actively discourage Americans from watching the year’s highest-rated telecast on stupid, old, outdated televisions. Had you not occupied yourself with at least two other devices, you might have drifted off during Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday night on NBC. Live or not, the night felt somehow like a rerun.
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Military preparedness does not come cheap
Here’s something for critics of the country’s defense budget to ponder: After I was confirmed as secretary of the Navy in May 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked me and the other service secretaries to work with Congress to gain approval for a pending supplemental appropriation to the defense budget. This was not a war supplemental; it was still four months before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Pentagon was simply running out of money.
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Egypt to prosecute Americans, including Sam LaHood, in NGO probe
CAIRO — Nineteen Americans will face criminal charges as part of a probe of the funding of pro-democracy groups, Egyptian officials announced Sunday, a provocative move that could deprive Egypt of crucial aid from the United States and upend one of Washington’s most important bilateral relationships.
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George Huguely’s trial in Yeardley Love’s death starts Monday with jury selection
CHARLOTTESVILLE — It’s been nearly two years since University of Virginia lacrosse player Yeardley Love was found dead facedown in a pool of blood on a pillow in her bed.
Within hours, her ex-boyfriend, George Huguely V, a lacrosse player from Chevy Chase, was charged with murder and jailed in Charlottesville, where he remains.
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Obama administration’s Afghanistan endgame gets off to bumpy start
With war fatigue growing and an election looming, the Obama administration has bumpily embarked on its endgame in Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, closed-door strategizing over Taliban peace talks, the pace of NATO’s combat handover and withdrawal, and the future of U.S. relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan have suddenly become part of the public and political debate.
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Diesel report’s publication delayed as industry demands to see documents first
Publication of a landmark government study probing whether diesel engine exhaust causes lung cancer in miners — already 20 years in the making — has been delayed by industry and congressional insistence on seeing study data and documents before the public does.
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Online dating has its pros and cons, meta-analysis says
Social scientists have confirmed what most singletons have known for years: Online dating is a crapshoot.
A new analysis of 400 academic studies explores whether online dating represents a dramatic shift in the way people seek mates (it does) and whether it is ultimately a good thing for daters (eh . . . sorta).
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Jennifer Rubin: Romney cleans up
The results from Nevada’s caucus trickled in at a snail’s pace last night. In the end Mitt Romney won overwhelmingly, winning in virtually every segment of the electorate. In wildly contrasting speeches an energized Romney pumped up the crowd and went after the president; Newt Gingrich had what can only be described as a public meltdown.
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Newt Gingrich campaign offers detailed plan to carry on
LAS VEGAS — In a meeting room at the Palazzo hotel here over the past week, Newt Gingrich mapped out a detailed strategy that would keep him in the presidential race all the way to the Republican convention in August.
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Obama to announce Veterans Job Corps
President Obama will announce details Friday for a $1 billion Veterans Job Corps that the White House says will put up to 20,000 veterans to work over the next five years on projects to preserve and restore national parks and other federal, state and local lands.
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Abramoff’s back, scolding lobbyists
During Wednesday’s balmy afternoon, a familiar scene in Washington unfolded: There was Jack Abramoff, sitting in his usual window seat at Eli’s, the kosher Dupont Circle deli, greeting the regulars.
It was as though the ex-lobbyist had never left. By “left,” we mean “was incarcerated in the federal pen,” and by “ex-lobbyist,” we include “convicted felon.”
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Commerce agency’s system infected by virus, may be victim of cyber attack
A virus has infected the computer network of a job-development agency in the Commerce Department, forcing it to block employees from the Internet for 10 days.
The attack, discovered two weeks ago, targeted computers at the Economic Development Administration, which is responsible for making business-development grants to distressed communities to help them create jobs.
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Bud Light Platinum has got the blues
Anheuser-Busch InBev is introducing a new beer, Bud Light Platinum, and they’re doing it in grand style by buying a pair of 30-second spots during the first quarter of the Super Bowl, a marketing strategy that is certainly setting the company back several million dollars.
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David Choe, the art world’s soon-to-be Facebook millionaire
One of the most interesting stories to come out of the Facebook IPO windfall is that of David Choe, the scrappy street artist who was given the choice of cash or stock for the murals he created in the company’s first headquarters.
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Super Bowl 2012: Giants beat Patriots 21-17 in a heartstopping repeat of 2008 title game
INDIANAPOLIS — There was no perfect season on the line this time, but the New York Giants did it again to Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Quarterback Eli Manning engineered the big drive in crunch time when the Giants needed it and New York beat the Patriots, 21-17, on Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in another down-to-the-wire Super Bowl between these rivals.
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Washington Wizards try to regroup against the visiting Raptors
When Randy Wittman took over as coach of the Washington Wizards on Jan. 24, the team was coming off an embarrassing 103-83 loss to Philadelphia that in part caused Flip Saunders his job. In their five subsequent games, the Wizards won twice, albeit against lowly Charlotte, and played with enough resolve two other times to indicate an on-court transformation may be at hand.
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Capitals vs. Bruins: Brooks Laich is hurt in Washington’s 4-1 loss
The Washington Capitals suffered a momentum-halting 4-1 loss to Tim Thomas and the Boston Bruins on Sunday afternoon. It’s also possible they absorbed yet another injury to a key player.
Versatile forward Brooks Laich limped out of Verizon Center on crutches and sported an immobilizer on his left knee after getting crunched along the end boards in the second period by Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg.
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Car bomb in Kandahar, Afghanistan, kills seven outside police headquarters
KABUL — At least five Afghan police officers and two civilians were killed Sunday when a car bomb was detonated outside the main police headquarters in Kandahar, officials said.
An additional 19 people, six of them police officers, were wounded in the blast, provincial officials said. Children also were among the victims.
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U.S. to elevate Special Operations forces’ role in Afghanistan
The U.S. military is planning to elevate the role of Special Operations forces in Afghanistan as it shifts away from a combat focus to a mission that places greater emphasis on advising Afghan forces and raids to kill top insurgent leaders, senior U.S. officials said.
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Your Facebook friends have more friends than you
The average Facebook user has 245 friends. But the average friend on Facebook has 359 friends.
So says the latest study by the Pew Center’s Internet and American Life Project. But how could it be true that your friends, on average, are more popular than you?
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Super Bowl halftime: NBC, NFL apologize for M.I.A.’s gesture, expletive
This time, the problem with the Super Bowl halftime show was a flip, not a slip.
NBC and the NFL have apologized for an obscene gesture and expletive by M.I.A. near the end of the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show starring Madonna.
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Review: Step Afrika at Sidney Harman Hall
From the first minutes of Step Afrika’s Saturday afternoon performance at Sidney Harman Hall, the troupe’s most obvious assets were apparent: Their synchronization is airtight, their sense of rhythm is failsafe, and they’ve got a likable, impish sense of humor.
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K Street: The route of all evil, or just the main drag?
It’s the symbol of all that’s wrong with Washington, the front line where the Occupiers dug their anti-authoritarian trenches, the boulevard that has been shorthand for capital corruption during recent Republican debates.
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Book review: ‘Defending Jacob,’ by William Landay
In the publicity material for William Landay’s “Defending Jacob,” its publisher and several advance readers liken the novel to Scott Turow’s “Presumed Innocent,” arguably the finest of American legal thrillers. The hype is justified. I don’t think Landay’s novel has quite the elegance or gravitas of Turow’s, but it’s an exceptionally serious, suspenseful, engrossing story that deserves and should achieve a large audience.
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