Intel committee chairman poised to recall ex-CIA chief Morell over Benghazi testimony, weighing same for Petraeus

Republican allegations that former CIA Acting Director Mike Morell misled Congress over the White House's role in crafting the flawed Benghazi “talking points” took a dramatic turn Thursday, with the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee telling Fox News it's likely Morell will be recalled to testify. Investigators also are reviewing the testimony of former CIA Director David Petraeus, Morell’s old boss, to assess whether he should be recalled as well.

Increased domestic spending may be behind proposed military cuts, CBO report suggests

 As the Obama administration announces proposed sweeping defense cuts, a Congressional Budget Office report documents how increases in other areas of domestic spending may be forcing the White House to reduce money for the military.

The CBO report finds that mandatory spending, which includes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, is projected to rise $85 billion, or 4 percent, to $2.1 trillion this year.

ObamaCare may increase premiums for 11 million workers, report says

Republicans renewed their fight against ObamaCare on Monday in response to a new report in which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services concludes that 11 million small business employees may see their premiums rise under the law.

The report, released Friday, says the higher rates are partly due to the health law's requirement that premiums can no longer be based on a person's age. That has sent premiums higher for younger workers, and lower for older ones.

Arizona bill letting businesses deny service for religious reasons sparks heated debate

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is facing pressure from both sides of a heated debate over religious rights, as she weighs whether to sign a bill that would legally protect businesses that deny services to customers for religious reasons.

The bill cleared the Arizona Legislature last week. Opponents are calling the measure “state-sanctioned discrimination” and raising such scenarios as gays being denied restaurant service or medical treatment when a business owner’s religion doesn’t condone homosexuality.

Ukraine's new leaders order arrest of President Yanukovych

Ukraine's acting interior minister announced Monday that an arrest warrant had been issued for that country's president, Viktor Yanukovych.

In a statement on his official Facebook page, Arsen Avakhov wrote that Yanukovych and several other officials were wanted on charges of "mass killing of civilians" in violence that engulfed Ukraine's capital city, Kiev, earlier this week. At least 82 people, most of them protesters, were killed in clashes with members of the police and security forces. Some of the dead were shot by snipers in strategic positions overlooking the main protest camp in Kiev's Independence Square.

Americans grapple with income inequality, share little consensus on how to address it

The wealthiest county in America is settled deep in 4 a.m. slumber when Neal Breen threads the mini-mansion subdivisions and snow-blanketed fairways on his way to open shop.
There's two hours yet before the business day begins, but Breen, who is 21, has plenty to do after flipping on the lights. Donning a green apron without taking off his tweed cap, he boils the first of more than 500 bagels, then shovels them into a waiting...http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/02/23/americans-grapple-with-income-inequality-share-little-consensus-on-how-to/

House GOP set to target Obama admin on regulations, executive power

House Republicans are plotting a broad effort to push the Obama administration to rein in federal regulations and reform a key part of the health care law in a bid to curb what lawmakers see as abuse of executive power by an "imperial presidency."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., on Friday..http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/22/gop-lawmakers-push-to-rein-in-obama-administration-regulations/

FCC official, others warn agency study could stifle freedom of the press

An Obama administration plan that would get researchers into newsrooms across the country is sparking concern among congressional Republicans and conservative groups.
The purpose of the proposed Federal Communications Commission study is to..http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/20/fcc-official-others-warn-agency-study-would-squash-news-media-1st-amendment/

Congressional Budget Office: Wage hike would lift pay but cost jobs

A plan by President Obama and fellow Democrats to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would cost roughly 500,000 jobs but increase wages for roughly 16.5 million Americans, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday.
The report was immediately met with sharp Republican criticism..http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/18/hill-budget-office-wage-hike-would-lift-pay-but-cost-jobs/

Iranian hacking of Navy computers reportedly more extensive than first thought

An Iranian hack of the Navy's largest unclassified computer network reportedly took more than four months to resolve, raising concern among some lawmakers about security gaps exposed by the attack.

The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former U.S. officials, reported late Monday that the cyberattack targeted the Navy Marine Corps Internet, which...http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/18/iranian-hacking-navy-computers-reportedly-more-extensive-than-first-thought/

Lawmakers look at universal savings accounts for children at federal, state and local levels

An Oregon Democrat says he wants to create federal legislation that would set up each child born in the United States with a savings account as part of a major revamping of the country’s tax code.
Sen. Ron Wyden, on track to become the Senate’s top Democrat on tax policy, says he wants to draft legislation that would provide each child with a $500 savings account as a way to curb poverty.
Speaking earlier this month at the University of Southern California School of Law and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, Wyden said universal savings accounts for newborns would “really put a dent in the poverty rate.”
He described the country’s current tax code as a “dysfunctional, rotten mess of a carcass.”
While he has yet to write the legislation, Wyden cited a 2009 proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, as a possible blueprint for a future plan that would give all children born in the U.S. $500 toward the cost of college, buying a home or to be used toward retirement.
Although Wyden’s proposal would be on a federal level, there are several similar initiatives in play on state and local levels.
City officials in San Francisco offer college savings accounts to every kindergartner in the city school district. Each student receives $50 deposited into a trust fund under the city’s name. Some low-income children qualify for more - up to $100 in the trust fund.
The San Francisco plan allows families to add money into the account over the years but they can only withdraw funds for educational purposes, such as books or tuition, once the child is enrolled in college. If a child chooses not to go to college or to pursue secondary education, the account dissolves when the recipient turns 25, with any personal savings returning to the account holder and matching funds going back into the city program.
So far, about 7,500 children have city-sponsored college savings accounts.
Later this year, state officials in Hawaii are expected to take up the topic. A state Senate proposal establishes and appropriates funds into the Universal Children’s Savings Account Trust Fund.

