Politics

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President Obama hails a Senate vote advancing a bill to renew benefits for the long-term jobless. While the president rails against income inequality in America, his policies have had little overall effect against poverty. Story, A3. (Associated Press)

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President Obama hails a Senate vote advancing a bill to renew benefits for the long-term jobless. While the president rails against income inequality in America, his policies have had little overall effect against poverty. Story, A3. (Associated Press)

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Mourners and Sunni gunmen rally against Iraq's Shiite-led government during the funeral of a man killed when clashes erupted between al Qaeda gunmen and Iraqi soldiers in Fallujah on Friday. (Associated Press)

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Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Gov.-elect, said on the campaign trail he would issue what he called a "guidance opinion" that would exempt existing abortion clinics from complying with strict new health and safety standards. The claim baffled political observers, who said they had never heard of such a mechanism and noted that a governor has no such authority.

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FILE - In this June 15, 2011, file photo, then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testifies regarding the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2012 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington. Gates asserts in a new memoir that President Barack Obama grew frustrated with U.S. policy in Afghanistan and that Vice President Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue. He also accuses members of Congress of inquisition-like treatment of administration officials. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

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Then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates testifies regarding the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2012 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Defense on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 15, 2011. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

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In this Dec. 1, 2011 photo, U.S. servicemen fold the American flag after it was lowered during the handover ceremony of a military base in Basra, Iraq. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jurani)

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FILE - In this Jan. 23, 2010, file photo, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq. A burst of strength by al-Qaida that is chipping away at the remains of Mideast stability now confronts President Barack Obama, testing his hands-off approach to conflicts in Iraq and Syria at the same time he pushes to keep thousands of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The U.S. withdrawal at the end of 2011 was followed by a spike in sectarian violence and most recently, the alarming takeover of two cities by an al-Qaida affiliate known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, Pool)

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In this Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013 citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center, AMC, and released Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrians inspect the rubble of damaged buildings following a Syrian government airstrike in Aleppo, Syria. A burst of strength by al-Qaida that is chipping away at the remains of Mideast stability now confronts President Barack Obama, testing his hands-off approach to conflicts in Iraq and Syria at the same time he pushes to keep thousands of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center, AMC)

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In this Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014 picture, a gunman aims his weapon during clashes with Iraqi security forces in Fallujah, Iraq. Clashes continued late Sunday and early morning Monday between al-Qaida and Iraqi troops on the main highway that links the capital, Baghdad, to neighboring Syria and Jordan. Al-Qaida fighters and allied tribes are still controlling the center of the city where they are deployed in streets and around government buildings. A burst of strength by al-Qaida that is chipping away at the remains of Mideast stability now confronts President Barack Obama, testing his hands-off approach to conflicts in Iraq and Syria at the same time he pushes to keep thousands of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. (AP Photo)