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Edward Snowden, who remains in hiding in Hong Kong.
• The disclosures have sparked debate and legal action against the Obama administration by privacy activists who say the data collection goes far beyond what was intended when expanded counterterrorism measures were authorized by Congress after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
• ___

• LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- The conservative Club for Growth tags Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor as President Barack Obama's "closest ally" in the state while New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun-control advocacy group says Pryor "let us down."
• Pryor's re-election race is 17 months away, but the Democratic incumbent seen as perhaps the most vulnerable in 2014 is already taking hits from the right and the left. That's forced the second-term senator to aggressively defend himself and step into re-election mode sooner than planned, even though he has no Republican opponent.
• "My goal right now is to put the campaign off until the election year, 2014," Pryor told reporters recently. "They keep dragging me back into the politics, they keep running ads and trying to keep it stirred up here."
• Republicans are trying to unseat Pryor and three other Democratic incumbents who represent states that Republican Mitt Romney won in last year's presidential race: Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.
• Democrats need to defend 21 seats, including seven in largely rural states that Obama lost in 2012.
• ___

• COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Residents returning to the neighborhoods they were driven from just days ago by Colorado's most destructive wildfire ever are seeing firsthand the path of destruction left behind by the flames.
• Firefighters battling the fire in a rural region northeast of Colorado Springs have made huge advances in recent days, aided by unexpected rain showers and calmer winds, and authorities lifted most evacuation orders. Fire crews expanded contain

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