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NEW YORK — Two civil liberties groups sued the federal government on Monday to try to block its targeted killing overseas of a U.S.-born cleric believed to have inspired recent attacks in the United States.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for the father of cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who's believed to be hiding in his parents' native Yemen. Defendants were President Barack Obama, CIA Director Leon C. Panetta and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.

The groups, both based in New York, said it was unconstitutional to intentionally try to kill al-Awlaki unless he presents a specific imminent threat to life or physical safety and only killing him will eliminate the threat. The Obama administration cited al-Awlaki's growing role with al-Qaida when it placed him on the CIA's list of targets.

Al-Awlaki was put on the list after U.S. intelligence authorities tied him to Sept. 11 hijackers and concluded he had provided inspiration for those who carried out shootings in Fort Hood, Texas, a failed Times Square car bombing and an attempted Christmas Day bombing of a jetliner approaching Detroit.

The lawsuit seeks a court order declaring that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government's targeted killings of U.S. citizens, including al-Awlaki, unless there's a concrete and imminent threat to life and there's no other way to prevent it.

In a statement, Department of Justice spokesman Matthew Miller defended the U.S. position. He said Congress has authorized the use of all necessary and appropriate force against al-Qaida and associated groups.

"The U.S. is careful to ensure that all its operations used to prosecute the armed conflict against those forces, including lethal operations, comply with all applicable laws, including the laws of war," Miller said.

He said the U.S. government has the authority under domestic and international law and the responsibility to its citizens to use force to defend itself "in a manner consistent with those laws."

"This administration is using every legal measure available to defeat al-Qaeda, and we will continue to do so as long as its forces pose a threat to this nation," Miller said in the statement.

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While leopard sometimes evoke images of Peg Bundy, the print is going to be everywhere come fall — and just because it seems extreme doesn’t mean it can’t look seriously chic! Stylish ladies like Nikki Reed, Sophia Bush, Lily Cole, Khloe Kardashian, Kelly Osbourne, and Serena Williams have already pulled out the look on the red carpet. In varying colors and styles, there’s so many ways to work this trend — I recommend steering clear of a tight leopard dress — instead go for a less extreme silhouette. If you want to show off your figure, choose the pattern in a different color or opt for a skirt or top in the print to give your look a fresh take.

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Allow me to state for the record that I have great sympathy for the dedicated professionals at the Congressional Budget Office. In Washington's partisan environment, they are everybody's fair-weather friend. When the CBO tells one tribe the precise thing they want to hear, there's no end to the hallelujahs about how a CBO confirmation is the equivalent of the Word of God. But when the CBO's estimates run afoul of the same tribe, the praise chorus abruptly stops, and is replaced by no end of angry rending and gnashing. Sometimes these shifts take place in a matter of days. It can be intensely frustrating to witness.

A less celebrated problem that the CBO faces on a daily basis is that sometimes, they have to explain their work to complete morons.

Sarabeth Guthberg at 1115.org related one such instance, today. See, Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) got a wee bit confused over a matter of grade-school mathematics. So he asked the CBO to clarify: if provisions of the Affordable Care Act that the CBO projected to reduce the deficit by $455 billion (over ten years) were subsequently repealed, what would be the net impact on the deficit?

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — A snake slithered into a switch box outside a New York hospital, where it met its maker and caused a 10-hour power outage.

Officials at Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie say backup generators kicked on Tuesday afternoon when a common-variety snake got into the switch box and disrupted the hospital's main power supply. Workers found the dead snake inside the box.

Hospital officials say there were no patient care disruptions caused by the outage, which lasted from 3 p.m. Tuesday to 1 a.m. Wednesday. Some emergency room cases had to be diverted to other hospitals.

While squirrels and other small animals have been known to get into electrical equipment and cause outages, a utility spokesman says it's the first time he's heard of a snake doing it.

Six directors of the Office of National Drug Control Policy over the previous 3 administrations penned a cooperative op-ed Wednesday in opposition to California's Proposition 19 ballot proposal to legalize marijuana.

The editorial, written by Gil Kerlikowske, John Walters, Barry McCaffrey, Lee Brown, Bob Martinez and William Bennett -- that's every United States "drug czar," including the current one -- was published in the Los Angeles Times Wednesday, and argues primarily that social costs incurred by legalizing marijuana would outweigh the potential revenue streams gained by taxing drug sales.

First and foremost, the high-profile anti-drug group contends, a potential marijuana legalization will lead to an upswing in use, particularly among minors:

Proponents of marijuana legalization often point to Amsterdam's "coffee shop" marijuana sales, rarely mentioning that the Dutch have dramatically reduced what at one time were thousands of shops to only a few hundred -- after being inundated with "drug tourists," drug-related organized crime involvement and public nuisance problems. During the period of marijuana commercialization and expansion, there was a tripling of lifetime use rates and a more than doubling of past-month use among 18- to 20-year-olds, according to independent research.
This issue, they say, could also manifest itself dangerously by putting an increased number of high people on the roads.

While some argue that legalization could save money spent on law enforcement, the drug czars don't buy this claim, saying instead that such a measure would instead create a complex and confusing set of priorities to police:

Law enforcement officers do not currently focus much effort on arresting adults whose only crime is possessing small amounts of marijuana. This proposition would burden them with new and complicated enforcement duties. The proposition would require officers to enforce laws against "ingesting or smoking marijuana while minors are present." Would this apply in a private home? And is a minor "present" if they are 15 feet away, or 20? Perhaps California law enforcement officers will be required to carry tape measures next to their handcuffs.
Perhaps most interestingly, the narco-foes allege that the potential revenue that could be gained by taxing marijuana sales is overstated due to the fact that cannabis plants can be easily cultivated at home.

