A.M. Links: Obama Warns Syria, Fifth Year of Trillion Dollar Deficits, Big Rip Could Come Sooner Than Expected
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President Obama warned Syria about using chemical weapons in a speech at a VFW convention hall in Reno, Nevada. "Given the regime's stockpiles of chemical weapons, we will continue to make it clear to Assad and those around him that the world is watching, and that they will be held accountable by the international community and the United States, should they make the tragic mistake of using those weapons," the president said.
- Fiscal year 2012 is the fifth straight year the federal government has run a trillion dollar plus deficit. Bipartisanship!
- The Mexican government is making it difficult for the more than 300,000 U.S.-born children of parents without U.S. documents who have returned to Mexico since 2005 to access basic services in the country.
- Chris Christie said New Jersey doesn't need any more gun laws, and states ought to be able to decide their own laws, responding indirectly to the state's Democratic Senators, who called for new federal gun restrictions in the wake of the Aurora shooting.
- The IRS is seeking $29.2 million in inheritance tax for a work of art including a stuffed bald eagle. Though sale of the item is prohibited by federal law, the IRS' art panel decided the piece was worth $65 million. "It's a stunning work of art and we all just cringed at the idea of saying that this had zero value. It just didn't make any sense," one of the panel members, an art historian, said.
- If you made plans for 17 billions years from now, you may have to scratch them. Researchers say the universe could be ripped by dark energy 6 billion years sooner than previous models suggested.
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