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mcclatchydc.com — Among the 17 senators who voted against allowing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco are some of the top recipients of campaign contributions from the tobacco industry, which has donated millions of dollars to lawmakers in the past several campaign cycles. Over the course of his nearly quarter-century Senate career, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who hails from the tobacco-rich state of Kentucky, has received $419,025 from the tobacco industry, more than any other member of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that analyzes the influence of money on politics and policy.

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npr.org — A year from now, the U.S. will conduct its decennial population count. The findings are used to re-apportion congressional districts, disburse federal funding — even decide where new traffic lights go. But the economic crisis threatens to make this daunting task even harder. There is special concern about minority groups, which are traditionally hard to count.

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hosted.ap.org — There's still a year before Americans start filling out their census forms. But even before President Barack Obama has named a new director for the U.S. Census Bureau, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have begun bickering about how that person will carry out the once-a-decade job of cataloging the country's population. The trouble started with Obama's surprise nomination of Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire to head the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau. Gregg once voted for a broader budget measure that would have abolished the agency, and he also opposed increased funding for the 2000 census. Gregg's record raised concerns about his commitment to an accurate census count, a priority for minority groups that have historically been undercounted.

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washingtonpost.com — Barack Obama took the oath of office today as the 44th president of the United States and pledged to "begin again the work of remaking America." Addressing a huge throng estimated at nearly 2 million people on the capital's Mall and millions of others watching on television, Obama somberly recognized the multiple crises now afflicting the nation at a time of war abroad and economic turmoil at home. But he sought to rally Americans to a "new era of responsibility" and the promise of a brighter future.

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iht.com — President-elect Barack Obama has tapped four Clinton administration lawyers, whose records signal a sharp break from the legal policies of the last eight years, to fill four top Justice Department posts. Obama said he would nominate David Ogden as deputy attorney general; Elena Kagan as solicitor general; Thomas Perrelli, as associate attorney general; and Dawn Johnsen as head of the Office of Legal Counsel. Many of Obama's other cabinet picks in have a decidedly centrist bent. But at the Justice Department, where controversial Bush administration policies like interrogation tactics and eavesdropping will come under review, the nomination of Eric Holder Jr. as attorney general last month and selections of four top aides suggested a strong effort to stake out a new direction.

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uk.reuters.com — The new U.S. Congress convenes on under pressure to deal with a worsening economy by passing a stimulus package that Barack Obama could sign into law soon after being sworn in as president. "We are in a very difficult spot," Obama told reporters between meetings with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill. "The situation is getting worse." Despite such challenges as the ailing economy, two wars and an estimated 46 million Americans without health insurance, the opening day of Congress promised to be something of a victory party for the Democrats who expanded their control of the Senate and House of Representatives in the November election.

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cnn.com — Plagued by rising unemployment, falling tax revenue and increased demand for state services, the nation's governors met with President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden to press for federal money to ease their fiscal strain. Obama and Biden told those at the National Governors Association meeting that the federal government needs to build a deeper relationship with the governors in order to put America on the path to long-term prosperity. "Change is not going to come from Washington alone," Obama said.

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guardian.co.uk — While formal poll taxes were declared illegal in 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act, versions of it remain in place — for instance, in the cost of taking time off work, travelling to the polls, or obtaining identification. African American votes are now discounted by many other means, as well. In Florida in 2000, the suppression of black votes changed the final outcome of the presidential election. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found "widespread disenfranchisement and denial of voting rights" in Florida, which was ten times more likely to affect African Americans.

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nytimes.com — Concerns about so-called prison-based gerrymandering have grown as the number of inmates around the nation has ballooned. Similar disparities have been identified in upstate New York, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Critics say the census should count prisoners in the district where they lived before they were incarcerated. In 2006, experts commissioned by the Census Bureau recommended that the agency study whether prison inmates should be counted in 2010 as residents of the mostly urban neighborhoods where they last lived rather than as residents of the mostly rural districts where they are temporarily housed against their will. Any such change would probably require Congressional approval. It could benefit Democrats, since it would add population to the party’s urban strongholds and subtract from the Republican-dominated rural areas where most prisons are.

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ipsnews.net — A federal judge ruled Monday that the current practices to purge the voter rolls in Michigan are illegal and ordered Republican Secretary of State Terry Lynn Land to immediately stop the cancellation of registered voters whose voter identification cards are returned as undeliverable in the mail. The purging of registered voters, many of whom lost their homes to bank foreclosure, in the state of Michigan prompted the federal lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, United States Student Association Foundation and the Advancement Project, and resulted in calls in Congress for a Justice Department investigation.

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