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Senate panel approves immigration bill

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:01:56 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — Far-reaching legislation that grants a chance at citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a solid bipartisan vote Tuesday night after supporters somberly sidestepped a controversy over the rights of gay spouses. The 13-5 vote cleared the way for an epic showdown on the Senate floor on legislation that is one of President Barack Obama's top domestic priorities — yet also gives the Republican Party a chance to recast itself as more appealing to minorities. The action sparked rejoicing from immigration activists who crowded into a Senate committee...

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Top Republican: IRS shouldn’t implement Obamacare until scandal is resolved

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:50:02 -0400

Joel Gehrke Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., asked two members of President Obama’s cabinet to suspend IRS implementation of Obamacare, citing the fact that the head of the health reform section of the agency used to lead the IRS section that improperly targeted conservatives. Thune wrote Attorney General Eric Holder and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew about Sarah Hall Ingram, who led the office that subjected Tea Party groups to inappropriate audits. “[P]lease confirm whether Ms. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Senate Democrats pull pro-LGBT proposal from immigration bill

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:35:03 -0400

Joel Gehrke Senate Democrats withdrew a pro-LGBT amendment to the Gang of Eight’s immigration bill due to fears that the legislation would prove fatal to the larger immigration package. “It is with a heavy heart,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., said, that “I will withhold the Leahy amendment seven at this point.” Leahy pushed for “allowing American citizens who are in long term committed relationships to sponsor their foreign partners for green cards.” Sen. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Congress grills IRS officials over targeting of conservative groups

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:20:03 -0400

Susan Ferrechio The IRS official overseeing the division that was inappropriately targeting conservative groups said she will refuse to answer lawmakers' questions during an appearance before a House committee Wednesday, a day after another top official at the agency acknowledged that he knew the targeting was happening but chose to keep quiet about it. Lois Lerner, head of the Internal Revenue Service's Exempt Organizations Division, informed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that she will invoke Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination during her appearance Wednesday. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Democrats fret President Obama's scandals will hurt them in 2014

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:15:03 -0400

Brian Hughes President Obama isn't the only one whose fortunes are on the line in the face of a trio of explosive political scandals that are consuming Washington. The Justice Department's monitoring of reporters, the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups and the White House's handling of the Sept. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Senate Dem tells Tea Partier that he’s acting like a ‘dictator’

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:05:02 -0400

Joel Gehrke Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., scolded Tea Party Sen. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Five reasons why focus on scandals is unlikely to backfire on GOP as in 1998

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:20:02 -0400

Philip Klein As multiple scandals have simultaneously engulfed the Obama administration, a number of political observers have cautioned Republicans against overreaching. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Big Labor sells its only college -- to a church

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:15:04 -0400

Paul Bedard After a year on the market, the AFL-CIO has finally sold its National Labor College in Silver Spring, Md., another sign that the nation's once enormous labor movement has fallen on hard times. The sprawling 46-acre facility adjacent to the Capital Beltway will be taken over by a church and a Montgomery County housing commission. The National Labor College was established in 1969 by AFL-CIO icon George Meany to teach labor organizing tactics to new generations of activists. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Carole King honored for pop music

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:25:02 -0400

Alicia M. Cohn House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., showed off her knowledge of Carole King's discography at the Library of Congress award luncheon for the singer-songwriter Tuesday, dropping references to everything from "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" to King's most recent album, "Live at the Troubadour. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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AFL-CIO issues legislative alert on NLRB nominees

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:20:02 -0400

Sean Higgins The nation’s largest labor coalition sent out the following “Dear Senator” letter out Tuesday afternoon. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Will young people buy expensive Obamacare insurance?

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:15:03 -0400

Michael Barone One essential feature of the insurance policies encouraged by Obamacare is that they require the young and healthy to subsidize the old and healthy. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Aid worker retells SEAL Team rescue

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:10:03 -0400

Alicia M. Cohn Humanitarian aid workers Jessica Buchanan and Erik Landemalm will discuss their book, "Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six," on Wednesday at the National Press Club. Buchanan was held in captivity for 93 days starting in 2011 by pirates in southern Somalia but now lives in the D.C. area with husband Landemalm. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Giant octopus: IRS has 8 offices to enforce Obamacare

Tue, 21 May 2013 17:05:04 -0400

Paul Bedard The Internal Revenue Service, charged with implementing the biggest change in tax laws in 20 years due to Obamacare, has created eight offices and special "teams" to handle the chore, way more than initially revealed. Besides the top office headed by the woman in the middle of the IRS-Tea Party scandal, there are seven others and a special enforcement team that make up an organization chart that mirrors the organization of the IRS itself, according to a Treasury Inspector General's report. The June report focused on concerns that the IRS, which is filling the Obamacare offices with 2,137 agents and officials to make sure...

