Social Issues

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Mexican federal police and army soldiers guard a U.S. Embassy vehicle after it came under attack by gunmen on a highway between Mexico City and Monterrey in February. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was killed and another wounded in the attack. Many of Zetas' targets have been Mexican military and police personnel, but in recent years, U.S. law enforcement authorities also have come under attack. (Associated Press)

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Jeffrey M. Frederick, who chaired the Virginia Republican Party for about 10 months before being ousted in April 2009, is back as the head of a political action committee to fund anti-establishment candidates. (The Washington Times)

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Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II is hoping the Supreme Court will fast-track his health care law appeal. (Drew Angerer/The Washington Times)

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Associated Press "You can't get up on every issue when you're in the minority," said Missouri state Sen. Tim Green, St. Louis Democrat. "So you pick the ones you're most passionate about."

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Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, is chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. (AP Photo)

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A victim of a narco-crime is found along a road on the outskirts of Acapulco, Mexico. There are a half-dozen words for drug cartel informants and double that for drug war dead, but Mexicans worry that developing a kind of offhand jargon anesthetizes people by making violence seem routine. (Associated Press)

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Former Republican National Committee chief Michael S. Steele (Associated Press) **FILE**

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Female anti-government protesters gesture while chanting slogans during a demonstration in Sanaa, Yemen, on Sunday, April 17, 2011, to demand the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The country's anti-government movement took up the issue of women's rights in the conservative Muslim nation as thousands of demonstrators seeking the president's ouster denounced his comments against the participation of women in protest rallies. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

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Syrian women attend an anti-government protest in Banias, Syria, on Saturday, April 16, 2011, in this photo taken by a citizen journalist on a cellphone and acquired by the Associated Press. (AP Photo)

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An ill evacuee is treated by aid workers while being moved to a waiting ambulance, as nearly 1,200 migrant workers who were evacuated from Misrata by boat, many suffering from dehydration and needing medical attention, arrived at the port in Benghazi, Libya, Friday, April 15, 2011. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

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In this letter, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell announces his veto of the state's redistricting plan.

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Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation Texas fisherwoman, her face smeared with syrup to represent oil, protests against BP as British police officers prevent her from entering the London conference center where the petroleum giant held the annual general meeting of its shareholders Thursday. "I think a lot of the shrimpers are concerned," she said. (Associated Press)

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Detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's likeness is sprayed on a Hong Kong sidewalk with the words, "Who's afraid of Ai Weiwei?" The social activist was taken into police custody April 3 and is being investigated for allegedly evading his taxes, a Hong Kong newspaper reported. (Associated Press)

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, accompanied by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, who is his party's ranking member on the House Budget Committee, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, April 14, 2011. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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Texas Rangers' Josh Hamilton sits in the dugout with his right arm in a sling during the first inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers in Detroit, Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The Rangers put Hamilton on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday after breaking his upper right arm on a headfirst dive into home plate the day before against the the Tigers. He is expected to miss six to eight weeks. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

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ROD LAMKEY JR./THE WASHINGTON TIMES Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and Budget Committee chairman, talks with reporters after joining members of the party leadership in their response to President Obama's 2012 budget-plan speech on Wednesday.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS President Obama hosts a bipartisan meeting with House and Senate leadership on Wednesday in the White House. From left are: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, the president, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

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Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican and Budget Committee chairman, talks with reporters after joining members of the party leadership in their response to President Obama's 2012 budget-plan speech on Wednesday. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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After Bethlehem Ayele testified for the government against members of a drug gang in 2004, she lived part of her dream and ran the Ohio Restaurant on H Street Northeast. But when the former drug dealer and federal witness was slain in 2006, it closed and has been boarded up ever since. (J.M. Eddins Jr./The Washington Times)