Source: The Miami Herald

It's just a formality since the deal was announced months ago, but today Florida officially received the waiver it needs to privatize Medicaid. Gov. Rick Scott first announced in February that the state had received conditional approval from the federal government to allow private companies to administer the Medicaid program for roughly 3 million participants.

That was the same day Scott said he would support Medicaid expansion, his decision based in part on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' conditional agreement on granting the managed care waiver. The governor and the Senate agreed on an expansion alternative that would have qualified for $51 billion, but House Republicans blocked the deal.

Here is more from the governor's office on the final managed care waiver:

Gov. Rick Scott today announced the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) gave final approval to amend the 1115 waiver demonstration, which allows the state to extend an improved model of managed care to all counties in Florida and will require managed care for certain populations. In addition, program operations and safeguards have been enhanced as this waiver amendment allows the state to improve upon the managed care model originally developed for the five-county reform demonstration that began in 2006.


Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/06/florida-receives-final-permission-to-privatize-medicaid.html

Source: Huffington Post

An analysis from pro-medical marijuana group Americans For Safe Access found that President Barack Obama's administration has spent nearly $300 million on combatting medical marijuana in states that have legalized the drug.

The report calculates the total amount of federal spending on medical marijuana intervention at $289 million over Obama's four-and-a-half years in the White House. According to the analysis, the Drug Enforcement Administration alone spent 4 percent of its budget in 2011 and 2012 cracking down on medical marijuana across 20 states. Taken as a whole, Obama's participation makes up the majority of what ASA says is a $483 million war of lawsuits, indictments and asset forfeiture attempts waged by the Department of Justice under the past three presidents.

The group claims that over 1 million Americans are using medical marijuana, and 34 percent of Americans live in a state where its medical use is legal. ASA's report comes on the heels of a separate study from California's chapter of NORML that found medical marijuana charges responsible for a total of over 480 years in prison sentences in the state, where cannabis has been legal for medical use since 1996. That number will likely grow when the Department of Justice hands down a prison sentence for medical marijuana provider Matthew Davies, who accepted a plea deal late last month.

The studies are just the latest figures that underscore Obama's aggressive war on pot. While Obama and members of his administration had left many marijuana reform advocates optimistic in the early stages of his first term, it quickly became clear that the new president was determined to ramp up the enforcement-focused approach to medical cannabis.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/13/obama-medical-marijuana_n_3437636.html

Source: Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The National Rifle Association is buying airtime on Arkansas radio stations to defend Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor's vote against gun purchase background checks proposed by President Barack Obama.

The NRA said the ad will run Wednesday through June 25 in a number of state media markets.

The 60-second spot mentions the 2008 murder of Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney and says nothing in the legislation Pryor voted against would have prevented the killing.

A gun control group co-founded by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, ran a 30-second ad in May that attacked Pryor for his vote. The ad didn't mention Gwatney by name but the group referred to him in a news release. Pryor called the ad "disgusting" and said it politicized a friend's death.

Read more: http://www.ktts.com/news/211338491.html

Source: Real Clear Politics

The good news keeps coming for Cory Booker in the popular Newark mayor’s bid to become the next senator from New Jersey.

A pair of polls released on Monday showed the Democratic front-runner besting his two most viable primary opponents -- U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt -- by more than 40 percent in the special election to finish out the term of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died last week at age 89.

The best chance for liberal-leaning Pallone and Holt to make the race competitive against Booker --who is far better known statewide and has already begun racking up key endorsements -- would be to win the endorsement of one (or both) of the Garden State’s two most powerful unions: The New Jersey Education Association and the state branch of the Communication Workers Association of America.

But sources connected to both the NJEA and CWA tell RealClearPolitics that they do not expect their organizations to endorse a candidate in the Aug. 13 primary, leaving Booker with one less obstacle on his expected march to victory in the Oct. 16 general election.

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/12/unions_choice_to_avoid_primary_will_aid_booker_118777.html

Source: Politico

Former White House chief of staff Bill Daley is the latest Obama White House alum to set his sights on higher office in Illinois, announcing on Tuesday he’s forming an exploratory campaign to run for Illinois governor.

