A federal appeals court ruled that California’s ban on same-sex marriage. It became the first in the United States to conclude that a state has no convincing legal or social justification to deny gay and lesbian couples the right to wed.

The ruling brings the issue closer to the US Supreme Court. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals declared that the voter-approved Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. But the 2-1 ruling has revealed a split in judicial philosophy over a state’s ability to prevent same sex marriage. This could be the preview of what’s to come in the Supreme Court.

Proposition 8 supporters said that they plan to appeal the ruling. The appeals court ruling upheld that of former San Francisco Chief US District Judge Vaughn Walker, who also struck down Proposition 8 in 2010. Gay rights advocates celebrated after the announcement of the ruling. Conservatives criticized it. Legal observers said that it would face equal support when gay marriage issue reaches the Supreme Court.

Proposition 8 supporters can ask the 9th Circuit to reopen the case with an 11-judge panel or go to the Supreme Court. It would take a long time before a final ruling will be reached. Legal observers say that it would stretch until next year.

Park Police arrested 11 people in Washington’s McPherson Square as they cleared the tents from one of the last remaining Occupy sites in the United States. According to David Schlosser, spokesperson of the United Sates Park Police, one of those arrested was charged with felony assault on a police officer and assault with a deadly weapon. The person has allegedly hit an officer in the face with a brick last Saturday evening. The injured officer was treated at a hospital.

Three other Occupy protesters were charged with assault on a police officer. The Park Police will continue in clearing the park of unsanitary conditions as they faced no untoward incidents Sunday. It was Saturday night when the demonstrators vowed not to leave the premises and urged people to remain nonviolent in their protest.

The Occupy D.C. has been low-key because of the way the authorities handled the protesters. But around 100 arrests have already been made since it started. Demonstrators created havoc on Capitol Hill and they managed to close down K Street Northwest, which is the power corridor of Washington lobbying.

Over the past weeks, officials have been concerned about the cost of monitoring the camps. They were also worried about the unsanitary kitchens, trash and rats, especially around the McPherson camp.

Republicans in the House said that senior officials at the Justice Department should have known about the controversial strategies employed at the failed operation to track illegal firearms deals to Mexico because the information were readily available to them. President Barack Obama’s administration has been criticized for over a year over the Fast and Furious operation that was designed to determine how guns were smuggled from Arizona to Mexican drug cartels.

It turned out that US agents lost track of weapons. As many as 2,000 weapons were sold by gun dealers to people believed to be part of the Mexican drug cartels. But as of January 2011, fewer than 600 were recovered.

The Fast and Furious ran from late 2009 until early 2011. It came to light after two weapons from the operation were found in Arizona in December 2010 near the scene of a shootout between the US Border Patrol and illegal immigrants that killed agent Brian Terry.

Republican Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, released a memo that described how other federal authorities were already tracking down the gun smugglers of the drug cartel a year before Terry was killed.

Issa and the other Republicans on the committee said that senior Justice Department officials could have known guns were sold without adequate surveillance from wiretap apps and the information they had about a similar sting during the Bush administration called Wide Receiver.

Political analyst Scott Rasmussen said that the United States is in the middle of a fiscal crisis and the federal office in charge of decreasing the deficit has failed to do so. The Rasmussen Reports released the statement after the Congressional Budget Office announced that the federal budget deficit would reach $1.1 trillion in 2012.

Rasmussen said that the deficit would go up to $4 trillion in debt in 2012. The government ignored the cost of benefits that were promised for future Medicare and Social Security recipients. Estimates vary when it comes to the costs but they would be in the range of $3 trillion a year.

The CBO is not to be blamed for the accounting fiasco. The agency does a good job within the ground rules made by Congress but they often don’t make sense. Former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin said that the debt from the past is a problem but the future potential debt is a crisis.

The government doesn’t consider the debt piling up for future Social Security and Medicare benefits because they are officially declared as non-existent. The Federal Government uses the term trust fund, which has a different meaning from the private sector. A private trust owns the trust’s income and could also own the trust’s assets.

President Barack Obama asked Congress to act on the bipartisan measures that will extend the tax breaks for small businesses as well as help startup companies raise funds. The president said that he would sign the legislation immediately.

Obama wants to include in his 2013 budget proposal a set of business measures that have been sitting in Congress or have already passed the Republican controlled House to give entrepreneurs incentives to expand existing businesses or start new ones. He made these proposals during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. The president noted during the meeting that Karen Mills, head of the Small Business Administration, participated as a full member of the Cabinet.

The White House wants to remove the taxes on capital gains from investments in small businesses as well as a one year extension on the ability of all businesses to deduct the costs of software and equipment purchases. The administration also wants a new 10 percent tax credit for small businesses that would spur jobs or increase wages in 2012.

The president’s proposals would make it easier for new companies to raise money for capital and go public. It embraces the measures that have already passed the House or have bipartisan support in the Senate.

With just eight days before the Missouri presidential primary, Rick Santorum campaigned at the St. Charles County. He touted his proposals to improve the competitiveness of American manufacturers. The former Pennsylvania senator wants the government to get out of the way.

Santorum called for the repeal of the federal tax on companies that manufacture in the United States. He also wanted to get rid of all regulations imposed by President Barack Obama’s administration. He called for the approval of the Keystone pipeline as well as amending the educational system so that it serves parents more.

Santorum spoke before 350 people and was the first one to visit the state among the four remaining candidates. The Missouri primary is schedule for February 7, which is just a popularity contest this year with no national convention delegates at stake.

The selection of Missouri’s 52 delegates wouldn’t start until local caucuses on March 17. Santorum criticized the back-and-forth attacks employed by frontrunner Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich just a few days before the Florida primary.

Santorum is behind the two in the recent survey in Florida. He rejected Gingrich supporters’ call for him to step down from the race. Santorum’s camp said that the upcoming Missouri primary would allow their candidate to go head-to-head against Romney.

At least 400 Occupy protesters were arrested in Oakland after they fought with the police, who in turn fired tear gas and bean bag projectiles. This is the largest number of arrests made in a single day since protests started last year.

Authorities said that the official number of arrests was between 200 and 300 but an Oakland emergency operations center released a statement that raised the number to more than 400. It added that the Oakland Police would announce a more precise number later on Sunday.

Riot police battled with the demonstrators, which resulted to three officers and a protester injured. It started in the afternoon when the activists wanted to take over a downtown convention center. The battles lasted into the night.

Oakland became the flashpoint of the national Occupy protests against economic inequality, which began last year in New York. It spread to several cities across the United States. Most protests have been peaceful and it sparked national debate regarding how the country’s wealth is held by the richest 1 percent of the population. President Obama is trying to take advantage of the situation by proposing higher taxes on millionaires.

Protesters focused on Oakland after former Marine Scott Olsen was injured during a protest in October. He was supposedly hit in the head by a tear gas canister but authorities never issued an official statement with regards to the incident.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich announced that he would go all the way to the Republican National Convention no matter what happens on Tuesday, when GOP voters in Florida select who they want to run against President Barack Obama in November. He added that he expects to win the nomination in the convention.

His future plan was made public in a rally in Florida when a reporter asked about his campaign’s plans if he loses to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He said to the reporter that he should direct the question to Romney, because the former governor is behind in both national polls.

Romney has surged in Florida after losing by a huge margin in South Carolina last January 21. The two leading Republican candidates are campaigning hard to convince GOP voters. Romney looked confident after two strong debates this week. Romney got a 9 point lead over Gingrich in the recent polls.

But the numbers could change and this is why the candidates are spending millions of dollars on ads. One of the most debated topics is the immigration issue. Romney said that 11 million illegal immigrants in the country should be deported and get in line for those waiting to come to the United States legally.

People criticized President Barack Obama for proposing small bail initiatives during his State of the Union address. Gone are the measures to confront climate change or to improve the immigration system.

Instead the president settled for small measures that can be passed unilaterally. He has several in his list and he mentioned three more in his recent State of the Union address. These are the Trade Enforcement Unit to check on China, Veterans Job Corps to help communities hire veterans as firefighters and cops, and a Financial Crimes Unit to investigate Wall Street.

The president knows that the coming year would have more gridlock and he promised that he would fight it with action. This would place Congress on the defensive for failing to improve the economy. He wants the public to think that he’s doing something to help the economy while Congress does nothing.

This type of strategy worked for Harry Truman when the Republicans controlled congress in 1948. This is a complicated situation for Obama because he has a Democratic Senate. Congress’ approval rating is 13 percent according to the latest NBC poll.

Obama’s effort to skirt around Congress is similar to what Democratic president Bill Clinton did after the GOP got control of Congress. But the difference is that Clinton chose programs based on values such advocating school uniforms and V-chips to control what children watch on TV.

During his State of Union Address, President Barack Obama said that he wants the government to have a strong role in times of federal deficits and increasing taxes. The Republicans often say that the government is the problem but the president said that the government is a major contributor to the improvement of the country’s economy.

The president stated that the country was not built by a single person alone. Teamwork is needed to make it work. Priorities should be placed on job training, clean energy and refinancing the mortgages. He mentioned the federal deficits but he didn’t highlight it as a major threat to the economy.

He proposed an increase in the tax rates for millionaires and briefly mentioned spending cuts, which is a top priority for the Republicans. His tax increase proposal would give the government budget for its programs.

The president knows that his proposal to tax the millionaires more would not be approved by Congress before the presidential election. He hopes that this would be the issue that would separate him from the eventual Republican candidate.

Polls suggest that President Obama’s message was received warmly by the voters. They think that he’s the defender of the middle class with most of his programs directed to support them. Most Americans see the tax code as unfair.