PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — The judge who ruled the Obama administration’s health care overhaul unconstitutional questioned whether the government was reaching beyond its power by requiring citizens to buy health insurance because everyone needs medical care. (more)
The Food and Drug Administration, which has long maintained that it has nothing to do with drugs used in executions, has quietly helped Arizona and California obtain a scarce type of anesthetic so the states could continue putting inmates to death. (more)
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s military, the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid after Israel, is in decline, according to American diplomats, who blame the Arab nation’s top brass for failing to modernize and adapt to deal with new threats. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he is still wrestling with whether gay couples should have the right to marry, now that a new law will allow them to serve openly in combat. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Declaring that members of the U.S. military will no longer be asked to lie, President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise Wednesday and signed a landmark law repealing the ban on gay men and women serving openly in the armed services. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gays and lesbians will be treated just like any other soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines, the new rules say. But commanders will have some flexibility when they believe it’s needed to maintain order and discipline in their units. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year got off to a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad start. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has voted to overturn the military’s ban on openly gay troops and sent the bill to President Barack Obama. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time this year the House voted to dismantle the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, giving the Senate a final shot in the waning days of this Congress at changing a law requiring thousands of uniformed gays to hide their sexual identity. (more)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Three military veterans who were discharged under the law that prohibits gays from serving openly in uniform sued the government Monday to be reinstated and to pressure lawmakers to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law before a new Congress is sworn in. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates of a bill that would overturn the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy say their fight for repeal this year is far from over despite a failing Senate vote this week and only days left in the lame-duck session. (more)
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The Berkeley City Council will consider a resolution that would declare the Army private suspected of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks a hero and call for his release. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon study that argues that gay troops could serve openly without hurting the military’s ability to fight is expected to re-ignite debate this month on Capitol Hill over repealing the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican senator on Sunday played down the chances that the ban on gays serving openly in the military would be lifted during the lame-duck session of Congress that resumes this week. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats on Thursday pressured Majority Leader Harry Reid to strike a deal with Republicans to aid passage of a bill that would let gays serve openly in the military. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cindy McCain appeared to very publicly differ with her husband, 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, over the ban on gays serving openly in the military, opposing the policy in a new video while her husband works to maintain it for now. (more)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Following a survey of U.S. troops and their families, a Pentagon study group has concluded the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. (more)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Congress should act quickly, before new members take their seats, to repeal the military’s ban on gays serving openly in the military. (more)
SAN DIEGO (AP) — With American troops in the thick of the fighting in Afghanistan, the new commandant of the Marines Corps says now is not the time to overturn the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy prohibiting gays from openly serving in the military. (more)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A Republican gay rights group on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a California trial judge’s order barring enforcement of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military to go back into effect. (more)