In a video announcement on his campaign website, Daley decries the mess in Springfield, Ill. The video shows pictures of Daley with President Barack Obama in the White House and borrows the administration message of “We Can’t Wait.”

Daley would be challenging incumbent Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn in the Democratic primary. A November poll from Public Policy Polling had Quinn’s approval rate at just 25 percent, making him the least popular governor in the country according to PPP. That survey also found Daley would lead Quinn 37 percent to 34 percent in a head-to-head matchup.

Daley, the son of longtime Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and brother of longtime former Mayor Richard M. Daley, succeeded current Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the White House as chief of staff. A banker and businessman, Bill Daley also served as secretary of commerce under President Bill Clinton.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/bill-daley-exploratory-committee-92560.html

Source: CBS News

CBS News has uncovered documents that show the State Department may have covered up allegations of illegal and inappropriate behavior within their ranks.

The Diplomatic Security Service, or the DSS, is the State Department's security force, charged with protecting the secretary of state and U.S. ambassadors overseas and with investigating any cases of misconduct on the part of the 70,000 State Department employees worldwide.

CBS News' John Miller reports that according to an internal State Department Inspector General's memo, several recent investigations were influenced, manipulated, or simply called off. The memo obtained by CBS News cited eight specific examples. Among them: allegations that a State Department security official in Beirut "engaged in sexual assaults" on foreign nationals hired as embassy guards and the charge and that members of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's security detail "engaged prostitutes while on official trips in foreign countries" -- a problem the report says was "endemic."

The memo also reveals details about an "underground drug ring" was operating near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and supplied State Department security contractors with drugs.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57588456/state-department-memo-reveals-possible-cover-ups-halted-investigations

Source: The Hill

President Obama co-sponsored legislation when he was a member of the Senate that would have banned the mass collection of phone records that his administration is now engaged in.

The SAFE Act, introduced by former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), would have amended the Patriot Act to require that the government have "specific and articulable facts" to show that a person is an "agent of a foreign power" before seizing their phone records.

The bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee in 2005, but never received a vote. It had 15 co-sponsors in all, including then-Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who are now members of Obama’s Cabinet.

Experts said the bill that Obama supported in the Senate would have prohibited the sweeping surveillance that has come to light at the National Security Agency (NSA).



Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/303941-obama-sponsored-bill-that-would-have-banned-verizon-snooping

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry is defending U.S. drone strikes after the CIA’s killing of a senior Taliban member.

Kerry says the U.S. is at war with al-Qaida and the Taliban, so the strikes are legal. He says the U.S. wages the war in self-defense and as a last resort.

U.S. drone policy is under growing scrutiny. President Barack Obama promised greater transparency last week and said attacks would target only “imminent threats” to U.S. national security.

On Wednesday, a CIA strike killed a Pakistani Taliban deputy leader.

Read more: http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/05/31/kerry-defends-us-drone-policy-after-pakistan-hit/

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The White House has taken an unusual tack in filling a key housing policy post, turning to a former Bush administration official who later helped design President Barack Obama’s response to the foreclosure crisis.

Seth Wheeler, a former Treasury Department official under the both Bush and Obama administrations, joined the National Economic Council earlier this month as senior adviser on housing policy, a White House spokesman said.

The move comes amid questions about the administration’s housing policy going forward and whether it will turn its attention to deciding the fates of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , the government-sponsored enterprises that were placed in conservatorship during the 2008 financial crisis. The administration has been largely silent on the issue, having studied options for a new system of mortgage-guarantees to replace Fannie and Freddie, but opting not to publish a detailed recommendation thus far.

Earlier this month, Mr. Obama nominated Rep. Mel Watt (D., N..C.) to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie. That nomination has already run into criticism from Republicans on Capitol Hill, who argued that Mr. Watt lacks the necessary experience in mortgage markets.

Read more: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/05/31/white-house-taps-former-bush-official-for-housing-post/

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Democratic Senators have loyal to President Obama when it has come to his nominees. The only times that nominations have failed (or potential nominees withdrew themselves from consideration) has been due to Republican opposition.

So go ahead call up Rand Paul or Ted Cruz and tell them to oppose President Obama on this one!