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His comments to Kansas City-based KMBC during a series of interviews Thursday afternoon with local television stations, the same day that Washington implemented a new law decriminalizing the use of small amounts of marijuana over the objections of some congressional Republicans.

READ: D.C. legalizes pot, ignoring House Republicans

"I think that we have to separate out legalization -- there's a lot of concern about drug abuse of any sort by our children and the general population -- versus the heavy criminalization of non-violent drug offenses," Obama said. "And I think that a lot of states are taking a look to see, do we have proportionality in terms of how we are penalizing the recreational user."

He said the United States has managed to discourage the use of other harmful products like tobacco without stiff jail sentences.

"I think that's what every state across the country, including some very conservative states that don't have a lot of tolerance for marijuana, are looking at," Obama said, "is do we want to be throwing people in jail for five, 10, 15 years if they're not major drug dealers but they're using a substance that's probably not good for them but is probably not hurting too many other people?"

Obama also repeated his previous stances on the Keystone XL pipeline, which he recently vetoed after Republicans sought to authorize it before the State Department completes a six-year-old review, and international trade.

He touted his administration's push for a 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership as a way to correct the labor and environmental lapses of past pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement. And he said the new deal is an opportunity to keep China from setting international rules with other Pacific Rim countries.

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Obama backs pot decriminalization efforts

Published February 26, 2015

Feb. 26, 2015: U.S. President Barack Obama participates in the taping of an town hall discussion on immigration with host Jose Diaz-Balart at Florida International University in Miami. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

President Obama said illegal immigrants who would be eligible for protection from deportation under his recent, disputed executive orders should plan for them to be upheld in court.

"People should be gathering up their papers, make sure you can show you are a long standing resident of the United States," Obama said Wednesday evening at a town hall meeting hosted by the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo. He said immigrants should make sure that by the time the legal issues are sorted out, "you are ready to go."

A federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked Obama's executive action earlier this month at the request of a coalition of 26 states who claim in a lawsuit that the president overstepped his legal authority.

On Wednesday, Obama said he expected to win when a U.S. circuit court hears his appeal, but added that his administration will "take it up from there" if the appeal fails, in an apparent reference to the Supreme Court. He said at each stage of the process, the White House believes it has the better argument.

"This is just one federal judge," Obama said of U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, who put Obama's order on hold. "We have appealed it very aggressively. We're going to be as aggressive as we can."

Dismissing those hoping for a presidential about-face, Obama insisted he was "absolutely committed" to the new policy, which he described as focusing deportation efforts on felons.

"We are reorganizing how we work with state and local governments to make sure that we are not prioritizing families [for deportation]," Obama said. "And you are gonna see, I think, a substantial change even as the case works its way through the courts."

As Obama spoke in Miami, another immigration drama was playing out in Congress, where lawmakers were attempting to fund Homeland Security over the insistence by some Republicans that Obama's immigration actions be repealed at the same time. Obama derided Republicans for holding national security funding hostage and said he would veto a stand-alone measure to repeal his actions being contemplated in the Senate.

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Obama says illegal immigrants should prepare for court to uphold executive action

The foundation developing Barack Obama's future presidential library has commissioned polling in Chicago to determine whether residents support building it on the South Side, people close to the foundation said, in the clearest sign to date that the library likely will go to the University of Chicago.

Two Chicago schools and one each in New York and Honolulu are in the running for the library and presidential museum, and Obama is set to pick a winner within weeks. But recently, the focus has shifted decidedly to the University of Chicago's bid and a public spat with a conservation group over the elite school's proposal to build on city park property.

Aiming to counter the vocal opposition from park advocates, the Barack Obama Foundation earlier this month enlisted a prominent Democratic pollster who worked on both of Obama's presidential campaigns. Cornell Belcher of the polling firm Brilliant Corners surveyed more than 600 Chicagoans on the South Side to gauge their opinion on the library and the use of park land, said the individuals, who weren't authorized to discuss the poll publicly and requested anonymity.

There were no indications the Obama foundation polled in the other three communities being considered, driving further speculation that the competition is a done deal for the University of Chicago, where the first lady worked and the president once taught law.

