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    DNC Announces Platform Committee Members

    The Democratic National Committee announced the members of two panels tasked with putting together the party’s platform for the next four years, including Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

    Chaired by former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, the Platform Drafting Committee will meet in full July 27-29 in Minneapolis, where members of the public can pitch their suggestions to the panel. The DNC has launched a website to receive entries until July 20.

    The group of 15 includes Frank and former Reps. Tony Coehlo, D-Calif., and Robert Wexler, D-Fla. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is serving as a nonvoting member of the committee.

    The full committee will then meeting August 10-12 in Detroit, where members will vote on a platform to present to convention delegates in Charlotte, N.C., come September. Booker will chair this committee in part.

    The convention’s rules committee, which meets the weekend before the Sept. 3 convention, will be chaired in part by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.

    In May, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that the legalization of gay marriage likely would be on the party platform.

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      SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A California grand jury has indicted a Florida man on charges he strangled his ex-wife and tossed her off a cruise ship in Italy.

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    • NSA Says Surveillance Disrupted 50 Terrorist Plots. Is That a Fair Trade for Your Privacy?

      In the most candid explanation of the National Security Agency's surveillance program to date, agency head Gen. Keith Alexander said Tuesday that his organization's listening activity has helped foil more than 50 terrorist plots against the United States and its allies. One of those involved Najibullah Zazi's attempt to blow up the New York City subway; another concerned an early-stage plan, news of which was previously withheld from the public, to blow up the New York Stock Exchange.

    • Quake shakes Peru's capital of Lima

      LIMA (Reuters) - A moderate earthquake shook buildings in Peru's capital on Tuesday but there were no reported injuries or damage, Reuters witnesses and safety officials said. Peru's geological survey recorded a 5.6 magnitude quake, while the USGS said it measured 4.6 and was centered on the floor of the Pacific Ocean about 35 kilometers (21 miles) west of Lima. (Reporting by Terry Wade and Omar Mariluz in Lima; Editing by Will Dunham)

    • Bieber behind wheel as car hits man in Hollywood

      LOS ANGELES (AP) — Video shows Justin Bieber running into a photographer with his white Ferrari in Hollywood, but police say there was no crime and the injuries aren't life-threatening.

    • GOP Congressman Wants to Ban Abortion to Save Masturbating Fetuses

      In a preview of the many pronouncements to come on the floor of Congress as the House debates a legislative ban on all abortions after 20 weeks, allow us to introduce you to Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who believes that abortion should be banned earlier than the Supreme Court says it should because, in part, he knows fetuses feel pain. He knows this because he says he's seen male fetuses begin masturbating in the womb around 15 weeks into a pregnancy.

    • Miss Utah's Pageant Answer Is the Worst You've Ever Seen

      The only time normal people seem to care about national beauty pageants is when one of the contestants messes up the question-and-answer round in the worst way possible. Well, it happened again last night at the Miss USA pageant, with Miss Utah giving an answer so bad that it eclipsed all other terrible pageant answers before her. Meet 21-year-old Marissa Powell. She is from Salt Lake City. And this is the full, cringe-worthy sequence you will be seeing a lot of this week:

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