Secretary of State

The Colorado Secretary of State's office announced that enough signatures on the recall petition of state Senate President John Morse were valid, but is now being challenged to examine whether the language included everything needed to make the move constitutional.

During a joint interview that aired Sunday, Obama and Clinton chuckled as they described their partnership and stoked speculation that Obama may prefer Clinton to succeed him in the White House after the 2016 elections.

Congress has approved legislation that would expand the State Department's rewards for justice program to target the world's most serious human rights abusers, with African warlord Joseph Kony a top target.

Clinton didn't suffer a stroke or neurological damage from the clot that formed after she suffered a concussion during a fainting spell at her home in early December, doctors said in a statement.

The illness has kept her out of the public view since December 7, and has started to raise a host of questions as her team keeps typically tightlipped about the details: Where is the clot located? How severe is her condition? How soon will she recover?

Kerry's nomination could bring to a close what has become for the White House a contentious and distracting effort to name a new secretary of state. Rice withdrew her name from consideration last week, making Kerry all but certain to become the nominee. People familiar with the White House's decision-making said support within the administration was moving toward Kerry even before Rice pulled out.

If nominated — an announcement could come this week — and confirmed by the Senate, Hagel would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Panetta has made it clear he intends to leave early next year, but has not publicly discussed the timing of his departure. He took the Pentagon job in July 2011.

A Kerry nomination has been discussed with congressional leaders, and consultations between the White House and congressional Democrats have centered on the fate of his Senate seat, according to officials familiar with the situation who were not authorized to publicly discuss the talks. If the seat were in play, it could boost the prospects for recently defeated Republican Sen. Scott Brown to win back a job in Washington.

Your Secretary of State, Jim Condos, has released the numbers from an audit of optical scanning machines in four randomly-selected Vermont towns. And the results were rather strikingly precise (with one small caveat, which I will get to later): The machines were accurate to within a couple of votes in almost every case.

I've been trying to figure out why John McCain, Lindsey Graham and several other Republican senators are piling on Susan Rice, UN ambassador, for her role as spokesperson for the administration on the Benghazi September 11 attack. There is no reasonable evidence for their ridiculous attacks, but maybe there's a political motive.