TV News LIES

If a bill approved by the Kansas House Committee on Federal and State Affairs Thursday becomes law, businesses and government employees could legally refuse service to citizens because of their sexual orientation or marital status, claiming it violates their religious beliefs.

HB 2453, if passed, would permit “any individual or religious entity” to claim an exemption, based on religious views, from providing nearly any kind of services, and to be relieved from “treat(ing) any marriage, domestic partnership, civil union, or similar arrangement as valid.” Although the bill would require government agencies to make another employee available to provide the service if one employee objects, opponents of the bill say that arrangement could prove unworkable in small locales.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee backed off its push for a swift vote on new Iran sanctions in a statement Thursday evening, providing a boost for the Obama administration's efforts to strike a nuclear deal with Iran.

"[T]hat there should not be a vote at this time on the measure," said the lobbying group.

The statement was first reported by The Hill. It came after Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the author of the sanctions bill, signaled on the Senate floor that it should move forward when there is bipartisan unity.

Read the full statement below:

On Thursday morning, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called on President Barack Obama to nominate more judges to the federal bench who have backgrounds serving the public interest instead of corporate America.

Of Obama's judicial nominations so far, just ten—fewer than four percent—have worked as lawyers at public interest organizations, according to a report released Thursday by the Alliance for Justice, a network of civil rights organizations. Only 10 nominees have had experience representing workers in labor disputes. Eighty-five percent have been either corporate attorneys or prosecutors. At an event Thursday sponsored by several civil rights organizations, including the Brennan Center for Justice and the Alliance for Justice, Warren called for more balance in the system.

House Republican leaders are giving up efforts to couple a U.S. debt-limit increase with provisions backing the Keystone XL pipeline or repealing an insurance-risk provision in Obamacare, two party leadership aides said.

House leaders lack enough Republican support for either option, and they are looking at other possible conditions to attach to an increase in the debt limit, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.

Women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke has filed paperwork to seek the congressional seat being vacated by the retirement of Rep. Henry Waxman with the local party, but her team says she’s just keeping her options open and hasn’t made any final decisions.

The California Democratic Party lists Fluke’s name as having officially filed with the party to run in the California district of the retiring Democrat. Two other candidates have filed to run and three others are considered potential candidates, according to the party’s site.

Top aides to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie face a deadline on Monday to reply to document subpoenas made by state lawmakers investigating a traffic scandal that has threatened the Republican governor's political future.

Lawmakers are investigating an incident from last September, at the height of Christie's re-election campaign, in which aides to Christie ordered access lanes from the town of Fort Lee to the busy George Washington Bridge closed, creating a massive, four-day traffic jam. The closures came after the mayor of Fort Lee, a Democrat, declined to endorse Christie's re-election bid.