Politics

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013, after a bipartisan budget compromise cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate, advancing past a filibuster threshold on a 67-33 vote that ensures the measure will pass the Democratic-led chamber no later than Wednesday and head to the White House to be signed into law. When enacted, the measure would ease for two years some of the harshest cuts to agency budgets required under automatic spending curbs commonly known as sequestration. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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President Barack Obama meets with technology executives in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington,Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013. From left are, Mark Pincus, founder, Chief Product Officer & Chairman, Zynga, Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo!, and Obama. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

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FILE - This undated file photo shows a drawing of Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, the Confederate general during the American Civil War, 1861-65. Two decades before he would earn the nickname "Stonewall," Jackson's dreams of a military career got a boost from a man who would help start the Civil War, according to one tidbit gleaned from more than 115,000 U.S. Military Academy application documents being posted online for the first time by Ancestry.com. (AP Photo, File)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin reacts during a news conference after meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in Moscow on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow has agreed to sharply cut the price for its natural gas supplies to Ukraine and will buy $15 billion worth of Ukrainian government bonds, but says there was no discussion about Ukraine joining a free trade pact of three ex-Soviet nations. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)