Democrats vow to push for gun control measures in U.S. Congress

(Reuters) - Several Democratic lawmakers called for a new push for U.S. gun restrictions on Sunday, including a ban on military-style assault weapons, in the wake of the Connecticut massacre in which 20 children and six adults were gunned down in a school.

The Wall Street Journal today published an in-depth review of a new, relatively unknown program run by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). Although we have been warning about the dangers of the program for months, and I testified before Congress about the issue in July, the Journal’s story conveys how controversial the program was even inside the government. It also describes the broad scope of new authority the government is granting itself.

"We've got bigger fish to fry," Obama told ABC News' Barbara Walters. "It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal."

The chief of the Guantánamo war court has approved the use of a time delay on public viewing of the Sept. 11 death-penalty trial as well as a censor in his court to make sure nobody divulges details of a now defunct CIA interrogation program, citing national security interests.

As marijuana “pot” smokers gather beneath Seattle’s Space Needle to celebrate the fact that the drug was legalized in the state of Washington, the DEA continues to warn youth that legalization doesn’t make something “right” or good for you. According to the DEA, when marijuana is smoked the drug THC moves into the user’s lungs and then into their bloodstream, where it is then moved into all the organs in the body, including the brain.

Mere days after the first 3D-printed nonmetallic firearm shot its first rounds, Congressman Steve Israel (a would-be political superhero) is calling for a ban on the "wiki weapons" because their manufacture is untraceable and they cannot be detected via normal screening. It'll be fun to watch Congress try to stuff this genie back into its bottle.

SEATTLE -- Cars are becoming more and more fuel-efficient, and you would think that's a good thing. But Washington state is actually losing money because of it and as a result, the state is now considering a "pay-by-mile" tax. The state predicts gas tax collected today won't add up to enough cash to pay for future road projects. Drivers of fuel-efficient cars are spending less at the pump, which means they are paying less in gas tax while driving the same amount of miles.

Books such as JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird will be replaced by "informational texts" approved by the Common Core State Standards. Suggested non-fiction texts include Recommended Levels of Insulation by the the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Invasive Plant Inventory, by California's Invasive Plant Council.

On Thursday, Washington became the first state to officially legalize marijuana, soon to be followed by Colorado as their new laws legalizing the drug for recreational use go into effect. A survey out Friday shows what Americans want the federal government to do about the states whose drug laws clash with national laws: Leave them alone. Fifty-one percent of Americans in the new HuffPost/YouGov poll said that in the two states that have legalized marijuana use for adults, the federal government should exempt any adults following state laws from federal drug law enforcement.

Has the national DARE organization -- Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- removed the discussion of marijuana from its curriculum? It appears the answer is yes, reports Kevin Shaub at KNDU, NBC TV News in Kennewick, WA.