The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act -- also known as "Obamacare" -- in its entirety on Thursday, preserving access to health care for millions of people who would otherwise be turned away because of preexisting conditions or forced to pay higher premiums based on gender.

"No illness or accident should lead to any family's financial ruin," President Barack Obama said after the ruling was announced.

Related: A look at the health care law in all 50 states

Others were dismayed by the decision, pointing out that it amounts to a tax increase on the middle class and insisting that it would raise health care costs for everyone.

"This bill was sold to the American people on a deception," Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after the ruling was announced. "But it's not just that the promises about this law weren't kept. It's that it's made the problems it was meant to solve even worse."

Given that most of the major provisions of the law haven't yet gone into effect (th

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By Katie Drummond

American women are fit to fight. But the military's ability to keep them healthy? Still pretty flabby.

That's the consensus of an Army task force on women's health, whose findings were first covered by USA Today this weekend.

Unfortunately, the task force's findings are only one of several indications that, while women are playing increasingly valuable roles in the U.S. military, our armed forces are still ill-prepared to care for the distinct needs of this growing female cohort.

There should be no question that women are entirely able to serve close to the front lines, and even on them. As I noted in an editorial for The Guardian earlier this year, more than 225,000 women have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan - many of them serving in unofficial combat roles. They comprise 15 percent of America's military. And an estimated 144 women fighting this generation's wars have lost their lives during service.

Women In Combat? We Have The Technology

But while the

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In "American Tapestry," New York Times reporter Rachel L. Swarns explores the family history of Michelle Obama and discovers that the first lady's roots are entwined with those of white slave-owners in 19th-century Georgia. The revelation has sparked a discussion about people and power and shows that while some want to celebrate the distant connections between blacks and whites, plenty more are still uncomfortable and angry about racial issues in America.

Related: When it comes to politics, are we more racist than we think?

"My family, well, they were just your most basic people who never had a lot. I never imagined they owned slaves," Joan Tribble, 69, told Swarns. Her great-great grandfather, Henry Wells Shield, owned a 200-acre farm near Rex, Georgia. He also owned Obama's great-great-great-grandmother, Melvinia Shields, who came to his farm as an 8-year-old slave -- torn from her parents, valued at $475 after her owner died -- in 1852.

Swarns' book, an excerpt of which ran recent

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This week, Michigan approved one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country -- and House Republicans banned two female Democratic representatives from speaking on the House floor after they opposed the bill.

State Representatives Lisa Brown and Barb Byrum, both Democrats, were not officially told why the ban was put in place or how long it will be enforced, Brown said in a statement on Thursday.

"Both Representative Byrum and I were gaveled down without cause yesterday while voicing our opposition to the Republican's war on women here in Michigan," Brown said. "Regardless of their reasoning, this is a violation of my First Amendment rights and directly impedes my ability to serve the people who elected me into office."

The bill (HB5711), which passed 70 to 39 with one representative abstaining, would severely restrict women's access to non-abortion health care services by imposing difficult-to-meet regulations that could ultimately force most clinics in the state to clo

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It's no secret that women have become a political force in this year's presidential election, so much so that both President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney have enlisted their wives to help in their campaigns. And they're reaching out in a way that many women voters understand: through social media.

Related: Is there really a War on Women?

Though Ann Romney has never been fond of the political spotlight -- during her husband's brutal 1994 Senate campaign, she told the Boston Globe, "You couldn't pay me to do this again" -- she's recently started headlining campaign events on her husband's behalf. She joined Twitter in April, after a jab by liberal pundit Hilary Rosen reignited the stay-at-home vs. work-in-an-office Mommy Wars, but had taken to Pinterest months ago, showcasing recipes and crafts along with patriotic photos and snapshots from the campaign trail.

Michelle Obama has been Tweeting for longer, but made her debut on Pinterest just today. So far, the fir

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