The ‘Moral Monday’ protests in North Carolina, led by the North Carolina NAACP, continues to gain momentum with weekly protests against the right-wing Legislature’s draconian policies, attacks on basic democratic rights and the push for austerity.

The “Moral Monday” protests, started more than a month ago with some 250 supporters and drew crowds of about 1,600 on Monday, say organizers. The weekly demonstrations in Raleigh “are getting bigger and bigger,” says Dr. Timothy Tyson, a Duke University history professor.

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In announcing a special election in October to find a permanent replacement for Senator Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie runs the risk of appearing to be trying to have it both ways.

He has reserved the right to appoint a Republican to serve in the Senate until October, which should theoretically please his colleagues in the G.O.P. But in scheduling the special election for October rather than November, when he himself is up for reelection, he has opened himself up to the accusation that he is putting his own interests before those of his party, and of his taxpaying constituents.

This move has left many Republicans in Washington furious over the fact that Christie didn’t give the party more time to recruit a candidate and raise money to challenge Cory Booker, the Democratic mayor of Newark, who has already said he is running for Lautenberg’s seat. “I think this ends his 2016 chances,” an anonymous senior G.O.P. official told National Journal. “It’s year after year with this guy.”

Read More At The New Yorker

Nineteen years ago this month, Eric Holder was having a very different spring in Washington. It wasn't cruel or grueling. Conservatives didn't want his scalp and liberals didn't think he was trampling on civil liberties.

Fast forward to today and He's been slammed for everything from the botched "Fast & Furious" case that left a Border Patrol agent dead to a warrant that named a Fox News reporter as a potential co-conspirator in a leak case.

Yes, he still has the lean looks of the Columbia University basketball player he was. But now Holder's got that Washington-is-slowly-killing-me look, too.

Read More At The Atlantic

A 29-year-old computer technician for a U.S. defense contractor leaked details of a top-secret American program that collects vast streams of phone and Internet data, American and British newspapers revealed Sunday.

"My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them," the source, Edward Snowden, told Britain's the Guardian, one of the papers that broke stories on the program last week.

Snowden is a former technical assistant for the CIA and has been working at the National Security Agency, the U.S. electronic intelligence service, for the past four years, the newspaper reported. He said he walked away from a six-figure job in Hawaii for the computer consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and has holed up in a hotel in Hong Kong in preparation for the expected fallout from his disclosures.

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In the deadly shooting Santa Monica rampage that left five dead, Police Sgt. Richard Lewis confirmed the suspect's identity Sunday as John Zawahri.

Authorities had not immediately named the shooter because next of kin was out of the country and hadn't been notified. Lewis said his name was released Sunday after his Mother cut her trip short and came back to the country.

Meanwhile, investigators trying to determine why he planned the shooting spree focused on a deadly act of domestic violence that touched off the mayhem.

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The trial for George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watch captain accused of murdering teen Trayvon Martin while on patrol, began today (6-10-13)!

Lead defense attorney Mark O'Mara told the judge his defense team needed several more weeks to prepare claiming that they “weren’t ready” and “needed more time”; blaming prosecutors for a delay in turning over evidence, but  Circuit Judge Debra Nelson rejected the defense’s request to delay the trial.

The highest profile trial to eve take place in Central Florida began with an incident that took place on February 12, 2012, in which Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, fatally shot Martin, a black teenager, sparking a fierce national debate about such issues as gun control, equal justice and race after.

Read More At Fox News

With the recent controversy over the White House phone surveillance program many are crying foul over that fact that President Barack Obama's political appointees are using secret government email accounts to conduct official business; a practice that complicates agencies' legal responsibilities to find and turn over emails under public records requests and congressional inquiries.

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday acknowledged the practice and said it made eminent sense for Cabinet secretaries and other high-profile officials to have what he called alternative email accounts that wouldn't fill with unwanted messages. Carney said all their email accounts, public and otherwise, were subject to congressional oversight and requests by citizens under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

"There's nothing secret," Carney said.

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The White House defended its massive phone surveillance program as a "critical tool" in fighting terrorism as criticism of the spying mounted on Capitol Hill Thursday. The Guardian uncovered on Wednesday that the Obama administration is collecting millions of Verizon telephone records from Americans with a secret court order in an effort to track down terrorism suspects.

Information obtained from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) orders "is a critical tool in protecting the nation from terror threats as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorism activities, particularly people located inside the United States," White House principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One Thursday.

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Richard Ramirez, the demonic serial killer known as the Night Stalker died early Friday (6-7-13) in a prison hospital, escaping justice by execution.  

In the 1980s, Ramirez’ reign of terror across the Southland was marked with satanic signs at murder scenes and the mutilated bodies of his victims'.

Ramirez, 53, had been taken from San Quentin's death row to a hospital where authorities said he died of liver failure. He had been housed on death row for decades and was awaiting execution, even though it has been years since anyone has been put to death in California.

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