I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot  —  Hello.  My name is Chris Kluwe, and for eight years I was the punter for the Minnesota Vikings.  In May 2013, the Vikings released me from the team.  At the time, quite a few people asked me if I thought …

Oregon Mother: I Can't Afford Obamacare For Myself, 1-Year-Old Son  —  PORTLAND, Ore. (CBS Seattle/AP) — One Oregon mother says that she is unable to afford health insurance for her and her 18-month-old son because it's too expensive.  —  Kate Holly, 33, tells KOIN-TV that she originally …

Duck Dynasty launch their own line of guns as Phil hatches plot to move his family to rival TV network after A&E bosses ‘humiliated’ him over anti-gay storm  — Phil Robertson feels betrayed by bosses at A&E and is plotting to get his family out of the $200,000 per episode contact they signed last August

Medicaid Increases Emergency-Department Use: Evidence from Oregon's Health Insurance Experiment  —  1National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.  —  2Columbia University School of Social Work, New York, NY 10027, USA.  —  3Center for Outcomes Research and Education …

The Three Stages of Obamacare Acceptance  —  Now that Obamacare is clearly moving forward, Republicans are adjusting to a new reality: it may no longer be a realistic option to simply wait until the law collapses under its own weight and vanishes entirely.  GOP lawmakers are increasingly discussing …

Qaeda-Aligned Militants Threaten Key Iraqi Cities  —  BAGHDAD — Radical Sunni militants aligned with Al Qaeda threatened Thursday to seize control of Falluja and Ramadi, two of the most important cities in Iraq, setting fire to police stations, freeing prisoners from jail and occupying mosques …

Find Friends Abuse  —  When we first built Snapchat, we had a difficult time finding other friends that were using the service.  We wanted a way to find friends in our address book that were also using Snapchat - so we created Find Friends.  Find Friends is an optional service that asks Snapchatters …

Exclusive: MSNBC to name Thomas Roberts host of ‘Way Too Early’  —  MSNBC has decided to replace the anchor of “Way Too Early” with the openly-gay Thomas Roberts because the left-leaning channel wants the show to be seen as more “diverse,” a source inside the cable network tells The Daily Caller.

How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood  —  And then, how we reverse engineered Netflix.  The story of the streaming service's micro-genres. … If you use Netflix, you've probably wondered about the specific genres that it suggests to you.  Some of them just seem so specific that it's absurd.

It begins: New NYC schools chancellor will push ‘progressive agenda’  —  Farina, a former teacher and long-time adviser to de Blasio, shares the mayor's desire to foist a “progressive agenda” upon NYC schools, she said at a news conference earlier this week.

Weeks in the Making, an Editorial on Snowden May Go ‘Beyond What Is Realistic’  —  Most newspaper editorials don't generate a great deal of heat.  Even fewer can be considered newsworthy.  —  The exception was one in The Times on Thursday, calling for Edward J. Snowden to be offered clemency or a plea bargain.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates hurt in fall  —  (CNN) - Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates was back home on Thursday after injuring his neck in a fall on New Year's Day.  —  Gates accidentally fell and fractured his first vertebrae at his home in Washington state …

Climate to be 2014 battlefield  —  Climate change and energy will be a major policy battleground in the 2014 midterms, advocates on both sides of the issue promise.  —  Republicans like Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) plan to go on the attack against President Obama's climate action plan …

Ezra Klein Is Said to Plan to Leave Washington Post  —  Ezra Klein, an analyst, columnist and television commentator who runs The Washington Post's Wonkblog, is making plans to leave the newspaper after failing to win support for a new website he wanted to create within the company …

Mass Shootings Are Becoming More Frequent  —  After a man opened fire at Los Angeles's airport a few months ago, friends and coworkers undoubtedly turned to each other shaking their heads: Could this really be happening again, so soon?  Are these things getting more frequent, or am I imagining it?

Frozen Out: 98% of Stories Ignore That Ice-bound Ship Was On Global Warming Mission  —  A group of climate change scientists were rescued by helicopter Jan. 2, after being stranded in the ice since Christmas morning.  But the majority of the broadcast networks' reports about the ice-locked …

Calif. high court grants undocumented immigrant admission to state bar  —  Sergio Garcia is seen in Chico, Calif., April 2, 2013.  Despite a law school degree and passing the state bar exam, as an undocumented immigrant, Garcia was not allowed to practice law by the state until the ruling today.

Loan Monitor Is Accused of Ruthless Tactics on Student Debt  —  Stacy Jorgensen fought her way through pancreatic cancer.  But her struggle was just beginning.  —  Before she became ill, Ms. Jorgensen took out $43,000 in student loans.  As her payments piled up along with medical bills …

Kerry Quietly Makes Priority of Climate Pact  —  WASHINGTON — As a young naval officer in Vietnam, John Kerry commanded a Swift boat up the dangerous rivers of the Mekong Delta.  But when he returned there last month as secretary of state for the first time since 1969, he spoke not of past firefights but of climate change.

Former Florida Governor Apologizes For Anti-Gay Record  —  Charlie Crist, who served as Governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 as a Republican, is currently running for his old job as a Democrat.  In addition to renouncing his old party, Crist apologized in a newly published interview …

Bob Grant, conservative radio icon, dead at 84, reports say  —  Bob Grant, whose familiar voice boomed over the radio airwaves for more than 50 years, died on Tuesday, according to multiple reports and an obituary posted on the Branchburg Funeral Home's website.  He was 84.

Lobbyists cash in on do-nothing Congress  —  Congress didn't get much of anything done last year, but you wouldn't know it looking down K Street.  —  Washington Inc. experienced only a minor squeeze, continuing to hum along even as Congress failed to pass the kind of bills that lobbyists …

Chinese Helicopter Rescues 52 From Ship Trapped in Antarctic Ice  —  LONDON — In a dramatic operation displaying unusual international harmony in one of the world's most remote and inhospitable places, a red-and-white Chinese helicopter on Thursday rescued 52 passengers trapped …