Gun Control: When will America get their act together? Banished for Questioning the Gospel of Guns - by Ravi Somaiya

The byline of Dick Metcalf, one of the US’s pre-eminent gun journalists, has gone missing. It has been removed from Guns and Ammo magazine, where his widely-read column once ran on the back page. He no longer stars on a popular television show about firearms. Gun companies have stopped flying him around the world and sending him the latest weapons to review.

In late October, Mr. Metcalf wrote a column that the magazine titled “Let’s Talk Limits,” which debated gun laws. “The fact is,” wrote Mr. Metcalf, who has taught history at Cornell and Yale, “all constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be.” 

The backlash was swift, and fierce. Readers threatened to cancel their subscriptions. Death threats poured in by email. His television program was pulled from the air. 

Just days after the column appeared, Mr. Metcalf said, his editor called to tell him that two major gun manufacturers had said “in no uncertain terms” that they could no longer do business with InterMedia Outdoors, the company that publishes Guns & Ammo and co-produces his TV show, if he continued to work there. He was let go immediately. 

“I’ve been vanished, disappeared,” Mr. Metcalf, 67, said in an interview last month on his gun range, about 100 miles north of St. Louis, surrounded by snow-blanketed fields and towering grain elevators. “Now you see him. Now you don’t.” 

Note EU-Digest: when will America, where the majority of the population gives standing ovations to the often "questionable" exploits by their military, but "boo" gun control, universal healthcare and pollution controls, get their act together?

Read more: Banished for Questioning the Gospel of Guns - NYTimes.com

US Healthcare Program: Obamacare website now working smoothly

There is a "night and day" difference between HealthCare.gov on October 1 and the same site on December 1, Jeff Zients, the top administration official responsible for improving the problem-plagued Obamacare enrollment site, said Sunday on a conference call with reporters.

Zients and Julie Bataille, spokeswoman for the federal agency charged with developing and operating HealthCare.gov, said the website now works "smoothly for the vast majority of users." The administration said the site can now handle 50,000 concurrent users and 800,000 consumer visits a day -- two capacity goals for the portal that date back to its launch two months ago. And Bataille said the site was now allowing "in the zone of 80%" of users to successfully complete a health care enrollment.

In short, after a concerted effort to improve HealthCare.gov, the administration said Sunday that the online Obamacare enrollment portal now essentially meets all of the previously stated goals for the website.

Read more: Administration: Obamacare website working smoothly - CNN.com

USA Healthcare Program - Kathleen Sebelius apologises for Obamacare website 'debacle'

US President Barack Obama's embattled health secretary has apologized to the American people over the botched rollout of his healthcare law's insurance marketplace websites.

Kathleen Sebelius was questioned by a House panel about the 1 October launch.

"You deserve better," Ms Sebelius said to the public, pledging the site would be repaired by the end of November.

The federal and state-run websites had been projected to enrol seven million uninsured Americans in the first year.

"I'm accountable to you for fixing these problems and I'm committed to earning your confidence back," Ms Sebelius said in sworn testimony in the House energy and commerce committee.

Read more: BBC News - Kathleen Sebelius apologises for Obamacare 'debacle'

US shutdown talks: White House and Republicans fail to agree deal - by Dan Roberts and Dominic Rushe

US House Speaker John Boehner

White House talks with Republicans failed to reach an agreement to end the budget crisis on Thursday evening, but a marked change in tone from the participants suggested a deal to end the protracted standoff could finally be in sight.

Discussions between Barack Obama and House speaker John Boehner broke up after 90 minutes with no specific agreement, but both sides said discussions would continue to prevent the US defaulting on its debt obligations.

Earlier, Boehner sent stock markets soaring by offering to pass a temporary six-week extension to the US debt limit that the Treasury estimates will be reached on 17 October.

Republicans are also under pressure to lift their refusal to pass a separate spending authorisation, which precipiated a partial shutdown of the government, leading to the lockout of an estimated 800,000 federal workers.

Obama has insisted on at least a temporary reprieve from both threats before he would agree to negotiate over Republican demands to repeal his healthcare reforms and cut spending.

Read more: US shutdown talks: White House and Republicans fail to agree deal | World news | The Guardian