Regarding the supposed economic benefits of taxing marijuana, some comparison with two drugs that are already regulated and taxed -- alcohol and tobacco -- is worth considering. People don't typically grow their own tobacco or distill their own spirits, so consumers accept high taxes on them as retail products. Marijuana, though, is easy and cheap to cultivate, indoors or out, and Proposition 19 would allow individuals to grow as much as 25 square feet of marijuana for "personal consumption."

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Police say longshot Democratic Senate candidate Alvin Greene was kicked out of a South Carolina restaurant after his companion got into a fight with people eating there.

Oconee County Democratic Party officials had asked Greene to speak at their monthly meeting over the weekend in Seneca. But they rescinded the invitation after Greene was indicted Aug. 13 on a felony charge of showing pornography to a college student.

Seneca Police Chief John Covington said Tuesday that Greene showed up anyway and a woman with him got into an argument with people at the restaurant. Party officials called police, who kicked out the pair and ended the party's meeting. No charges were filed.

A message seeking comment was left with Greene, who faces U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint and Green Party candidate Tom Clements in November.

America's "Too Big To Fail" banking institutions threaten the viability of community banks, a top Federal Reserve official said Monday.

In prepared remarks in front of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Thomas Hoenig, the president of of the Kansas City Fed, bemoaned the "competitive disadvantage" that large banks enjoy and called community banks "essential" to local and regional economies.

Community banks, generally defined as having less than $10 billion in assets, account for all but 83 banks in the U.S, he said. Large banks, however, had the privilege of higher levels of risk and more explicit government backstops. Here's Hoenig:

Because the market perceived the largest banks as being too big to fail, they have had the advantage of running their business with a much greater level of leverage and a consistently lower cost of capital and debt. The advantage of their too-big-to-fail status was highlighted during the crisis, when the FDIC allowed unlimited insurance on non-interest-bearing checking accounts out of concern that businesses would move their deposits from the smaller to the largest banks.
Hoenig, who's been vocal critic of the Fed's low interest rate policy, added that "the community bank business model has held up well when compared with the megabank model that had to be propped up with taxpayer funding." In contrast to large banks, community banks have a larger "vested interest" in local economies, he said. Here's more from Hoenig:

It is said that a community with a local bank can better control its destiny. Local deposits provide funds for local loans. Community banks are often locally owned and managed - through several generations of family ownership. This vested interest in the success of their local communities is a powerful incentive to support local initiatives. It is the very "skin in the game" incentive that regulators are trying to reintroduce into the largest banks. It's the small community's version of "risking your own funds" that worked so well in the original investment banking model, and kept partners from making risky mistakes that would result in personal bankruptcy back then, and government intervention more recently.
Community banks, it turns out, are actually doing a better job lending, Hoenig said:

Data show that community banks have done a better job serving their local loan needs over the past year. Community banks, as a whole, increased their total loans by about 2 percent as compared to a 6 percent decline for larger banks. In addition, community banks have had either stronger loan growth or smaller declines across major loan categories. Business lending in particular stands out, with community bank loans dropping only 3 percent as compared with a 21 percent decline for larger banks.

Spencer Pratt is shopping a sex tape of himself with soon-to-be-ex-wife Heidi Montag, TMZ reports.

Spencer reportedly contacted Vivid Entertainment, the porn giant that brought us the sex tapes of Kendra Wilkinson and Kim Kardashian, and will soon release Montana Fishburne's XXX tape.

Watch highlights from the sex tapes of the past decade here.

"I just got off the phone with Spencer Pratt about a sex tape with Heidi Montag," Vivid exec Steven Hirsch told TMZ. "We are in early negotiations to possibly come to terms for a deal."

No word on whether the tape was shot before or after Heidi's plastic surgery transformation, but they broke up soon after Heidi admitted the procedures made it painful to even hug anyone.

According to TMZ, Spencer told a friend that the tape "makes Kim Kardashian look like an amateur."

Kim's tape, released in 2007, features her and her ex, rapper Ray-J, having sex but focuses mainly on Kim's face during the act. Kim sued Vivid for ownership of the tape and later settled for $5 million.

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MINNEAPOLIS — Minneapolis police are investigating a hole apparently made by a pellet shot in the window of Sen. Al Franken's downtown condominium.

Police spokesman Sgt. Bill Palmer said Wednesday that Franken and his wife, Franni, recently found the hole upon returning to their condo after a few days away. Palmer says the hole appeared to have been made by a pellet.

Palmer says police don't know if the Franken residence was purposely targeted and "don't have much to go on."

Franken's office reported the incident to the U.S. Capitol Police, which spokesman Marc Kimball says is a standard move for members of Congress. Kimball wouldn't say whether the office had received any prior threats.

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Kat Von D, the 'LA Ink' star who on Wednesday tweeted then deleted confirmation that she is dating Jesse James, visited the the Kevin & Bean radio show on KROQ-FM Thursday where she discussed their friendship.

"I've known Jesse since I was 22 actually. We've always been friends you know? And even when all that negative stuff went down and stuff, I stay out of all that drama. Going out people were always asking what I thought about this and that. And I think it's none of my business and it's none of anyone's business really. I think we're all human and we're all capable of making mistakes. I think if I were to be crucified for my drug addiction three years ago now, it would be harder to live with that. I'm sober now, I've made mistakes too. People have a hard time letting go of that you know? For me, I've got a lot of respect for Jesse and how he handled it."
She didn't elaborate on how their relationship has evolved but did talk about why she's his type:

I think that I'm his type on a different level than people would assume. Just because I have tattoos doesn't mean we're the perfect match.
Kat and Jesse were seen sharing dinner in Vegas on Saturday night. Listen to the show and read a full transcript here.

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