BRIEF: Costa Rica's Chinchilla to travel to Colombia to pursue Pacific Alliance deal
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The Tico Times, San Jose, Costa Rica
Regional News Live

May 21--Costa Rica's President Laura Chinchilla will travel Wednesday to Cali, Colombia, to participate in the VII Summit of the Pacific Alliance and to seek approval to become a full member of the trade bloc. Chinchilla will request that Costa Rica be included in an economic forum that includes Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile, whose officials will discuss acceptance of new members during ...

May/21/2013 06:34 PM

OPINION: Saving President Obama's legacy
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The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.
Regional News Live

May 20--In January 2009, I took the first major road trip with the woman who became my wife -- a drive to Washington, D.C., to watch Barack Hussein Obama take the oath as the 44th American president. We wanted to be part of history. By sheer coincidence, our first son was born on the morning of his second inauguration this year. Between those two dates, the exalted poetry of Obama's ...

May/20/2013 09:46 AM

PolitiFact: Counting Abbott's 27 lawsuits against Obama administration
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Austin American-Statesman
Regional News Live

May 20--Here's a typical workday for Texas' attorney general: "I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home," Greg Abbott was quoted as saying recently. Speaking to FreedomWorks Texas in Austin on April 27, Abbott said, "I've sued the Obama administration now 25 times, over the last four years." We were curious about that count. We quickly found that, last fall, the ...

May/20/2013 09:26 AM

Daily News, Los Angeles, Rick Orlov's Tipoff column
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Daily News, Los Angeles
Regional News Live

May 19--As he prepares to leave office on June 30, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa seems intent on making sure every page of his passport has some foreign destination stamped on it. Next Sunday, he is heading a trade and commerce delegation to China for a quick three-day visit to promote Los Angeles International Airport, the Port of Los Angeles and tourism to the city. It is his third trip to Asia ...

May/19/2013 03:20 PM

EDITORIAL: Fluid public parking is key to the recipe for downtown vitality
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The Keene Sentinel, N.H.
Regional News Live

May 19--Anti-government types, with coins in hand, have been gleefully keeping a step ahead of city parking attendants looking for expired meters. They've gotten thumbs-ups from those they've saved from a $5 ticket, and drawn ire from City Hall, which added a fresh element to the subject last week. Officials petitioned the court to keep six members of the group at a distance from city workers ...

May/19/2013 02:41 PM

EDITORIAL: Editorial: Mayor Difficult -- Has Emanuel alienated Chicagoans?
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Chicago Tribune
Regional News Live

May 19--Early in 2011, Candidate Rahm Emanuel warned Chicagoans that their City Hall had to fix its finances or risk entering into eternal rest. The distance from broke government to broken government, he observed, is short: Without restoring financial health, this city cannot continue to serve its citizens. His jeremiads had a no-more-delays urgency that voters, awakened to the fiscal ...

May/19/2013 06:06 AM

FreedomFest returning to Alcoa
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The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
Regional News Live

May 19--It has been four years since FreedomFest drew crowds to the Alcoa Duck Pond. On June 29, the fireworks and the Fourth of July fun return, officials said. While the city's recession-strapped budget dictated that city leaders cancel the event several years ago, a new partnership with Alcoa, Inc., is helping bring it back for its 32nd year, according to a city of Alcoa news release. ...

May/19/2013 01:20 AM

Mr. Collins goes to Washington
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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Regional News Live

May 18--Doug Collins' days here typically begin before dawn, when he arises from the cot in his office for a morning workout at the members' gym. The meetings and votes and hearings that follow clog his schedule to the point where meals and bathroom breaks are a struggle. The day ends long after dark, as Collins catches up on briefing papers and thinks of his wife and three children back home ...

May/18/2013 11:59 PM

Manila's Hollywood Week
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The Manila Times, Philippines
Regional News Live

May 18--Thank goodness for glitz and glamour. Just as the Filipino public was beginning to show signs of frustration over the much delayed transmission of election returns from the provinces to the Commission on Elections, a dizzying parade of Hollywood celebrities swooped in for a thrilling save in Metro Manila this week. The excitement began on Tuesday morning with the arrival of Vin Diesel, ...

May/18/2013 07:20 PM

Fairhill students make a hit with Biden
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The Philadelphia Inquirer
Regional News Live

May 18--Raul Ortiz is going to be honest: When he wrote a letter to the vice president of the United States about gun violence, he didn't expect a response. "He has a lot of things to do," Raul, 9, said. But on Friday, Raul and his third-grade classmates at Julia deBurgos School in Fairhill found themselves having their frank, poignant, well-crafted missives become a subject of the White House ...

May/18/2013 04:11 AM