U.S. Edition
(CNN) – Scott Brown, the former Massachusetts senator who lost his re-election bid last year, won’t run for governor of the state, he wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday.
The Republican, who in addition to floating a gubernatorial bid has suggested he’s open to running for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, where he owns a vacation home, told followers he wanted to continue growing “personally and professionally.” FULL POST
(CNN) - Candidates vying to become the next mayor of New York displayed deep disagreements in a televised debate Wednesday over the city's controversial stop-and-frisk searches, which a federal judge said earlier this month violate the Constitution by targeting minorities.
While all of the Democratic candidates have proposed reforms to the policy, frontrunners Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker: and Public Advocate Bill de Blasio sparred over the substance of how the controversial policy would change under their watch. FULL POST
Should teachers be able to carry guns at school? Crossfire hosts S.E. Cupp and Van Jones debate.
(CNN) - Florida legislators won't hold a special session to take another look at the state's controversial "stand your ground" law.
While 47 state lawmakers voted in favor of holding a special session to discuss the law, 108 voted against it, Secretary of State Ken Detzner said in a letter Tuesday.
(CNN) – Evidence of wrongdoing is about the only thing stopping Republican Rep. Kerry Bentivolio from attempting to impeach President Barack Obama, he told voters Monday.
In a YouTube video first reported by the liberal-leaning website Mediaite, Bentivolio responded to a woman during a Q&A session that "if I could write that bill and submit it," he said, moving to impeach Obama "would be a dream come true." FULL POST
Updated at 5:37 p.m. ET on 8/21
(CNN) – Beau Biden, who traveled to Texas this week for medical tests, successfully underwent a procedure Tuesday and is currently in "great shape," the White House said Wednesday.
The Delaware attorney general and son of Vice President Joe Biden was being evaluated at the University of Texas MD Anderson medical center, a world renowned cancer treatment hospital, after feeling weak and disoriented on a family vacation last week. Neither the vice president's office nor representatives for Beau Biden have specified what procedure he underwent, or have relayed a doctor’s diagnosis. FULL POST
CNN's GUT CHECK | for August 21, 2013 | 5 p.m. – n. a pause to assess the state, progress or condition of the political news cycle
DEVELOPING… IN IOWA, HOWARD DEAN SAYS “AT THIS POINT, I’M SUPPORTING HILLARY CLINTON”: Dean, a former Vermont governor and 2004 presidential candidate, talked to The Des Moines Register today. Asked if he’s definitively ruling out a White House bid, Dean climbed into a waiting car and said with a grin, “Ahhgh, we’re done here. Thank you.” – Jennifer Jacobs
CAUGHT: GOVERNMENT IMPROPERLY COLLECTED THOUSANDS OF DOMESTIC COMMUNICATIONS… Declassified opinions from a secret court that oversees government surveillance shows the National Security Agency was broadly collecting domestic Internet communications of Americans and misrepresenting the scope of that effort to the court. The three opinions include one from October 2011 by U.S. District Judge John Bates, who scolded government lawyers that the NSA had, for the third time in less than three years, belatedly acknowledged it was collecting more data than it was legally allowed to. . – Evan Perez
FULL POST
Washington (CNN) - The Obama administration on Wednesday declassified opinions from a secret court that oversees government surveillance showing the National Security Agency was broadly collecting domestic Internet communications of Americans and misrepresenting the scope of that effort to the court.
The three opinions include one from October 2011 by U.S. District Judge John Bates, who scolded government lawyers that the NSA had, for the third time in less than three years, belatedly acknowledged it was collecting more data than it was legally allowed to.
(CNN) – Rep. James Clyburn, the House assistant Democratic leader, claimed Wednesday that some sectors of the news media were complicit in spreading misinformation, and used an historical example from Nazi Germany to illustrate his point.
According to The Hill newspaper, the South Carolina Democrat said "manufactured controversies" were becoming more common with the rise of internet journalism. FULL POST
(CNN) – President Barack Obama isn't looking to change current federal laws dictating the classification of marijuana, his spokesman explained Wednesday.
Josh Earnest, the deputy press secretary, said Obama "does not, at this point, advocate a change in the law" that places marijuana in the same class of drugs as heroin, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, and which deems cannabis to have no medical use. FULL POST