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Court: CIA doesn’t have to release photos of dead bin Laden

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:25:02 -0400

Joel Gehrke CIA officials do not have to release images of Osama bin Laden taken after his death at the hands of Navy Seals, a federal court ruled today, citing the likelihood that the images would provoke a terrorist attack. “As one of the judges on this panel suggested that the Benghazi attack was caused by an Internet video, this decision is perhaps unsurprising,” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, whose organization filed a Freedom of Information Act request and lawsuit for the documents, said in a statement on the ruling. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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The leftist lynch mob out to get Tom Coburn might want to put down their pitchforks

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:05:03 -0400

Conn Carroll There is no better steward of American taxpayer dollars than Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Bartender Sam returns to Washington

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:00:04 -0400

Nikki Schwab Bartender Sambonn Lek was something of a fixture at the Mayflower Hotel's Town & Country bar. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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AP Sources: Obama ok punting gay immigration idea

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:46:30 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two people familiar with the Senate immigration deliberations say the White House has suggested to Vermont Sen. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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More Obama aides knew of IRS audit; Obama not told

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:16:32 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and other senior advisers knew in late April that an impending report was likely to say the IRS had inappropriately targeted conservative groups, President Barack Obama's spokesman disclosed Monday, expanding the circle of top officials who knew of the audit beyond those named earlier. But McDonough and the other advisers did not tell Obama, leaving him to learn about the politically perilous results of the internal investigation from news reports more than two weeks later, officials said. The Treasury Department also told the White House twice in the weeks leading up to the...

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A roundup of recent Michigan newspaper editorials

Mon, 20 May 2013 10:06:49 -0400

The Mining Journal (Marquette). May 13. Using kids in drug stings not a good idea A downstate lawmaker's plans to introduce legislation barring the use of minors in drug stings seems a lot like common sense to us. State Sen. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Money tangle: The IRS and its tea party tempest

Mon, 20 May 2013 05:32:53 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is feeling the sort of heat that targeted taxpayers feel from the tax agency. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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White House insists Obama was not involved in IRS

Sun, 19 May 2013 12:31:26 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House adviser insisted Sunday that President Barack Obama learned the Internal Revenue Service had targeted tea party groups only "when it came out in the news" while Republicans continued to press the administration for more answers. Trying to move past a challenging week that put the White House on the defensive, senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer was scheduled to appear on five Sunday news shows to repeat the administration's position that no senior officials were involved in the decision to give tea party groups extra scrutiny. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Saturday, May 18, 2013

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:35 -0400

Authorities: Hofstra University student killed in home invasion was fatally shot by police MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — A Hofstra University student being held at gunpoint by an intruder was accidently shot and killed by a police officer who had responded to the home invasion at an off-campus home, police said Saturday. Junior public relations major Andrea Rebello was shot once in the head early Friday morning by an officer who opened fire after the masked intruder pointed a gun at the officer while holding the 21-year-old in a headlock, Nassau County homicide squad Lt. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Obama takes Cabinet secretaries out to play golf

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:16:12 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has taken two Cabinet secretaries out for a round of golf — in the rain. The White House said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (seh-BEEL'-yuhs) and outgoing Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood joined the president Saturday at Andrews Air Force Base. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Subpoena of AP records revives media shield bill

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:02:27 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — The controversy over the government's secret subpoena of Associated Press telephone records has revived legislation that protect journalists from having to reveal their sources to federal investigators — and the White House is endorsing the idea. The proposal wouldn't provide blanket protection for a journalist from having to reveal who he or she spoke to confidentially. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Badgered: Obama acts, but Republicans unsatisfied

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:32:44 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama, seeking to regain his footing amid controversies hammering the White House, named a temporary chief for the scandal-marred Internal Revenue Service Thursday and pressed Congress to approve new security money to prevent another Benghazi-style terrorist attack. The efforts did little to satisfy Republicans, who see the controversies as an opportunity to derail Obama's second-term agenda. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Turkish PM talks Syria with Obama at White House

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:34:21 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Thursday that the U.S. and Turkey will keep ramping up pressure to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad from power, but there's "no magic formula" to stop his violence. At a news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the White House Rose Garden, Obama says the only way to resolve the crisis is for Assad to hand over power to a transitional government. "We're going to keep increasing the pressure on the Assad regime and working with the Syrian opposition," Obama said. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Top tax official didn't reveal tea party targeting

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:01:44 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress was not told that conservative tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted by the U.S. tax agency, even after the Internal Revenue Service's acting chief had been briefed on the matter. The agency's failure to inform Congress was likely to give Republicans another weapon to use against President Barack Obama, who has been besieged by accusations of government overreach in several mounting scandals just a few months into his second term. The IRS has apologized for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see whether they were...

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Obama: UK should seek EU changes, not 'break' ties

Mon, 13 May 2013 18:05:35 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama waded into British politics Monday, suggesting that the United Kingdom seek to reform its relationship with the European Union before it decides to simply break away from it. The stance put Obama squarely on the side of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was visiting the United States as he faces growing pressure at home to abandon the European bloc. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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Ex-Gov. Huntsman launching talk show on SiriusXM

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:34:21 -0400

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Former Republican Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a 2012 presidential candidate, is helping launch a new monthly radio talk show on SiriusXM satellite radio aimed at promoting bipartisan politics. The former U.S. ambassador to China and Democratic Sen. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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AP Exclusive: IRS knew tea party targeted in 2011

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:01:30 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner. The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com

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