A U.S. appeals court ruled Friday that the Obama administration can use federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a decision that overturns a judge's order last year and hands the White House a major victory.

In a 2-1 decision, the court said that opponents of taxpayer-funded stem cell research are not likely to succeed in a lawsuit to stop it.

The ruling reversed an opinion last August by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who said the research likely violates the law against federal funding of embryo destruction...

A coalition of sheriffs dedicated to defending the border from the illegal alien intrusion says a recent ruling from the Ninth Circuit is "judicially imposed amnesty."

The Ninth Circuit Panel recently voted 2-1 to uphold a lower court's decision to gut the law enforcement provisions of Arizona S.B. 1070 that were designed to help state and local law enforcement officers better enforce federal immigration laws. The constitutionality of those aspects was challenged by the Obama administration shortly after the state's governor signed the measure into law.

"The court basically said that Obama administration policy trumps state law," reports Larry Dever, fourth-term sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona and honorary co-chair of the Southwest Border Sheriff's Project. "There is in the Constitution a superiority clause that says federal law can trump state law under certain conditions. But we're not talking about federal law here; we're talking about federal policy trumping state law"...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Because of the Obama administration’s actions, 2011 will be the first year since 1958 that the federal government will not have held an offshore energy lease sale, according to the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee.

The committee will be holding a hearing Thursday on the rising gas prices. Meanwhile, committee chairman Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is pushing three bills aimed at curbing costs by increasing domestic production.

The Obama administration has touted its policies as boosting domestic energy production, but Hastings said Tuesday that has not been the case...

The Obama administration on Thursday told Congress the government is about to hit the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and will need authority to borrow more, kicking off the first major test of spending restraint and the strength of Republicans' new congressional power.

Republicans said they won't agree to a higher debt limit unless Democrats agree to strict new spending controls. Democrats warned the GOP not "to play chicken" with the economy and said hitting the limit could be worse than the financial collapse of 2008.

"Never in our history has Congress failed to increase the debt limit when necessary," Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said in a letter to Congress. "Failure to raise the limit would precipitate a default by the United States. Default would effectively impose a significant and long-lasting tax on all Americans and all American businesses and could lead to the loss of millions of American jobs"...

The WikiLeaks debacle, corruption in Afghanistan and Obama administration regulation are all on the agenda as Rep. Darrell Issa prepares to take the helm of the top House committee tasked with watch-dogging Washington.

Fox News has obtained a tentative outline of the hearings Issa plans to hold when he takes over the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The California Republican's game plan is being closely watched as Democrats worry about the lengths to which he'll go to pull back the curtain on the alleged missteps of the past two years.

Issa has tried to tamp down concerns about his agenda, but does not deny he'll be in a state of "constant battle" with the White House. He said in an interview Sunday that he views the administration as one of the "most corrupt" in modern times...

With Congress split this year between Republicans and Democrats, the GOP may not be able to pass much of its repeal agenda, but it still expects to play a major role in shaping government through hearings and investigations into much of what the Obama administration has done.

Republican committee chairmen say they're eager to get to work on dissecting government operations and, as one incoming chairman said, pushing lawmakers to ask basic questions.

"I will ask our committee members to review the agencies from the top down. Literally, walk around agencies, such as [the Energy Department] and [Health and Human Services Department], and ask simple questions like, 'Why is the federal government doing this?'" said Rep. Fred Upton, Michigan Republican and incoming chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, whose broad jurisdiction makes it one of the most powerful spots for picking over government...

The ACLU has again asked the Obama administration to force Catholic and other religiously-affiliated hospitals to do abortions in cases where the mother’s life is supposedly in danger.

The new letter to the federal government is the second the pro-abortion legal group has sent and this one concerns the debate over the controversial abortion a Phoenix-based Catholic hospital did. The abortion earned the medical center condemnation from Bishop Thomas Olmsted, who decided this week to revoke the Catholic status of the hospital.

“This confrontation never should have happened in the first place, because no hospital– religious or otherwise– should be prohibited from saving women’s lives and from following federal law,” the ACLU letter said...

A national organization of Christian doctors is strongly concerned about the Obama administration’s effort to rescind conscience protections the Bush administration put in place for medical professionals.

The regulations provide additional protections and support for those doctors and nurses who don’t want to be involved in abortions and may face pressure from medical institutions receiving federal funds.

As LifeNews.com recently reported, documents the Obama administration filed in November and December have Obama administration attorneys admitting the administration wants to finalize a rescission of the conscience rules but has been delayed because of other business — likely due to the HHS working on implementing the provisions of the ObamaCare law...

A new study shows Americans give Congress rock-bottom scores in terms of transparency and trust.

On the study's 100-point scale, the White House scored a 46 and Congress totaled at 37 in regards to transparency -- defined as thoroughness of information disclosure, the speed at which it is released, and the ease of accessing it publicly. But even though the White House's numbers are slightly better, the report indicates the level of success is not what is expected for an administration that campaigned on greater openness in the Oval Office.

Larry Freed is CEO of ForeSee Results, the company that conducted the study. He says Democrats were more likely to give government higher transparency ratings than Republicans because "those in power are going to have a tendency to think things are better than those who are the minority. But even overall, when you look at both sides of the aisle, [there were] not really strong scores from the citizens," he points out...

NEW YORK , N.Y. - October 25, 2010 - President Obama is spending the next week crisscrossing the country in support of Democratic candidates before this year's midterm elections. While the president may do a great job of energizing the base, he may not be able to convert any Independents who have yet to decide for whom they will vote. Currently, two-thirds of Americans (67%) have a negative opinion of the job President Obama is doing while just over one-third (37%) have a positive opinion. This continues the president's downward trend and he is now at the lowest job approval rating of his presidency.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 3,084 adults surveyed online between October 11 and 18, 2010 by Harris Interactive.

It's perhaps not surprising that nine in ten Republicans (90%) and Conservatives (89%) give the job the president is doing negative ratings.