As President Barack Obama today called for legislation to restrict assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, a new poll shows more than six in 10 Americans backing such a move. In the CNN/ORC International survey, 62 percent supported limits on both the weapons...
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Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
A magazine with newly manufactured 5.56mm cartridges.
Majorities Back Ban on Assault Weapons, High-Capacity Ammo Clips
Photograph by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Former White House press secretary James Brady, his son Scott, and his wife Sarah visit the Brady Briefing Room at the White House.
Brady Debuts Online Videos as Gun-Control Battle Heats Up
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence today debuted a trio of online videos featuring actors, a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting and the parents of a young woman killed in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooting. The actors’...
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Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, center, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia, during a news conference in Washington on Dec. 18, 2012.
`Largest Tax Increase in History:’ One Author, or Two Brinkmen?
House Speaker John Boehner is trying to turn the tax tables. At first, it was President Barack Obama who was promising a bill that protects 98 percent of the American public from tax increases when the Bush-era tax cuts expire...
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Photograph by Rich Clement/Bloomberg
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
Norquist: `Plan B’ OK by Tax Pledge
In Washington, up is often down. No is sometimes yes. And a pledge isn’t necessarily a pledge. Grover Norquist, famously the author of a pledge against tax increases that most members of the House of Representatives have signed, reports today...
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Photograph by Scott Olson/Getty Images
A customer purchases an AK-47 style rifle for about $1200 at a sporting goods store on Dec. 17, 2012 in Tinley Park, Illinois.
Obama: `Weapon of War’ Has No Place in American Communities
A “weapon of war” — President Barack Obama’s term today for the semi-automatic assault rifle used in the slaying of schoolchildren and educators in Newtown, Connecticut, a weapon that he is urging Congress to ban. The president, vowing that he...
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Photograph by Joern Haufe/Getty Images
The 12th-century Dresden Codex, also known as the 'Codex Dresdensis', one of four historic Mayan manuscripts that still exist in the world and that together suggest modern civilization will come to an end on December 21, at the Saxon State Library in Dresden, Germany.
Will the World End Friday? U.S. Geological Survey Weighs In
In a release today billed as a “USGS Feature Story,” the hard-core scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey examine assertions coursing through the blogosphere that the world will end on Dec. 21 because the Mayan calendar says so. The gist...
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Photograph by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Michigan State Police in riot gear push back protestors who are blocking a street during a rally at the state Capitol to protest a vote on Right-to-Work legislation on Dec. 11, 2012 in Lansing.
Michigan’s Snyder Less Popular After Right-to-Work Bill
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s popularity has taken a beating since he backed a right-to-work bill during the legislature’s recent lame duck session. Republican Snyder’s approval rating dipped to 38 percent, with 56 percent of voters disapproving of his job performance,...
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Photograph by Time Magazine via AP
President Barack Obama is Time Magazine's Person of the Year.
Obama Time’s `Person of the Year’
President Barack Obama, who won re-election last month and is the “author of a new America,” is Time magazine’s Person of the Year for a second time, the publication said today. The president joins 12 others who have been honored...
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Photograph by David Goldman/AP Photo
People arrive on a school bus at Newtown High School for a memorial vigil attended by President Barack Obama for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Washington Daybook: Newtown Response
President Barack Obama will assign Vice President Joe Biden to lead efforts to find ways to curb gun violence after the Dec. 14 massacre at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school, according to a White House official. Obama will make a...
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Photograph by Tina Paul/Camera Press/Redux
President Barack Obama shown in Times Square in New York.
Bloomberg by the Numbers: 242
That’s the number of electoral votes in the states that Democrats have won in six straight presidential elections. The tally includes 18 states and the District of Columbia. The total of 242 electoral votes is just 28 below the 270...
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Contributors
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Al Hunt
is a columnist for Bloomberg View and host of the weekly show "Political Capital with Al Hunt" on Bloomberg TV. -
Mark Silva
is deputy managing editor for government news in Washington and editor of Political Capital. He has covered the White House and national politics. -
Emma Fidel
is political editor for Bloomberg.com in Washington. She previously covered financial regulation as a Bloomberg intern. -
Don Frederick
edits political and government coverage for Bloomberg News. He previously worked for more than a decade at the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau. -
Gregory Giroux
analyzes elections, financing of congressional and presidential elections, political advertising and demographics in Bloomberg's Washington Bureau. -
Julie Bykowicz
covers the influence of money and lobbying in Washington, and covered the state legislature and city crime for the Baltimore Sun for 10 years. -
Jonathan Salant
covers campaign finance and lobbying in Washington. He was president of the National Press Club and started in Washington in 1987. -
Richard Rubin
covers federal tax policy. He worked at Congressional Quarterly and The Charlotte Observer before joining Bloomberg News in 2010. -
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
is a senior political reporter for the Washington Bureau. She covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News and previously covered the White House for the Baltimore Sun. -
Lisa Lerer
covers the White House and covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News. She covered Congress, lobbying and the 2008 campaign for Politico. -
John McCormick
is a national political reporter looking forward to the 2016 presidential campaign, which will be the fifth he's covered. He's also reported for The Des Moines Register and Chicago Tribune. -
Julianna Goldman
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Hans Nichols
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Margaret Talev
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and covered the White House for McClatchy Newspapers. She has covered California and Florida politics. -
Cary O'Reilly
is Editor at Large at Bloomberg First Word and is Washington Daybook columnist for Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg News.
