Politics & Government

Obama Shifts To Foreign Policy Goals During Second Term

by Ari Shapiro

The White House has been fighting to prevent the disastrous rollout of the health care law from defining President Obama's second term. This week, diplomats from the U.S. and other countries are meeting for a second round of negotiations on Iran's nuclear program, and a breakthrough there could shape history's view of this president.
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Is Running Your Car On Rubbish The Future Of Fuels?

by Elizabeth Shogren

The EPA proposed a new standard on Friday for how much biofuel must be mixed into the nation's gasoline. The portion of vehicle fuel that comes from plants has increased dramatically over recent years to about 10 percent. But most of it comes from corn. Congress hoped that, by now, a billion gallons would be coming from advanced biofuels, which have much smaller greenhouse gas footprints. That hasn't happened. But the nascent cellulosic fuel industry says don't count it out. Several plants are on the verge of opening and more will be on the way.
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Farm Bill Cuts Might Cut Conservation, Too

by Frank Morris

Farm programs will likely cost the government less under any new farm bill, but the policy could be bad for the environment. Both House and Senate versions would end a big subsidy, called direct payments, that has paid money to land owners — whether they needed it or not — if they complied with certain conservation regulations. The two chambers' versions of the bill differ on how, or even if, to incent farmers to take care of their land. But both versions would stop funding to keep at least five million acres of land out of production.
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Who Gets The Blame For NSA Spying? NSA Says Not Us

by Tom Gjelten

Faced with harsh criticism over its vast surveillance operation, the NSA and its allies are pushing back. They say their intelligence collection is being done in response to demands from the executive branch of the U.S. government and not on its own. The NSA says it is currently working on 36,000 pages of what it calls "requirements" — intel speak for intelligence assignments it gets from branches of the U.S. government.
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Kerry's New Mission: Convince Congress To Take Iran Deal

by Michele Kelemen

Secretary of State John Kerry is back in Washington to defend the proposed nuclear deal with Iran to skeptical members of Congress. He and his colleagues from other major powers failed to reach a deal with Iran during talks over the weekend in Geneva. Iran blames France's hard line for blowing up the deal, though Kerry has tried to downplay that.
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