Will Obama Tax Employer-Provided Health Benefits?

As lawmakers continue to struggle to find a way to pay for a health reform that could cost $1 trillion or more over the next decade, Barack Obama seems to be opening the door a little wider to an approach that he rejected soundly when John McCain proposed it during last year’s presidential campaign: taxing the health benefits that employers provide their workers.

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Man killed in D.C. Metro crash ordered jets above Capitol on 9/11

A former commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard — who ordered jets over the Capitol amid the September 11, 2001, terror attacks — was among those killed in a transit train crash in Washington this week, authorities said Tuesday. Retired Maj. Gen

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Obama signs bill putting tobacco products under FDA oversight

President Obama signed landmark legislation Monday giving the Food and Drug Administration new power to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gives the FDA power to ban candy-flavored and fruit-flavored cigarettes, widely considered appealing to first-time smokers, including youths. It also prohibits tobacco companies from using terms such as “low tar,” “light” or “mild,” requires larger warning labels on packages, and restricts advertising of tobacco products

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Former Congressman Tom Davis Emerges as Favorite in Obama’s Cyberczar Search

Tom Davis, a moderate Republican from Virginia, has emerged as a leading candidate for the Obama Administration’s newly created position of cybersecurity czar. Sources familiar with the White House’s deliberations on the subject say Obama officials feel a Washington power player would make a better candidate than a tech guru

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DNA tests show Michigan man is not 1955 missing toddler

DNA test results reveal that a Michigan man is not a Long Island, New York, boy who went missing 54 years ago, according to the FBI. John Robert Barnes, of Kalkaska, Michigan, approached police in New York twice in March claiming to be Steven Damman, a toddler who vanished while on a shopping trip with his mother in 1955

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A (Radical) Way to Fix Suburban Sprawl

There’s something deeply wrong with Tysons Corner. For starters, Virginia’s bustling commercial district — the 12th biggest employment center in the nation — has more parking spaces than jobs or residents. What was a quaint intersection of two country roads 50 years ago is now a two-tiered interchange with 10 lanes of traffic-choked hell; try to cross it on foot, and you’re taking your life into your hands.

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High court rejects lawsuit over gays in military law

A former Army captain who was dismissed under a federal law dealing with gays and lesbians in the military lost his appeal Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court. James Pietrangelo and 11 other veterans had sued the government over the “don’t ask/ don’t tell” law passed in 1993

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Dealership has less than a week to sell all its cars

The clock is ticking for Ray O’Bryhim: he has less than a week to sell his last 40 cars. His ads for Pohanka Chrysler-Dodge scream, “Everything must go, regardless of profit!” On June 9, his franchise to sell new Chryslers and Dodges will be terminated, along with those of almost 800 other Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealers nationwide

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