In late December, the Obama foundation let it be known publicly that it had serious concerns about the University of Chicago's bid in particular, the school's failure to prove it could secure the Chicago Park District land on which it was proposing to build. That set off a scramble by university officials and Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and earlier this month, the park district's board voted unanimously to transfer 20 acres to the city, to be leased to the foundation if the University of Chicago gets the library.

Obama's foundation said the move had improved Chicago's bid, in yet another indication that the University of Chicago was on track to win the library.

Yet a small but outspoken group of opponents, led by the nonprofit Friends of the Parks, has continued to argue that officials have yet to prove the Obama legacy project is worth the land-grab from city park-goers.

"This is setting a precedent for this city and for the nation for the transfer of public park land into private hands," the group's president, Cassandra Francis, said at a panel discussion about the library Thursday. Casting doubt on the poll's veracity, Francis said her group was considering a lawsuit to stop the library from being built on park land.

The Obama foundation's poll appeared to be laying the groundwork for the foundation and the University of Chicago's supporters to rebut opponents like Friends of the Parks as the Obamas narrow in on a decision.

For example, Belcher's survey found that roughly 9 in 10 South Side residents favor building the library in their community. When residents were told the project would require park land, support dropped to just 7 in 10. Yet that number rose again to about 9 in 10 once people were told more about the use of park land, such as the shortage of contiguous, vacant, city-owned land on the South Side.

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With Poll, Obama Foundation Hints at Library's Likely Site

No, Rand Paul #39;s Vaccine Comment Was Not #39;Taken Out Of Context #39;
Rand Paul thinks his words were taken out of context. Hmmm. --- NowThisNews is the rst and only video news network built for people who love their phones an...

By: NowThis

Originally posted here:
No, Rand Paul's Vaccine Comment Was Not 'Taken Out Of Context' - Video

In 2012, Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul was a force to be reckoned with in the presidential race. His group of supporters - including many young voters - was limited, but passionate. Though he wasn't considered a serious contender for the Republican nomination, he had a strong showing in both the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary, finishing third in Iowa with 21.5 percent of the vote and second in New Hampshire with 22.9 percent.

Now his son, Texas Sen. Rand Paul, is contemplating his own presidential bid. Both men come from the libertarian wing of the party, though Doug Wead, who has worked for both Pauls, calls the elder Paul a "classic libertarian" and the younger one a "practical libertarian."

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CBS News Political Director John Dickerson talks about Sen. Rand Paul's day of meeting with people in New Hampshire -- even though he won't make ...

And while Ron Paul was generally viewed as someone who ran for president to prove a point, his son could be a serious contender for the nomination. What he has to do is navigate the tricky dance of keeping his father's supporters engaged and on his side while attracting a whole other group of voters who might not have given Ron Paul a chance.

"His dad's base is not going to be enough,so he's got to find ways to expand the base and become, if not the favorite of different factions of the party, at least acceptable," University of New Hampshire Political Science Professor Dante Scala told CBS News. "He has to do that in such a way that doesn't make his father's base voters feel as if they're being betrayed or that Ron Paul's legacy is being compromised."

Politics isn't the first arena where Paul has followed in his father's footsteps. Like Ron Paul, who had a medical career that preceded his first run for office, Rand Paul also started out in the field of medicine. He was always active in politics, serving in the Young Conservatives of Texas club during college at Baylor University. He left for Duke University to attend medical school before completing his undergraduate degree, and he opened an ophthalmology practice in Bowling Green, Kentucky, after he completed his residency.

All the while, though, Paul was helping his father with his congressional campaign and 2008 presidential bid, and he started a group called the Kentucky Taxpayers Union in his home state. His rise coincided with the rise of the tea party in 2009, and in 2010 he defeated Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson, the establishment pick for Kentucky's vacant Senate seat, to become a senator.

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ken.) used old-school filibuster tactics, speaking for 12 hours and 52 minutes to hold-up John Brennan's CIA nomination. CBS Ne...

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Rand Paul's balancing act: What to do with Ron Paul's ...