VP Joe Biden guest stars as celebrity crush on “Parks and Rec”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Someone has a big crush on U.S. Vice President Joe Biden – and now she is getting to meet him.Biden will make his TV acting debut with a cameo on NBC‘s comedy “Parks and Recreation” as the celebrity crush of actress Amy Poehler‘s ditzy local councilwoman Leslie Knope, NBC said on Thursday. Biden,...

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States Rush to Meet Tight Health Care Deadlines

After nearly three years of legal and political threats that kept President Obama’s health care law in a constant state of uncertainty, his re-election on Tuesday all but guarantees that the historic legislation will survive. Now comes another big hurdle: making it work. The election came just 10 days before a critical deadline for states in carrying out the law, and many that were...

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Debt Ceiling Complicates a Tax Shift

WASHINGTON — Come January, should Congress fail to act, the United States will face more than immense tax increases and spending cuts. It will also run out of room to finance its large running deficits. The Treasury Department expects the country to hit its debt ceiling, a legal limit on the amount the government is allowed to borrow, close to the end of the year. That would give Congress...

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Blue reign in Sacramento: Democrats dominate California voting

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats are on the cusp of a coveted supermajority in both the Assembly and Senate,...

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A Google-a-Day Puzzle for Nov. 8

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle posted here.SPOILER WARNING:We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer....

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Taylor Swift reigns over Billboard 200, Meek Mill debuts high

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Country-pop star Taylor Swift held onto the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday as her latest album “Red” kept rapper Meek Mill from the top spot.“Red,” Swift’s fourth studio album safely took the No. 1 position after selling 344,000 copies according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. Last...

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After Loss, Fight to Label Modified Food Continues

LOS ANGELES — Advocates for the labeling of genetically modified food vowed to carry their fight to other states and to the federal government after suffering a defeat in California on Tuesday. A ballot measure that would have made California the first state in the nation to require such labeling was defeated, 53.1 percent to 46.9 percent. Support for the initiative, which polls said once...

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DealBook: On Wall Street, Time to Mend Fences With Obama

Del Frisco’s, an expensive steakhouse with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Boston harbor, was a festive scene on Tuesday evening. The hedge fund billionaires Steven A. Cohen, Paul Singer and Daniel Loeb were among the titans of finance there dining among the gray velvet banquettes before heading several blocks away to what they hoped would be a victory party for their presidential candidate,...

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Obama reelected president, AP reports

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Wrath of the Math: Obama Wins Nerdiest Election Ever

Congratulations, Barack Obama: You have prevailed in the nerdiest election in the history of the American Republic. If 2008 was about hope and change, 2012 was about data and memes. The unemployment rate. The effective tax rates. The 47 percent. The budget deficit projections. Of all things, the Reddit AMAs. Same goes for understanding the elections. Never mind the baby-kissing, the fish fries,...

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