2:31 pm

November 6
Ed O'Keefe

At emotional rally, senators renew push to revamp how military handles sexual assault cases

(Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

(Yuri Gripas/Reuters)

A broad cross-section of the U.S. Senate renewed its push Wednesday to dramatically overhaul how the Defense Department handles allegations of sexual assault even as the proposal's lead sponsor admitted she is still well short of garnering the votes needed to pass the measure.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) forcefully defended her plan to remove decisions on whether to prosecute cases of sexual assault, rape and similar crimes from the military chain of command by establishing an independent team of military prosecutors to review the cases. The proposal is expected to be introduced as an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill whenever debate on the omnibus measure begins in the next two weeks.

Flanked by seven of her colleagues from both parties at a news conference on Capitol Hill, Gillibrand said there has been "zero accountability" in the ranks for dealing with allegations of assault and rape, despite two decades of assurances by military leaders that there is "zero tolerance" for such crimes.

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1:48 pm

November 6
Sandhya Somashekhar

Sebelius team working on 200 fixes to Obamacare Web site

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday that her team is working on some 200 fixes to the ailing federal health insurance Web site, and that once it is fixed, officials plan to formally “re-invite” people who were turned off by the technical glitches.

At a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Sebelius did not offer an exact date for when this outreach effort would begin.

“We don’t want to do that until we are sure that their experience will be significantly better than it was the first time,” she said.

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1:00 pm

November 6
Aaron Blake

Sarah Palin launches book tour

Sarah Palin is going on a 15-city tour to promote her new Christmas book, "Good Tidings and Great Joy."

The tour by the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee includes stops in swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Wisconsin but mostly travels through red America. It will last from Tuesday until Nov. 22, with more dates after Thanksgiving.

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12:14 pm

November 6
Aaron Blake

After plagiarism allegations, Rand Paul’s Washington Times column nixed

The Washington Times has announced that it will no longer run Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) regular columns, after one of them was found to have contained material that was apparently plagiarized.

Paul's Times column is the latest example in a string of plagiarism allegations. Paul's speeches and his 2013 book were previously reported to contain language that had appeared on Wikipedia, an AP report and on conservative Web sites.

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11:33 am

November 6
David Nakamura

AFL-CIO launches major ad campaign targeting GOP on immigration

The AFL-CIO is challenging House Republicans to support comprehensive immigration reform in a series of new television ads targeting lawmakers in districts with large Latino populations.

Union President Richard Trumka said the ads will run in Spanish in Bakersfield, Calif., Denver, Atlanta and Orlando, and in English in the Washington area. He said the cost of the ads totals more than $1 million.

"The time for acting on immigration reform is now. Labor unions have decided to throw down in a big way to make it happen," Trumka said on a conference call with reporters. "The two main objectives are to spur House Republicans into action on immigration reform this year and to hold Republican members of Congress accountable for hostile statements about Latino immigrants."

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10:53 am

November 6
Aaron Blake

Democratic field clears for Alex Sink in Florida special election

FILE - In this Oct. 8, 2010 file photo, Alex Sink, speaks during a gubernatorial debate in Miami. Sink announced Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2-13 that she will move to Pinellas County and run for the congressional seat that had been held by U.S. Rep. Bill Young. Young died earlier this month. (AP Photo/J Pat Carter, File)

 Alex Sink (AP Photo/J Pat Carter, File)

The coast is clear for Alex Sink in the special election for the late Rep. Bill Young's (R-Fla.) seat -- at least in the Democratic primary.

Young's 2012 opponent, Jessica Ehrlich, dropped out of the race on Wednesday after the Democratic establishment lined up behind Sink, the former state chief financial officer and 2010 gubernatorial nominee.

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10:20 am

November 6
Aaron Blake

Rep. Jon Runyan won’t seek reelection

Rep. Jon Runyan (R-N.J.) won't seek reelection in 2014, according to two people with knowledge of his plans.

The news was first reported by the Burlington County Times. Those who confirmed it requested anonymity since the announcement hasn't gone public yet.

Runyan, a former professional football player with the Philadelphia Eagles and San Diego Chargers, is in just his second term in the House.

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10:01 am

November 6
Aaron Blake

Virginia attorney general’s race one of closest in recent history

The Virginia attorney general's race is looking like one of the closest in recent history, with 99.9 percent of the vote in and just 144 votes separating the two candidates out of about 2.2 million cast.

Republican Mark Obenshain leads by that margin over Democrat Mark Herring. Just one precinct has yet to report -- in Prince William County, which Herring is winning with 54 percent of the vote.

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10:54 pm

November 5
Sean Sullivan

Byrne wins Alabama runoff, in victory for GOP business wing

Republican Bradley Byrne defeated his insurgent conservative opponent in an Alabama House race Tuesday, notching a hard-fought victory for the business wing of the GOP.

With more than 90 percent of votes tallied, the Associated Press called the race for Byrne over Dean Young, a Christian conservative aligned with the tea party. Byrne led Young 53 percent to 47 percent.

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9:19 pm

November 5
Philip Rucker

Bill de Blasio elected mayor of New York

NEW YORK – Bill de Blasio was overwhelmingly elected mayor of New York on Tuesday night, according to multiple networks, becoming the first Democrat in 20 years to lead the nation’s largest city and promising to usher in a new era of activist liberal governance.

After polls closed at 9 p.m. in overwhelmingly Democratic New York, de Blasio was projected to soundly defeat Republican Joe Lhota, a protégé of former mayor Rudy Giuliani.

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