U.S. Government

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a police practice of taking DNA samples from people who have been arrested, but not convicted of a crime, ruling that the practice amounts to the modern-day equivalent of fingerprinting.

The ruling came in at 5 to 4. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, the court's more liberal members, were joined by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in dissenting.

The five justices in the majority ruled that DNA sampling after an arrest "for a serious offense" and when officers "bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody" does not violate the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches. The court said that under these specifications, "taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee's DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment."

A letter sent to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker tested positive for the poisonous substance ricin, and initial testing also reveals that ricin was included in a letter addressed to President Barack Obama.

Several U.S. Senators have confirmed that they have receive suspicious letters, with at least one addressed to Senator Roger Wicker confirmed as having included the poisonous substance ricin. The Secret Service is also investigating a letter that was sent to President Barack Obama, which they state that initial testing reveals also contained ricin.

Ricin, which is derives from the castor bean plant, is considered to be the most poisonous, naturally occurring substance. The bean part of the plant is what is poisonous to humans, animals, and insects. The "mash" from the processing of castor beans is ricin, which can be a powder, a mist, or a pellet. It can also be dissolved in water or a weak acid.

A letter mailed to Sen. Wicker that was postmarked in Memphis was intercepted at an off-site Capitol mail facility, and was found to contain a "white granular substance". The letter was quarantined before preliminary test showed that the substance was ricin. The letter has been sent to the FBI for further investigation. A suspect has been identified.

A second suspicious package was received on Wednesday morning at the Washington D.C. offices of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.). A spokesman for the senator says that the package is being investigated by Capitol Police. It is not yet know if it was similar to the one addressed to Wicker and Obama, which contained ricin.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) reversed his position on a ban on military-style assault weapons, coming out in favor of such a ban during a floor speech on Wednesday.

This represents a major reversal for Reid which came only hours before votes were slated to begin on amendments to the gun legislation. Speaking before the Senate, Reid said on Wednesday:

“We can and should make the same common sense approach to safeguard Americans from modern weapons of war, assault weapons. That’s why I will vote for Dianne Feinstein’s assault weapons ban, because we must strike a better balance between the right to defend ourselves and the right of every child in America to grow up safe from gun violence.

I’ll vote for the ban because maintaining the law and order is more important than satisfying conspiracy theories who [believe in] black helicopters and false flags."

The assault weapons ban had been stripped out of the base legislation, but will be voted on as an amendment. The National Rifle Association strongly opposes the measure, and the amendment is expected to fail.

In 2004 when the assault weapons ban expired, Reid had voted against renewing it.

ON Tuesday afternoon,however, Reid signaled that his views had been changed by the string of mass shootings in recent years. Reid also said on Wednesday that protecting police officers and innocent victims is "more important than preventing imaginary tyranny." Reid added:

“The United States military is not out to get us. Federal law enforcement, local police departments are not out to get us. These conspiracy theories are dangerous and they should be put to rest.”

Congress is currently considering legislation that would help curb the act of "showrooming", which is when a customer goes into a brick-and-mortar store to check out products and prices and then later goes online to actually order the product to find a cheaper price and avoid paying sales tax. Ohio retailers argue that they cannot compete with online retailers who aren't required to charge sales tax, and are now encouraging Congress to close the tax loophole.

Both Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rob Portman (R-OH) voted in favor of a Senate proposal that would allow states to collect sales tax for online purchases made from out-of-state retailers. The proposal, which is called the Marketplace Fairness Act, was added in as a part of the budget debate in March.

Portman's spokeswoman, Caitlin Dunn, commented:

“Sen. Portman believes that our tax system should be neutral."

Meanwhile, Meghan Dubyak, a spokeswoman for Brown, says that the proposal would "create a level playing field for Ohio businesses," adding:

“All business should be treated the same – whether they do business at a storefront or on the Internet."

On Monday, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) made a stop at a Boardman, Ohio, diner to announce his plans to promote his legislation calling for an increase in the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. On Tuesday, Sen. Brown also stopped by Bowling Green State University to discuss his proposed hike in the minimum wage. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour in three steps, and would also provide the first minimum wage increase to tipped employees in over two decades.

Currently about 1.3 million Ohioans earn the minimum wage of $7.85 an hour, and 80 percent of them are adults.

The last time that Congress approved an increase in the federal minimum wage was in 2007 when it was raised from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.

U.S. Senator Rob Portman, a Republican representing Ohio, announced earlier this week that he had changed his stance on same-sex marriage after his son, WIll, came out as gay. Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, says that he discussed the issue of gay marriage with Portman on Thursday evening and advised him to outright reject his son.

In an email sent out to supporters, Burress said that Portman called him Thursday night asking for advice on the issue. On Friday, Portman announced that he had reversed his position on the issue, crediting his son's recent coming out for his change of heart. Portman wrote:

"I believe all of our sons and daughters ought to have the same opportunity to experience the joy and stability of marriage."

Burress' organization led the campaign to approve Ohio's constitutional amendment that prevents the state from recognizing any relationship other than a heterosexual marriage. In his email, Burress says that he told Portman that he and his wife would pray for his son to become heterosexual.

Ahead of an announcement of new United Nations sanctions to be placed against North Korea, which carried out a third nuclear test on February 12, the North Korean government threatened a nuclear strike against the United States. The White House has responded to the threats out of Pyongyang, insisting that the U.S. is fully capable of defending against a North Korean ballistic missile strike.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said:

"The United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack."

According to a statement from a Foreign Ministry spokesman that was carried on the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea is prepared to "exercise the right to pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors", and Washington is "set to light a fuse for nuclear war."

Carney contends that North Korea "will achieve nothing by threats or provocations."

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who is a doctor, was asked on Thursday morning by Glenn Beck if he had considered using a catheter during his marathon filibuster of CIA director nominee John Brennan last night. Paul said that he had considered the use of a catheter, which would have allowed him to lengthen the filibuster, but said that he ultimately decided against it.

Paul said:

"I did think about it. I've put them in before, but I really decided against it."

Paul's fillibuster ended at 12:39am on Thursday when the senator felt that he finally had to relieve himself and could no longer hold off. He ended the filibuster by stating:

On Friday, the U.S. Air Force announced that if a federal budget deal was not reached, its Thunderbirds jet demonstration team would be grounded and would cease air support to public events beginning April 1.

Unless something happens that would get the budget back on track, the Thunderbirds will not be making any air show appearances this year.

President Barack Obama was unable to reach a deal on Friday with congressional Republicans, who were lead by U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.

Uncertainty over whether the Air Force's jet teams would be flying has already prompted the cancellation of several air shows across the country.

The Transportation Security Administration has announced that it will be implementing a hiring freeze due to the sequestration, which is likely to translate into extended wait times at airport security checkpoints.

TSA announced on Friday that it will be unable to fill vacancies in their workforce due to the forced federal spending cuts, and warned that with the lack of new security screeners, "during busy travel periods wait times exceeding 30-40 minute could double at nearly all of the largest airports."

The agency explained that when the Memorial Day weekend travel rush hits in May, there could be a vacancy for 1,000 security screeners. This figure would grow to 2,600 by September.

The TSA cuts are just one example of the $85 billion in cuts that the federal government must now make between Saturday and October 1. The cuts only went into effect on Saturday, so the full impact of them likely will not be felt by the public until April or May.

President Obama spent Friday evening meeting with congressional leaders attempting to strike a deal at the eleventh hour to prevent the across-the-board cuts, however his efforts revealed no results as the Republicans refused to budge and instead decided to dig in their heels. Following the meeting, Obama said: