Mayor Michael Nutter didn't think too highly of the NRA's response to the Newtown massacre. The city of Philadelphia recently fired 91 school police officers.

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h/t: Noah Rothman

Few reasons for Democrats to support the would-be Pentagon chief.

Image by Ali Jarekji / Reuters

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Chuck Hagel's conservative stands on gun rights and abortion are prompting a new wave of scrutiny on Democrats who are weighing their support for a potential Secretary of Defense already under fire for his words on Israel and on gay rights.

Hagel is reportedly a leading choice to replace Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and would represent a strain of Republican "realism" that is generally skeptical of the use of American military force abroad, and specifically opposed to military conflict with Iran.

Hagel, who represented Nebraska in the Senate from 1997 until 2008, voted his party's line on a range of domestic issues.

In particular, he opposed congressional efforts to ban the import of high capacity magazines and to extend the Assault Weapons Ban — both items are high on President Barack Obama's legislative agenda after the shooting in Newtown, Conn. earlier this month. Additionally he voted against an effort to restrict the sale of firearms over the Internet, and to close the gun show loophole.

The votes are included in a document currently being among Democratic offices on Capitol Hill by Hagel opponents.

Hagel also repeatedly voted against amendments to allow servicewomen to access abortion services at military hospitals out of their own pocket. The pro-choice group NARAL criticized the ban as endangering the welfare of servicewomen.

"Prohibiting women from using their own funds to obtain abortion services at overseas military facilities not only discriminates against them but also endangers their health," the group said. "Women stationed overseas depend on their base hospitals for medical care, and are often situated in areas where local facilities are inadequate or unavailable."

Congress passed a measure overturning the decades-long ban earlier this month.

Hagel's stock has been sinking since gay rights groups raised questions about his prior positions, and a 1998 quote criticizing an ambassadorial nominee as "openly aggressively gay," was unearthed.

A bill dies in the Senate, but its backers are optimistic. Forcing police and the FBI to ask a judge before they read your email.

Senator Patrick Leahy.

Image by J. Scott Applewhite, File / AP

WASHINGTON — Senate backers of new protections against warrantless monitoring of private citizens’ emails said Wednesday that Congress has a good shot of passing digital privacy legislation next year — despite complaints that a bill passed last week didn't include the provisions.

Although the Senate Judiciary Committee on Nov. 29 passed a package of video and electronic privacy measures, the Senate late last week opted to take up a House-sponsored measure pertaining to video privacy only, dealing what privacy activists see as a blow to their cause.

“Changes to electronic privacy cannot happen piecemeal,” said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “If we are to achieve true reform — which means getting full protection for Americans’ inboxes and private communication — we cannot give priority to special interests.”

But Republican and Democratic Senate aides insist those concerns are overblown, arguing that the Senate was never realistically expected to pass the full package of reforms this year and that moving it out of the committee will give it momentum for the coming session of Congress.

Chairman Patrick Leahy has “always known that it would need to be a multi-year effort, but that getting a vote in November on his email privacy protections would keep the momentum going. It was known by everyone that it would not pass in the lame-duck session, especially in the House, and that Congress likely would pass a video privacy update for now,” a Democratic aide said.

Privacy activists for years have sought to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which governs the ability of law enforcement agencies to access private citizens records.

Although warrants are required for any number of digital records, Congress has never passed legislation requiring a warrant to review or monitor a citizens’ email traffic, and law enforcement authorities regularly demand access to emails via subpoena, without judicial review.

While privacy activists have long sought stronger protections for email, legislative efforts have only recently begun to pick up in earnest on Capitol Hill. Unlike some issues, privacy legislation generally does not break along partisan lines or regional lines as with spending bills or transportation legislation. Rather, both parties are often fractured along ideological grounds, making for odd bedfellows between liberals and libertarian conservative lawmakers.

As a result, while these types of bills are generally bipartisan, they can be more difficult to move since neither party’s political apparatus are generally inclined to engage on them.

Leahy late last month successfully moved through the committee the first major privacy reforms of the nearly two-and-a-half-decade-old law, bundling together email protections and a set of video reforms that enjoy broad support in the House and Senate.

Although Leahy’s measure has bipartisan support in both chambers, a number of Republicans, including ranking member Senator Chuck Grassley, have raised significant concerns with the bill, pointing to opposition from law enforcement officials.

“While I agree with the business and privacy groups that there is merit to harmonizing the legal requirements for obtaining emails with a search warrant, we would be abdicating our duty if we did not examine the concerns raised by federal, state, and local law enforcement. Additionally, we have heard concerns from civil regulatory agencies such as the SEC that this legislation would significantly impact the SEC’s enforcement of the securities laws — including insider trading,” Grassley said at a hearing late last month.

At the hearing, Leahy acknowledged the broader effort would likely have to wait until next year, and last week he reaffirmed his commitment to taking up the bill next year. “I look forward to working with him to update another critical digital privacy law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in the new year,” Leahy said in a statement following House passage of the bill.

“The Senate must first act,” House leaders insist. But Democrats “are still waiting for Republicans.”

Image by J. Scott Applewhite / AP

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders Wednesday reiterated their demands that the Senate take up fiscal cliff legislation as they remain no closer to finding the votes within their conference to pass a bill of their own.

After a 2 p.m. conference call with his leadership team, Speaker John Boehner’s office released a joint statement with other Republican leaders in which House Republicans once again sought to lay the blame for a lack of action on the Democratic-controlled Senate.

"The House has acted on two bills which collectively would avert the entire fiscal cliff if enacted," the statement read. "Those bills await action by the Senate. If the Senate will not approve and send them to the president to be signed into law in their current form, they must be amended and returned to the House."

"Once this has occurred, the House will then consider whether to accept the bills as amended, or to send them back to the Senate with additional amendments," the statement continued. "The House will take this action on whatever the Senate can pass, but the Senate first must act."

Whether the Senate can act remains an open question. Boehner and Obama have always operated under the assumption that the Senate will be an easier pull for some sort of fiscal cliff deal than the House.

And, a Senate Democratic leadership aide said Wednesday, Senate Democrats "are still waiting for Republicans to agree to either support or not block any bill whatsoever."

"That's the basic threshold that needs to be met for us to move forward," the aide said.

But with the House in disarray at this point, conservatives said they are now focusing on the upper chamber, where they believe they can once again stymie efforts to pass a bill.

One conservative activist familiar with the state of play warned that even a short-term measure will likely include things like unemployment insurance, which many conservatives oppose.

“It’s not just the tax stuff. They’re going to be voting on unemployment insurance as well. That’s a hard path too because they’re going to need people to flip,” the activist said.

And even if Majority Leader Harry Reid is able to find 60 votes, at this point unless a deal is announced in the next few days, conservatives could slow-walk the measure long enough to push past the first of the year and potentially even into the next Congress.

Should the Senate pass a bill, Boehner will still face a major lift in the House, where rank-and-file conservatives remain unhappy. House Republican leadership "haven’t really involved rank-and-file in the negotiations, which has been part of the frustration" among conservatives, one GOP aide said, noting that leadership has yet to plan even a conference call with rank and file to discuss the situation.

As if the fiscal cliff wasn't enough.

Image by Charles Dharapak / AP

WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced Wednesday that the U.S. government will hit its borrowing limit on Dec. 31 if Congress doesn't act.

The announcement adds pressure on lawmakers to resolve many of the nation's fiscal challenges by the end of the year or go over the so-called "fiscal cliff," a set of spending cuts and tax increases that will fall into place automatically if Democrats and Republicans can't reach agreement.

But "extraordinary measures" taken by the department will provide an additional $200 billion "head-room" — enough for the federal government to avoid default for two months, Geithner said.

President Barack Obama has called on lawmakers to immediately extend the debt ceiling through a mechanism offered by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell last year, though Speaker of the House John Boehner reportedly asked him for concessions to do that. The president has said he will not negotiate over the borrowing limit, telling business leaders earlier this month, "I will not play that game."

We rounded up some of our favorite political stories at BuzzFeed this year. ICYMI.

How the White House Smothered the News of Obama's Trip to Afghanistan

One of the first American reporters to note early reports that President Obama was in Afghanistan last May, Zeke Miller chronicled the White House's frantic — and ultimately futile — efforts to quiet the news as it rocketed through social media and the blogosphere.

Horror Hospital: The Most Shocking Photos and Testimony from the Dawood Military Hospital Scandal

A disturbing exposé by Michael Hastings and Rebecca Elliot of a U.S.-funded military hospital in Afghanistan that kept its patients in "Auschwitz-like conditions."

How Same-Sex Marriage Supporters Beat the "Princess" Ad

Following same-sex marriage victories in four states in 2012, Chris Geidner reported exclusively on the behind-the-scenes research and confidential reports used by advocacy groups to shift the terms of the national debate.

For Thousands of Veterans, the New G.I. Bill Isn't Working

In an investigative report, Rosie Gray revealed that the Department of Veterans Affairs was failing to deliver tuition checks and housing stipends to tens of thousands of veterans across the country — a story that prompted swift reforms and the introduction of new legislation to Congress.

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Coming to Washington over the request of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, Schatz, 40, said Wednesday's appointment is “the first step on a very long road.” He intends to fight global warming, calling it “the most urgent challenge of our generation.”

WASHINGTON — Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie announced Wednesday that he had appointed fellow Democrat — and his lieutenant governor — Brian Schatz to the Senate seat held for the past half-century by Sen. Daniel Inouye, who died Dec. 17, at age 88.

Here are six things to know about Senator-designate Schatz.

Many Elections

Image by Audrey McAvoy / AP

Schatz has said he will be running in the special election to be held in 2014 to determine who finishes Inouye's term, which lasts through 2016. If he were to win that election, he then would have to run again in 2016 if he wished to serve a full term, as he said he would today.

In his comments at Abercrombie's Wednesday news conference, Schatz noted of his appointment, "It means the first step on a very long road."

Unexpected Entrance

Sen. Daniel Inouye's casket lay in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington on December 20, 2012.

Image by Joshua Roberts / Reuters

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On Capitol Hill, staffers and journalists look to Starbucks for inspiration. But baristas don't spread the word.

Image by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

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A pointed statement on the way out. “I spoke about the need to address climate change, but…”

Image by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Administration announced Thursday that she would step down in a statement that implied inaction on climate change during President Obama's first term.

Jackson mentions climate change just once in her statement, saying that at the time of her nomination, she "spoke about the need to address climate change." But the rest of the statement appears to make the tacit argument that she succeeded even though that initiative failed. Jackon lists other issues on her agenda that the EPA was more successful in tackling: "air pollution, toxic chemicals and children’s health issues, redevelopment and waste-site cleanup issues, and justice for the communities who bear disproportionate risk."

Although she says she leaves with "confidence the ship is sailing in the right direction," Jackson's choice not to highlight climate initiatives gestures toward Obama's so far mixed legacy on environmental issues.

During Obama's first year in office, cap and trade legislation died in the Senate. In 2012, however, the president was able to implement fuel economy standards, raising fuel efficiency by 2016 to 35.5 miles per gallon.

Jackson's statement, in full:

I want to thank President Obama for the honor he bestowed on me and the confidence he placed in me four years ago this month when he announced my nomination as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. At the time I spoke about the need to address climate change, but also said: “There is much more on the agenda: air pollution, toxic chemicals, and children’s health issues, redevelopment and waste-site cleanup issues, and justice for the communities who bear disproportionate risk.” As the president said earlier this year when he addressed EPA’s employees, “You help make sure the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat are safe. You help protect the environment not just for our children but their children. And you keep us moving toward energy independence … We have made historic progress on all these fronts.” So, I will leave the EPA confident the ship is sailing in the right direction, and ready in my own life for new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference.

Update: Jim O'Hara, Associate Administrator for the Office of External Affairs and Environmental Education at the EPA, told BuzzFeed Thursday afternoon that his office did not believe Jackson's statement suggested a failure of the Obama administration on climate change.

O'Hara, who said he helped craft the statement, said, "It says what it says, which was that in addition to climate change, the EPA needed to address a host of other issues," said O'Hara. "To characterize it as a 'pointed statement' is to misread it."

The EPA also directed BuzzFeed to a statement made by President Obama on Jackson's departure.

"Under her leadership, the EPA has taken sensible and important steps to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink," the president's statement read, "including implementing the first national standard for harmful mercury pollution, taking important action to combat climate change under the Clean Air Act and playing a key role in establishing historic fuel economy standards that will save the average American family thousands of dollars at the pump."

Finally, a good use of government resources. (via the National Archives)

2002

Source: youtube.com

2003

Source: youtube.com

2004

Source: youtube.com

2005

Source: youtube.com

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The video is on the official Barack Obama YouTube channel. He delivered the line in 2008, countering warnings from the National Rifle Association.

Source: youtube.com

The senator's scoop falls flat. “Not true,” an aide to Harry Reid responds.

Image by Charles Krupa, File / AP

WASHINGTON — With a post to his Facebook page Thursday, Sen. Scott Brown sent Washington scurrying to determine whether the White House had presented an offer to Senate Republicans to avert the fiscal cliff.

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South African President Jacob Zuma claimed that owning dogs is part of “white culture.” Black South Africans have been posting portraits and odes to their dogs on Twitter in response.

This is from the General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, who the Mail & Guardian identifies as "one of Zuma's greatest critics of late."

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The Log Cabin Republicans run a full-page ad in The New York Times calling Hagel “wrong on gay rights.” The ad ignores Hagel's apology.

WASHINGTON — The Log Cabin Republicans — a national group for LGBT Republicans — said it hasn't accepted the apology of former Senator Chuck Hagel for opposing a Clinton administration nominee for being "openly, aggressively gay."

The group bought an ad in The New York Times Thursday painting the potential Defense Secretary nominee as "wrong" on "gay rights," Israel, and Iran.

The group's evidence of Hagel's record on LGBT issues is a quote from 1998 opposing the nomination of James Hormel, a comment Hagel, himself a Republican, apologized for this past week.

Log Cabin's leader, R. Clarke Cooper, acknowledged that the apology is not referenced in the ad and that "[l]awmakers can and do change position ... for the better on the LGBT equality portfolio." He told BuzzFeed, however, that his group "question[s] the sincerity" of Hagel's apology.

The ad comes just months after Log Cabin Republicans endorsed Mitt Romney for president, despite Romney's support for a Federal Marriage Amendment to ban same-sex couples from marrying. Hagel voted against the amendment as a senator in 2006.

Quoting Hagel's 1998 comments about Hormel, then a nominee for ambassador to Luxembourg, the ad states that "Chuck Hagel's Words" are: "They are representing America [as ambassador]. They are representing our lifestyle, our values, our standards. And I think it is an inhibiting factor to be gay — openly, aggressively gay ..."

The comments, made to the Omaha World-Herald while Hormel's nomination was being considered by the Senate, circulated on Dec. 20. The next day, however, Hagel issued a statement apologizing for the comments and saying that they are not his current views.

Hagel called the comments "insensitive" and said, "They do not reflect my views or the totality of my public record, and I apologize to Ambassador Hormel and any LGBT Americans who may question my commitment to their civil rights. I am fully supportive of ‘open service’ and committed to LGBT military families."

Asked about the ad's failure to mention that Hagel has said the comments are not his current view, Cooper, Log Cabin's executive director, said, "While he may have recently apologized for his anti-gay comments to save his possible nomination, Hagel cannot walk away from his consistent record against economic sanctions to try to change the behavior of the Islamist radical regime in Tehran.

"Lawmakers can and do change position as we have seen recently for the better on the LGBT equality portfolio," Cooper said, adding that the "issue with Hagel" goes beyond LGBT issues, "hence an ad encompassing his record on national security issues."

Referencing a statement by Hormel to The Washington Post that the apology appeared to come "only in service of his attempt to get the nomination," Cooper said "Log Cabin Republicans concur with Ambassador Hormel's original assessment of Chuck Hagel's current position on gay rights. We question the sincerity of it."

Fiscal cliff negotiations make a last stand. But the path to a deal remains treacherous.

Image by J. Scott Applewhite / AP

WASHINGTON — As fiscal cliff negotiations entered the final days before a rash of tax hikes and spending cuts automatically take effect, lawmakers indicated they are still open to a last-minute deal — but the practical path to such a compromise remains unclear.

President Barack Obama will meet Friday at the White House with congressional leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, a Democratic leadership aide confirmed Thursday.

That meeting was in flux for a few hours Thursday afternoon as Democrats sought to determine whether an in-person gathering could yield any progress. At press time, Republican aides said they had not yet agreed to meet. White House aides would not confirm the meeting.

Meanwhile, Majority Leader Eric Cantor told Republicans on a conference call Thursday that the House will return to session Sunday afternoon.

However, House Republican aides insisted privately Thursday that they aren’t coming back to Washington to conduct further negotiations — but instead to wait on the Senate to act on its fiscal cliff bill from this spring, which included no tax increases for the wealthy.

“That’s our offer," a senior House GOP leadership aide said. "That’s our position. If they want to change it, they’re free to do so."

Boehner’s decision to return to Washington might also be a simple response to optics — the networks and other media outlets have been pounding House Republicans for leaving the capital before Christmas, and with his team already in a deep PR hole, leadership seems to think it best to bring Republicans back, even if they would not do much of anything, other aides speculated.

Even if Boehner, Obama, Reid and McConnell were to agree to a deal — something that is, for all of Thursday’s bluster, no closer to happening — that doesn’t mean it could pass muster with enough of Boehner’s conference to actually pass.

Indeed, House members might simply be coming back to Washington to stand witness with their Senate counterparts as the country plunges off the fiscal cliff.

"We’ll see what the President has to propose," McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday. "Members on both sides of the aisle will review it, and then we’ll decide how best to proceed.”

In his conference call with members, Boehner continued to place the onus of responsibility on the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“The House has acted on two bills that collectively would avert the entire fiscal cliff," Boehner told his members during the conference call, according to a source on the call. Boehner added, echoing a statement he had made earlier, "If the Senate will not approve these bills and send them to the president to be signed into law in their current form, they must be amended and returned to the House."

"Once this has occurred, the House will then consider whether to accept the bills as amended, or to send them back to the Senate with additional amendments," Boehner said. "The House will take this action on whatever the Senate can pass – but the Senate must act.”

But doubt persists that Boehner could shore up enough support within his own caucus to pass a compromise package, and the path to an agreement before the end of the year remains unclear. In particular, Democratic aides in the Senate pointed to last year’s payroll tax cut debacle as a cautionary tale about Boehner’s ability to actually marshal his conference.

In the days leading up to Christmas last year, Boehner assured McConnell, and then both Reid and McConnell, that Boehner could deliver the votes for an agreement to extend the tax cut for one year. All Reid and McConnell had to do was send over a bill.

But during a conference call with his members in which Boehner laid out the payroll deal, he and his leadership team came under attack from rank-and-file — who took their complaints to the press within minutes.

That revolt forced Boehner to back out of his agreement with McConnell and Reid, and the episode has left a sour taste in Senate mouths ever since.

When asked if Reid would simply accept an assurance from Boehner that he could, in fact, pass a bill in the House after the Senate were to agree to it, a Democratic leadership aide said bluntly, “After last year? No. No way.”

Zeke Miller contributed reporting.

Americans in the process of adopting from Russian orphanages grieve over a ban that looks likely to be made into law. “It has really slammed the brakes on everything right now.”

Orphan children play in their bedroom at an orphanage in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Image by Vladimir Konstantinov / Reuters

Bill and Val Deutsch yesterday completed the first major step in their process of adopting two orphans from Russia: they finished the 80 hours of training mandated by the Russian government and had their "home study" approved.

But the Virginia couple had their plans crushed by Vladimir Putin's announcement on Thursday that he plans to sign a bill that passed the Duma that will ban U.S. adoptions of Russian children — even ones that are currently in process or have been approved, as is the case with 46 adoptions. The clear subtext for the bill is retaliation for the Magnitsky Law that recently passed the U.S. Senate, which will bar any Russian nationals involved in human rights abuses from entering the United States.

The political tit-for-tat has real-world emotional consequences for the families and orphans involved, and has left parents hoping to adopt from Russia bewildered.

"It has really slammed the brakes on everything right now," said Deutsch, a fiscal security professional whose four biological children are mostly grown. "We are absolutely in a holding pattern. If Putin signs the bill into law, from everything I've seen this pretty much slams the brakes on all of it."

Deutsch worries about the fate of the older boy he and his wife were planning to adopt, who is 13 and will age out of Russia's orphanage system at 16.

"What tends to happen to older kids who age out, they end up in a precarious situation," he said. "We're talking about a little boy who has grown up in an orphanage."

Other parents have taken to blogs to express their dismay at the ban.

"It's hard not to take it personally, but after this many years, this much effort and the same disappointment...you eventually take wind of the hints you had seen all along but refused to acknowledge," one prospective mother, Elaine Vandiver of Washington state, wrote on her blog.

"I now exclusively follow only Russian government officials on Twitter," she wrote. "I have even acquired Russian word recognition." She and her husband had recently begun the adoption process.

"The day we had our court hearing to make the adoption official was the day this entire mess hit the papers in Russia," wrote Karissa and Luke Cruse on their adoption blog. "At the time it seemed that because our adoption was technically official and we were congratulated on being parents, that we would not be affected."

"Day by day it has come closer to reality and it seems that the goal is to prevent even one more child from leaving the country," they wrote.

The State Department is advising families currently trying to adopt from Russia to seek information on their adoption.state.gov website.

"We will seek to provide information directly to families that contact our office through email as it becomes available," the department says.

The National Council for Adoption is circulating an online petition that consists of a letter by 21-year-old Alexander D'Jamoos, a university student in the U.S. who was adopted from Russia at age 15 and has physical deformities in his limbs.

"These orphaned children, to whom I feel a very strong connection, are victims of an incentive-based, cruel political retaliation," D'Jamoos writes.

NCFA spokeswoman Lauren Koch described the adoption ban as "very, very sad" and accused the Russian government of being "willing to deny these children the most basic human right of all – a loving, permanent family."

Putin, for his part, has been dismissive of concerns about the bill.

“There are probably many places in the world where living standards are better than ours," he said on Thursday. "So what? Shall we send all children there, or move there ourselves?”

For the Deutsches, who wanted to "open up our home to some kids and give them a fighting chance," Bill Deutsch said, it's a setback with greater consequences than that.

"We were kind of looking at what the next stage of our life might be here," Deutsch said.

No schussing if Congress goes over the cliff?

Image by J. Scott Applewhite / AP

WASHINGTON — Politicians' war chests could be the first casualties if Congress and the White House lead the nation over the fiscal cliff come January 1st.

A number of lawmakers, and campaign committees, already have high dollar fundraisers scheduled for the early weeks of January. But if a deal hasn't materialized and members are stuck in DC, their wallets could end up thousands of dollars lighter.

For instance, Republican Sens. Mike Lee, Orrin Hatch and Jim Risch are all scheduled to hold separate fundraisers in their home states during the first two weeks of 2013.

Lee is slated to host his second annual "Ski Day" in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 3. Hatch has planned a ski event of his own in Deer Valley, Utah, on Jan. 4. And Risch has planned to host his "First Annual Hunting Excursion" in Idaho.

The invitation to the latter event touts "a world champion rifle shooter, a five-time world champion duck caller, and a former Navy Seal" among other guests.

But there might not be shooting nor schussing if Congress is still searching for a fiscal cliff compromise during the early weeks of the new year.

The event listings:

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The former Gulf Storm commander died in Tampa the AP reported.

He was awarded a silver star for personally leading trapped soliders out of a minefield in Vietnam and even carrying off some of the wounded he rescued.

Image by Peter Arnett / AP

He was awarded a Purple Heart for being wounded in Vietnam as well.

Source: achievement.org

He had three children and is pictured here with his daughter Cindy during her freshman year at Auburn.

Via: books.google.com

He was married to his wife Brenda for 44 years.

Via: books.google.com

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She had “too much principle” to work on Keystone, says Tittel.

Image by Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call / Getty Images

President Obama's chief environmental official departed in part over her opposition to a controversial plan to pipe oil from Canadian tar sands to Texas refineries, two sources familiar with the situation told BuzzFeed Thursday.

Environmental Protection Administration Administrator Lisa Jackson, who had served as New Jersey's top environmental official, had been handed a far less ambitious agenda on issues surrounding climate change after opposition from states reliant on burning coal for electricity proved a damaging political issue for Democrats in 2010. The pipeline project, bitterly opposed by environmental activists, was one of environmentalists' largest disappointments.

Jackson "left as a matter of conscience," said Jeff Tittel, the director of New Jersey's Sierra Club chapter and a longtime friend of Jackson's. The EPA Administrator "has too much principle to support [the pipeline], between the climate impacts of it and the water quality impacts of it."

President Obama initially delayed Keystone's progress, but this March authorized the construction of its Southern portion over howls from his former allies in the movement to stop carbon emissions.

"If the president comes out for it, she would be expected to support it," said Tittel. "Whether they told her or not, that's how it works. She was the person who pushed the hardest for the moratorium on the pipeline and now she's leaving."

"I know she was very frustrated by the White House on a lot of issues," he said, citing a "cap-and-trade" bill to limit carbon emissions that failed in the Senate in 2009.

A former senior administration official confirmed that disputes over Keystone were central to Jackson's alienation from the White House — though a third source close to Jackson said she also had personal reasons to move on from the Obama administration, a normal step for a cabinet official who has served four intense years.

"It was all about Keystone for the last 16 months," said the former senior Obama administration official, who said Jackson's opposition to the project — and her defeat in internal arguments — meant that her colleagues had assumed she would leave after the November election, before she would be forced to work on any element of the implementation of Keystone.

Jackson's statement of resignation praised the administration's progress on a series of issues other than climate change; an EPA aide insisted to BuzzFeed that the omission was not meant critically.

And spokespeople for both the White House and the EPA stressed to BuzzFeed Thursday evening that Jackson's departure was not influenced by the Keystone pipeline.

In the statement announcing her decision to step down, Jackson wrote that she leaves the EPA "confident the ship is sailing in the right direction, and ready in my own life for new challenges, time with my family and new opportunities to make a difference."

Other sources close to Jackson say the decision had less to do with the Obama administration's environmental record, and was more a personal choice.

"She had always planned to do one term," said one close Jackson friend. "She has two boys heading for college soon."

"It would not surprise me if she is just straight-up tired," said executive director of Environment America, Margie Alt, who often works with Jackson and the EPA. "The woman has a family and a life and has been on the job 24/7."

"We sure hope that they don't approve it, but the EPA's role in that is not as big as some of the other lifts they've got squarely on their shoulders," she said of Keystone XL.

But Keystone was not the only point of tension between Jackson and the White House.

Jackson reportedly weighed resignation last year after Obama backed away from EPA-proposed ozone pollution standards, but ultimately "abandoned the idea as a futile gesture," according to the New York Times.

But the controversial TransCanada pipeline project has become the rallying point of environmental dissatisfaction with Obama. The $7 billion endeavor would transport Canada's oil sands to U.S. refineries around the Gulf of Mexico. It was put on hold until the Obama administration further investigated concerns regarding the pipeline's environmental damage.

Although the pipeline decision was not Jackson's or the EPA's to approve — the State Department alone has the authority to issue presidential permits for cross-border pipelines — Jackson was an active member of talks on Keystone. In June of 2011, the EPA said a State Department analysis of the project was "insufficient," highlighting its concern over "potential environmental impacts."

This March, Obama put the project back on track, saying at a dramatic Oklahoma press conference that "we’re making this new pipeline from Cushing to the Gulf a priority."

Jackson's future after her role as EPA administrator remains unclear, although she confirmed to the New Jersey Star-Ledger Thursday evening that she would not jump in the N.J. gubernatorial race, as speculated this fall by some in the state.

"I think she'll end up in politics at some point," said Tittel, "but for now you'll see her at either a university or think tank."

Cerberus moved quickly to say it would sell the nation's largest gun company in the wake of the Newtown massacre. But the company remains for now a gun giant — and it won't distance itself from the National Rifle Association, which protects a key, and deadly, product line.

A screen shot from the front page of the Freedom Group, Inc., website.

WASHINGTON — More than a week after Cerberus Capital Management announced that it would sell its stake in one of the world's largest gun companies, a spokesman for the investment firm will not say how long the sale will take, what it will do with the company — or whether its brands will continue to donate to the National Rifle Association.

"I don’t anticipate that they will comment beyond the press release issued last week," Peter Duda, a spokesman for Cerberus, told BuzzFeed.

The NRA has offered key regulatory support to Cerberus's companies, which reported to investors that a restoration of the Assault Weapons Ban — killed by the gun group in the 1990s — would have an "adverse effect" on business. And Cerberus's silence on its relationship offers a glimpse at the distance between a politically savvy move to distance itself from gun investments and any potentially costly concession on gun policy.

Even before the NRA mounted its unapologetic defense of the right to bear rifles of the sort used in two high-profile shootings this month, Cerberus — a giant, politically sensitive venture firm — had tacked in the opposite direction, announcing that it would dump Freedom Group, Inc., under which it had assembled a package of leading gun companies, including Bushmaster and Remington.

In its Dec. 18 statement, Cerberus called the attack in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 children and 6 adults, a "watershed event" and said it had "determined to immediately engage in a formal process to sell our investment in Freedom Group. We will retain a financial advisor to design and execute a process to sell our interests in Freedom Group, and we will then return that capital to our investors."

But since the announcement, the firm has remained quiet about the planned sale and continues to describe the Freedom Group on its website as one of its "representative company investments." Cerberus is declining to answer questions about whether Freedom Group and its brands are still donating to the NRA.

According to the NRA's website, at least three Freedom Group-owned companies — DPMS Panther Arms, Marlin Firearms, and Remington Arms — have donated to the pro-gun powerhouse, which backs its strict opposition to gun control efforts with a combination of grassroots organizing and Washington lobbying.

Cerberus Capital Management is a $20 billion private investment firm that, as reported by The New York Times more than a year ago, has spent the past six years investing in several gun companies under the umbrella of the Freedom Group, which Cerberus describes as "the world's leading innovator, designer, manufacturer and marketer of firearms, ammunition and related products for the hunting, shooting sports, law enforcement and military markets."

According to the "Market Leadership" section of the Freedom Group's brochure available on its website, the Freedom Group is "#1 in commercial AR-style rifle sales, with top two brands. More caliber offerings than any other manufacturer." Among the AR-style rifles sold by the Freedom Group is the Bushmaster .223 rifle allegedly used at Sandy Hook and in several other recent gun killings.

In its latest quarterly report to investors for the quarter ending Sept. 30, Freedom Group described the status of the Assault Weapons Ban, which was not renewed by Congress in 2004, in a "regulatory developments" section of the report.

"We cannot guarantee that an 'assault weapons' ban similar to the AWB, or another version thereof, will not be re-enacted. Legislation of this type, if enacted, could have a material adverse effect on our business," the report advised investors like Cerberus.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has said she will introduce an assault weapons ban bill at the start of the 113th Congress.

Sales of this magnitude can be complicated, and could take many weeks more to complete. But in the meantime, at least some of its investors are pressuring the firm to get it done.

The California State Teachers' Retirement System, which has invested in Cerberus funds, initiated discussions with the firm about its Freedom Group investment after the shooting in Newtown, the pension fund has since announced.

Following Cerberus's announcement on Dec. 18, the California pension fund announced that its "current policies require that the risks associated with products that pose significant threats to human well-being be taken into account before an investment is made by [the fund]. ... Moving forward, CalSTRS will work to ensure that all of our investments are taking these very important criteria into consideration."

Cerberus's Representative Investments

A screen capture from the Cerberus Capital Management website.