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The White House has renominated 42 judge candidates, hoping they will be confirmed this time around after getting stuck in the Senate last year. Experts say the situation is dire: About 10 percent of seats on the federal bench are now vacant, and judges themselves are starting to sound the alarm.

The Obama administration's biggest domestic policy accomplishment -- the new health care law -- is under steady legal attack. On Thursday, lawyers argued the first case to hit the courts, filed by the attorney general of Virginia. More than a dozen other state challenges are in the pipeline.

Dennis Blair, director of national intelligence, is stepping down next Friday after a series of high-profile clashes with the CIA and a damaging report from Congress on intelligence failures. Blair has had troubled relations with the CIA chief concerning who has authority over intelligence.

Critics have said for years that minorities were being unfairly penalized by tough penalties for crack possession.

A grand jury accuses Edwards of using presidential campaign funds to support his mistress and their child. Edwards concedes he did wrong, but says he did not break the law.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration said it would no longer defend the law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman — a law the White House believes is unconstitutional. House Republicans said that decision gave them no other choice but to defend the law in court themselves.

Reports about what life is like inside the military prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay are not uncommon. But very little is reported about two units for convicted terrorists and other inmates who get 24-hour surveillance, right here in the U.S.

More than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and the cost is becoming unbearable for many state and federal governments. Even some "tough-on-crime" conservatives are starting to call for the release of inmates.

The House Homeland Security Committee holds a hearing Wednesday examining terrorist recruitment inside the walls of American jails and prisons. Experts say the number of criminals who turn to extremism behind bars is small but worrisome. Civil rights groups argue there's not enough evidence to hold a congressional hearing.

The 1984 killing of a woman near a busy Washington, D.C., street corner horrified the city and led to multiple convictions. Now the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and a determined lawyer are raising questions about whether at least one man was wrongly accused.