Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
The jury in the corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said for a second time Thursday that it is deadlocked on the counts of the indictment, prompting U.S. District Judge William Walls to declare a mistrial. “We cannot reach a unanimous decision,” a note from the jurors read. “Nor are we willing to move…
Following the House’s 227-205 vote Thursday to pass its version of the Republicans’ tax reform bill, all eyes now move to the Senate, where a committee vote is expected Friday. “I commend [House] Speaker Paul Ryan, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, and all the members of the House who have worked tirelessly to…
Two House committees are investigating the tangled deal involving Russia, its acquiring of U.S. uranium, and Bill and Hillary Clinton. But the multiple layers that lawmakers, and potentially a special counsel, will explore take some unpacking. The probe addresses unanswered questions about the Uranium One mining company’s ties to the Clinton Foundation, the nonprofit founded…
News anchor Leeann Tweeden accused Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., Thursday of sexually harassing her multiple times during a United Service Organizations entertainment tour in the Middle East in 2006. Franken, a writer for "Saturday Night Live" before he became a senator, wrote a script that featured him kissing Tweeden, and harassed her during rehearsals, Tweeden writes for KABC….
Employees at a hospital in Pennsylvania are petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to overturn a board regional director’s decision to unionize the workers without their consent. Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill East’s 160 workers were forced into a union membership with the Service Employees International Union through the “accretion doctrine,” a policy that allows the NLRB to unionize…
One of the nation’s largest wireless broadband providers has committed to investing $1 billion in the economy if Congress cuts corporate taxes. “By immediately lowering the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, this bill will stimulate investment, job creation, and economic growth in the United States,” Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T, said last…
The U.S.-made Patriot missile defense system has shot down more than 100 missiles fired from Yemen at Gulf Arab states since 2015, Defense News revealed Wednesday. The missiles were likely fired by Yemeni Houthi rebels over the last two years at Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in retaliation for the Gulf states' support of an…
GREENWOOD, Mississippi—Thomas McMillin Howard, known as “T. Mac,” describes Greenwood, Mississippi as a “backwards place.” And sadly, most people who’ve visited would agree. Separated by a bridge where the black population tends to live on one side, and the white population mostly lives on the other, Greenwood has struggled to reconnect with its racially segregated…
America’s first active-duty soldier had a sex change operation on the Pentagon’s dime Tuesday. “This afternoon, an active-duty military member received a sex reassignment surgery,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “Military hospitals do not have the surgical expertise to perform this type of surgery, therefore it was conducted in a private hospital.” The transgender…
A group of six Democratic House members introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, claiming the president has violated federal law and the public trust, and should be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors. Democratic Reps. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Al Green of Texas, and Adriano Espaillat of New York introduced five…
As Congress works to pass tax reform by the end of the year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced that a repeal of Obamacare’s individual health care mandate would be added to the Senate version of the tax bill. “We’re optimistic that inserting the individual mandate repeal would be helpful,” McConnell said Tuesday, speaking…
The Justice Department is reviewing whether to name a special counsel to investigate unresolved issues surrounding Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told a House panel Tuesday, but turned defensive in explaining why he hasn’t appointed one already. “What’s it going to take to get a special counsel?” @Jim_Jordan says. “In response to letters from…
Men and women of the armed forces worry about their children’s education while deployed overseas, says Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Congress can do something about it. “Most people don’t realize that our national security and military readiness is significantly affected by the quality of education made available to children of service members,” Banks said…
The FBI signaled this week agents may be investigating whether Planned Parenthood’s dealings in fetal tissue were legal. Sources told The Hill news organization that the FBI has requested documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee obtained from the committee’s investigation into Planned Parenthood’s disposal of organs and other body parts from aborted babies. The investigation came after…
President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency paid $1.5 million for employee parking spaces, many of which went to the highly-paid upper management or were unused, a government watchdog reported Wednesday. The EPA spent $840,000 subsidizing parking spaces and another $690,000 on empty spaces, the agency’s inspector general found. Meanwhile, federal law has sought to discourage employees…
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has grown accustomed to stormy congressional hearings, but when he goes before a House committee Tuesday, much of the grilling is likely to come from an unusual source—Republicans. “Losing a presidential election as Hillary Clinton did does not render immunity from public scrutiny,” @RepMarkMeadows says. Numerous Republicans have expressed frustrations about…
A school in England suspended a teacher after he accidentally referred to a transgender boy student as a girl. Math teacher Joshua Sutcliffe, 27, said, “Well done, girls,” to two students at an Oxfordshire secondary school. He apologized to the transgender student, however, Sutcliffe faces a disciplinary hearing this week and officials could charge him…
CNN rejected the official government tally of 26 victims in last week’s Texas church shooting, insisting the victims included “25 people and an unborn child.” Texas is one of 38 states with fetal homicide laws that treat unborn children as individual entities when it comes to criminal law, according to The New York Times. CNN tweeted the…
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday agreed to hear a challenge to a California law requiring pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to post information about state-funded abortions. A coalition of pro-life groups challenging the law say it explicitly targets and coerces religious counseling centers into pro-abortion expression with which they disagree. The law, called the Reproductive FACT…
KYIV, Ukraine—Sometimes, wars aren’t won by tank battles and infantry assaults. Sometimes, it comes down to keeping the heat on. As Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine nears its fifth calendar year—and as Ukraine’s infamously cold winter draws near—American companies are incrementally cutting into Russia’s de facto monopoly as a supplier of nuclear fuel and coal…