Read today’s news from around the state and country. Each day in the Roundup we cover politics, always with a side of bold humor. We think politics should be fun, informative and encourage us all to take action.

July 12th

Urge Kerry To Investigate KXL Conflict of Interest: As previously reported, Friends of the Earth and The Checks and Balances Project are renewing their calls for a fresh reassessment of the Keystone XL’s environmental review authors. New information from Bloomberg suggests both Cardno Entrix and Environmental Resources Management falsified information about their ties to TransCanada. The appropriate checks have not been made. And, like they say: if you’ve got time to cut corners, you’ve got time to do it again. Sign a petition to get this thing stopped and redone the right way.

Obama Admin Urges Cool As Healthcare Reform Nears: On Oct. 1, the roughly 30 million uninsured will be able to buy insurance from these wonderful exchanges. While about 79 percent of Americans still haven’t heard of the exchanges — another 42 are unsure the Affordable Care Act is a law, which we can thank the GOP’s massive, well-funded misinformation campaign — the Obama administration held a press conference reminding everyone to chill out like that last scene of “Pulp Fiction.” They told a smattering of journalists they’re only aiming to get half of the nation’s uninsured during this first go around, and if 2.7 million of them are young and health, great. That would be enough to stabilize rates. Also, the Obama campaign machine will once again be revived to spread the good new through grassroots efforts and corporate ones like Walgreens, which is carrying literature on the exchanges. Additionally, the application process for the exchanges has been cut down from 23 pages to 3. This may actually be fun. Read more about what to expect with health care reform here.

U.S. Stands Ready to Sign Massive, Secret Trade Agreement: