Blog Posts by Rachel Rose Hartman, Yahoo! News

Janet Napolitano (Christian Science Monitor)

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Tuesday rejected a "border trigger" provision many Republican lawmakers say must be included in immigration reform legislation.

The proposal, which would require that that the U.S. border with Mexico be declared secure before illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. could apply for citizenship, has sparked significant concern among progressives and union leaders. And Napolitano, a Democrat and former Arizona governor, revealed Tuesday at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast roundtable in Washington that she also believes it shouldn't be put into practice.

"Once people really look at the whole system and how it works, relying on one thing as a so-called trigger is not the way to go," Napolitano said, adding that multiple factors must be taken into account to determine the border's status. She added that there "needs to be certainty" in an immigration reform bill for families already in the United States.

A bipartisan group

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia on Monday announced his support for gay marriage, making him the latest high-profile politician to state publicly that his opinion on the issue had changed.

"I support marriage equality because it is the fair and right thing to do. Like many Virginians and Americans, my views on gay marriage have evolved, and this is the inevitable extension of my efforts to promote equality and opportunity for everyone," he said in a statement posted on his Facebook page, noting that he signed an amicus brief urging the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Warner's announcement comes on the eve of Supreme Court oral arguments this week on gay marriage cases, including consideration on Wednesday regarding whether DOMA constitutes federal overreach.

Updated 2:18 p.m. ET

The White House defended President Barack Obama's decision on Monday to designate five new national monuments—one each in Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio and Washington state—while the country braces for sequester impacts.

"These kinds of designations are important … for the local economy [and] oftentimes they will designate and commemorate important parts of our nation's history," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at Monday's White House briefing.

Additionally, Earnest said, the land was already owned by the federal government or was donated, and the "immediate costs" are "pretty minimal."

The monuments designated Monday were: the Rio Grande del Norte, natural lands marked for protection in New Mexico; Delaware lands that will be deemed the First State national monument in that state; the Harriet Tubman underground railroad in Maryland on its Eastern Shore; the Wilberforce, Ohio, home of Charles Young, a West Point graduate who was the first black national park superintendent; and the San Juan Islands in Washington.

Members of the North Dakota House of Representatives on Friday passed an amendment granting legal right to embryos from the time of fertilization, a measure that could ban all abortions in the state.

The vote, 57 to 35, comes on the heels of its passage in the Senate. It's the first state "personhood" amendment passed by a legislature in the United States.

The measure recognizes “the inalienable right to life of every human being at any stage of development must be recognized and protected.”

If it's signed by Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple, it will fall to state voters—potentially in 2014—to decide whether to amend their state constitution to include the measure.

The White House on Friday afternoon announced the withdrawal of lawyer Caitlin Halligan's nomination for circuit judge for the District of Columbia, a move that will be cheered by Senate Republicans who have worked for years to block her nomination.

"Today, I accepted Caitlin Halligan’s request to withdraw as a nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. I am deeply disappointed that even after nearly two and a half years, a minority of senators continued to block a simple up-or-down vote on her nomination. This unjustified filibuster obstructed the majority of senators from expressing their support. I am confident that with Caitlin’s impressive qualifications and reputation, she would have served with distinction," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Yoani Sanchez, an internationally recognized Cuban blogger, capped off a day of visits with lawmakers in Washington with a trip to the White House.

"The United States looks forward to the day when all Cubans will have the opportunity to express themselves in public without fear, and we will continue to support policies that encourage the free flow of information to, from and within Cuba," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.

Sanchez is taking advantage of the recent easing of travel restrictions to travel the world to promote greater freedom of expression in Cuba, which she currently writes about on her "Generation Y" blog and on social media.

Fresh off his trip to the Vatican, Vice President Joe Biden joked on Wednesday that the United States narrowly missed an opportunity to have the first American pope.

Speaking to an Irish delegation gathered at his residence for a St. Patrick's Day breakfast honoring Prime Minister Enda Kenny, Biden joshed that Boston's archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, narrowly missed being chosen as the next pope.

“We almost made it big. ... We almost had a chance at power. We came that close, that close,” Biden said, according to the White House pool report.

He then jokingly blamed Terry Donilon, O'Malley's communications director and brother of White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, because Donilon “said something wrong.”

Democrats on Tuesday confirmed that a proposed ban on assault weapons will not be included in a package of gun reform legislation yet to be introduced in the Senate, suggesting the measure does not have broad support in Congress.

The bill's sponsor, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, confirmed to reporters Tuesday that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will remove an assault weapons ban from a package of gun reform legislation, and offer it separately as an amendment.

"I very much regret it," Feinstein said of Reid's decision. "I tried my best."

Reid's decision signals how politically volatile the issue of an assault weapons ban remains and suggests that any gun reform measure would die in the Senate if it included such a ban—something many political observers have long suggested.