WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Even before the mass shooting on Friday at a Connecticut elementary school, gun control advocates were making a furious push to convince U.S. lawmakers that their long-ignored issue was a political winner.

Their argument was that support for restrictive new laws is not a career-ender for politicians and that they might even benefit at the polls by opposing the pro-gun rights National Rifle Association.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Even before the mass shooting on Friday at a Connecticut elementary school, gun control advocates were making a furious push to convince U.S. lawmakers that their long-ignored issue was a political winner.

Their argument was that support for restrictive new laws is not a career-ender for politicians and that they might even benefit at the polls by opposing the pro-gun rights National Rifle Association.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The mass killing on Friday at a Connecticut school put renewed pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama and other Democrats to reverse their years of caution about gun control laws and address the easy availability of firearms.

The scenes from Sandy Hook Elementary – of children running from a school where a lone gunman killed at least 20 children and six adults – were certain to stir public opinion, supporters of gun control said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A government commission co-led by former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre said on Wednesday that the U.S. federal and local governments are not doing enough to identify and treat child victims of abuse and violence.

At a meeting with representatives from major federal departments, the commission of academics, law enforcement officials and others, issued 56 recommendations to help child victims, including expanded training for social workers.

BOSTON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Attorney General Eric Holder said on Tuesday that U.S. election officials should register eligible voters automatically and take steps to reduce the long lines Americans encountered in national elections on November 6.

In a speech in Boston, Holder became the highest-ranking official to call for voting changes since President Barack Obama expressed exasperation with the hours-long lines during his re-election victory speech last night.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Businesses and Senate Republicans forced a courtroom showdown with President Barack Obama’s administration on Wednesday, asking a U.S. appeals court to invalidate his surprise appointments to a labor board 11 months ago.

Lawyers with the groups and for Obama’s Justice Department argued for more than an hour over whether the president exceeded his authority by filling the vacancies while the Senate was out of town but potentially available to act on them.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military campaign against al Qaeda should not be seen as a conflict without end, the Pentagon’s chief lawyer said on Friday in a speech that broached a rarely discussed subject among U.S. officials.

The Defense Department’s highest-ranking lawyer, Jeh Johnson, predicted al Qaeda would some day be so “effectively destroyed” that the United States would no longer say it is in an armed conflict. A text of his remarks to be given at Oxford University in England was made available to Reuters in advance in Washington.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military campaign against al Qaeda should not be seen as a conflict without end, the Pentagon’s chief lawyer said on Friday in a speech that broached a rarely discussed subject among U.S. officials.

The Defence Department’s highest-ranking lawyer, Jeh Johnson, predicted al Qaeda would someday be so “effectively destroyed” that the United States would no longer say it is in an armed conflict. A text of his remarks to be given at Oxford University in England was made available to Reuters in advance in Washington.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military campaign against al Qaeda should not be seen as a conflict without end, the Pentagon’s chief lawyer said on Friday in a speech that broached a rarely discussed subject among U.S. officials.

The Defense Department’s highest-ranking lawyer, Jeh Johnson, predicted al Qaeda would some day be so “effectively destroyed” that the United States would no longer say it is in an armed conflict. A text of his remarks to be given at Oxford University in England was made available to Reuters in advance in Washington.

WASHINGTON, Nov 27 (Reuters) – Major tobacco companies that
spent decades denying they lied to the U.S. public about the
dangers of cigarettes must spend their own money on a public
advertising campaign saying they did lie, a federal judge ruled
on Tuesday.

The ruling sets out what might be the harshest sanction to
come out of a historic case that the Justice Department brought
in 1999 accusing the tobacco companies of racketeering.