(Getty photo; AP video)
The president said his decision to exercise his executive authority — which has infuriated many Republicans and thrust the issue into this year’s presidential debate — was an effort to prevent further violence and bring the country together on a divisive issue.
The president delivered a deeply personal and emotional appeal to the country to help curb gun violence, but the speech was a memorable one for reasons beyond his emotion.
Campaign 
2016
2016The remarks come as Ted Cruz rises as a serious rival in the campaign, especially in Iowa, where some polls have shown him eclipsing the billionaire mogul.
As rivals seized on his governing record, the N.J. governor punched back with the kind of bluntness that had been his trademark but in this campaign has been the domain of Donald Trump.
Most of the Republican presidential contenders and their allies are now waging campaigns using fear — bombarding voters with ominous television spots that warn of national security threats and amping up their alarming rhetoric on the stump.
The current divide reinforces a lot of other rivalries and disputes — and is perhaps even exploited by some to further other aims.
Larycia Hawkins was put on administrative leave from the evangelical college in Illinois after she made the controversial statement.
Authorities have determined some of the couple's actions in the four hours between the shooting and the gun battle with police, but they are seeking help from the public and trying to determine if the killers contacted anyone during a period of time that remains a mystery.
More than 90 criminal complaints were filed after a wave of violence swept through a crowd gathered at Cologne's main train station on New Year's Eve.
Jihadists have unleashed a wave of car bombs in a key part of western Iraq and seized an area near one of the country's largest dams.
The takeover stemming from the arson convictions of two local ranchers is at odds with conservative principles of land preservation, one group said.
The senator from Vermont also called for capping interest rates on credit cards at 15 percent and putting a $2 limit on ATM fees.
When Michael Keck died two years ago, 16 years of playing football from grade school into college had left his brain brittle and deformed worse than researchers had ever seen in someone so young.
The wrongful-death suit alleges that a mental health evaluator failed to find a hospital bed for Deeds's mentally ill son, who later stabbed his father 13 times before fatally shooting himself.
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