In a letter released to coincide with Obama's visit to New Orleans today, more than 50 leading religious leaders and faith-based groups have asked the president to take action to address challenges still remaining along the Gulf Coast. More...

President Barack Obama arrives in New Orleans today for his first visit to the city and region since his presidential campaign. But some local lawmakers and community leaders criticize the short visit and the lack of attention paid to the still struggling region. More...

In a column posted yesterday to the conservative website NewsMax, John L. Perry asked his readers to "[i]magine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution." But if you think Perry can be dismissed as part of the far-right fringe, think again. More...

Americans for Prosperity, a lobby group working to promote polluters' economic interests, is using the controversy over the president's green jobs advisor to attack the climate bill as a "watermelon" -- "green on the outside but Communist red to the core." More...

Is the apprehension some parents are feeling over the speech President Obama is delivering to schoolchildren today the product of a general feeling they have lost control over the messages reaching their children? Professor Mark Anthony Neal takes a closer look. More...

The federal government has released information to environmental groups showing there are 584 coal ash dumps across the country -- almost double the number previously identified. But some utilities including Duke Energy, Progress Energy and the Southern Co. are still withholding data on their dumps, claiming it's "confidential business information." More...

A coalition of more than 300 grassroots groups will be delivering letters this week to the local offices of U.S. senators calling for tougher regulations on greenhouse gas pollution than what's now being considered. More...

This is the first year that Congressional leadership and the U.S. president did not travel to the Gulf Coast to honor the anniversary of our nation's largest disaster. Leaders in Washington still have much to learn from community leaders on the ground working every day to restore their neighborhoods, reports Jeffrey Buchanan. More...

The Obama administration unveiled plans this week to create a federal task force to overhaul management of coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi. The move comes in response to growing criticism of the Corps' foot-dragging. More...

Health insurance corporations and their front groups are playing hardball to force nervous Democrats to dilute their health care reform plan. It remains to be seen whether these insurance industry streetfighters will ultimately prevail, but for now they have succeeded in reframing the debate, reports Phil Mattera. More...

Behind the anger visible in recent town hall meetings about health care reform is a surging, right-wing populist movement fearful of the nation's changing demographics, and anxious about having an African-American CEO in Washington, says Chip Berlet. More...

The Texas Republican and former House Majority leader stepped down from his job with the law firm DLA Piper after controversy over his leadership of FreedomWorks, a corporate-funded group that's helping organize rowdy protests against health reform. More...

A longtime proponent of advance care planning, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) says the effort to portray such planning as creating "death panels" is "nuts." But he's no fan of the Obama administration's reform plan, either. More...

The office of Rep. David Scott of suburban Atlanta was also hit with other graffiti using racial slurs and calling for "Death to all Marxists!" The lawmaker believes he's been targeted over remarks he made at a recent town hall on health care reform, which he supports. More...

Responding to a question about fears over health care reform, the President addresses misinformation about advance care planning entailing "death panels" -- and cites information from the story we helped break about one of the biggest proponents of such planning being a conservative Republican Senator from Georgia. More...

Sarah Palin appears to have picked up the misinformation that led to her "death panel" charges from the Liberty Counsel -- a far-right religious group affiliated with Jerry Falwell's Liberty University empire in Lynchburg, Va. More...

The President has nominated Joseph Pizarchik to head the federal agency that regulates coal mining practices. Pointing to his pro-industry record as a mining regulator in Pennsylvania, environmentalists are calling on Senators to vote no. More...

The expansion of 287(g) programs that allow local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law flies in the face of problems with the program that have already surfaced, reports Bill Ong Hing. More...

In what is being called a political victory for the Obama administration, the Senate voted Tuesday to halt further production of the Air Force's F-22 Raptor fighter jets, one of the nation's most expensive defense programs. More...

Democrats and Republicans agree that the failure to get immigration policy right will have serious consequences for America's future. More...