House Dems to use longshot tactic to force votes, tarnish GOP in midterms

House Democrats are vowing to try a rarely used tactic to force votes in the GOP-led chamber on the minimum wage and immigration reform, a strategy that will likely fail but might hurt Republicans with voters in this year’s elections.
The tactic is known as a “discharge petition." It would require the minority party, in this case Democrats, to persuade roughly two dozen Republicans to defy their leadership and join Democrats in forcing a vote on setting the federal minimum wage at $10.10 an hour.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said fellow chamber Democrats will push the issue when Congress returns from its break Feb. 24.
The attempt to force a vote on a comprehensive overhaul of immigration laws could occur in a few months.
Democrats think that a majority of Americans support both issues and that attempting to use the discharge petition will at least portray House Republicans as the obstacle to their success.
However, the discharge petition rarely works.
That was never more evident than last fall in the midst of the 16-day partial government shutdown. Though several Republicans said they wanted to vote on a spending bill with no strings attached, they ultimately rejected the idea that they would join forces with the Democrats.
However, the petition worked in 1986, forcing a vote on a gun rights bill, and in 2002, ensuring a vote on campaign finance legislation.
On the larger issue of using the petition to retake control of the House, Republicans now have a 234-201 majority, and Democrats would need a net gain of 17 seats to win back the majority. The current projections show Democrats gaining at most four seats, according to the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report.
In addition, signing the petition would be a breach of loyalty for Republicans, certain to draw the wrath of the caucus and rebuke of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Republicans largely oppose any increase in the minimum wage. They say it's an issue left to the states and that it could slow hiring in a struggling economy.
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, acknowledged that Democrats are unlikely to sway Republicans. Yet he also provided a preview of one of his party's arguments on this issue.
"I don't think we're ever confident that we're going to get 18 Republicans to sign a discharge petition, but we apparently have 30 or 40 that are known over here," he said last week. "Our expectation is if they want to make sure that working people have an incentive to work, they will pay them to do so a wage that does not leave them in poverty."
On the issue of immigration, a number of House Republicans back a comprehensive approach but would likely be unwilling to break ranks with the party and Boehner.

Reference http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/17/house-dems-to-use-longshot-tactic-to-force-votes-tarnish-gop-in-midterms/

Kerry accuses Syrian leader of stonewalling peace talks

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called on Russia to help bring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the negotiating table Monday and claimed that the Syrian leader was not making a good faith effort to find a peaceful end to the country's ongoing civil war.

Speaking in Jakarta, where he is meeting with Southeast Asian leaders, Kerry said that the Damascus regime "refused to open up one moment of discussion" and added that Assad was "trying to win this on the battlefield instead of coming to the negotiating table."

"Right now, Bashar al-Assad has not engaged in the discussions along the promised and required standard that both Russia spoke up for and the regime spoke up for," Kerry said during a press conference in Jakarta with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

Kerry also had harsh words for Assad's allies in Moscow.
"Russia needs to be a part of the solution and not be contributing so many more weapons and so much more aid that they are in fact enabling Assad to double down," he said.
Russia has told the U.S. it was committed to helping create a transitional government, Kerry said, but has not delivered "the kind of effort to create the kind of dynamic by which that could be achieved."

Kerry's comments came after a second round of peace talks ended over the weekend with little progress. U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi apologized to the Syrian people as the talks wound down.
"I am very, very sorry, and I apologize to the Syrian people that their hopes which were very, very high that something will happen here," Brahimi said Sunday.

The talks' modest achievement has been a U.N.-brokered truce in the central city of Homs that has allowed aid workers to deliver some food and medicine for hundreds trapped in the rebel-held areas. More than 1,000 people were also evacuated from the city, which has been under government blockade for more than a year.

On Sunday, an official with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent said its workers have entered the western Damascus suburb of Moadamiyeh to deliver food for the first time in 15 months of government blockade.
Also Sunday, Kerry issued a statement praising the Syrian opposition for having a "mature seriousness of purpose and willingness to discuss all aspects of the conflict."
In contrast, Kerry said, "while [talks] stalled in Geneva, the regime intensified its barbaric assault on its civilian population with barrel bombs and starvation. It has even gone as far as to add some of the opposition delegates at Geneva to a terrorist list and seize their assets. This is reprehensible."
In response, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem accused the United States of trying to "create a very negative climate for dialogue in Geneva."

Syria's conflict started as largely peaceful protests against Assad in March 2011 but later degenerated into a civil war in which more than 140,000 people have been killed, according to activists.

The U.N.'s human rights office said in January it has stopped updating the death toll from the war, confirming that it can no longer verify the sources of information that led to its last count of at least 100,000 in late July.
Millions have been driven out of their homes, seeking shelter in neighboring countries and in safer parts of their homeland.

Washington, its European and Persian Gulf allies are backing the opposition in Syria's conflict. Russia and Iran are supporting Assad's government.

Reference http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/02/17/kerry-accuses-syrian-leader-stonewalling-syria-peace-talks/