Daily news coverage of politics, policy, and issues shaping the nation.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—The Department of Housing and Urban Development provided a $9.4-million loan guarantee to renovate an apartment complex here eight months after the owner convinced the county to value the complex at just $3.8 million, a Watchdog.org investigation found. The loan for Apollo Village Apartments defaulted, and the property was foreclosed on in 2012,…
Almost immediately after the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan was posted on the federal register, dozens of states filed a lawsuit challenging the regulations. But North Dakota didn’t join those other states as co-plaintiffs. Instead Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, a Republican who is expected to run for governor in 2016, filed a separate suit against…
For more than 15 years, Georgia offered one of the country’s most generous tax credits for people who bought electric cars. But the $5,000 subsidy went away three months ago, and a look by Watchdog.org at how the tax credit’s expiration has affected sales shows a dramatic drop in the number of all-electric cars such as Teslas…
POKHARA, Nepal—It’s been 43 years since the CIA cut off support to the Tibetan guerillas that the agency trained and armed to fight a covert war against China. Yet, a monument to the CIA’s secret war in Tibet is still standing in Pokhara, Nepal. The former Hotel Mount Annapurna building sits on a quiet side…
For the first time, President Barack Obama will deploy a small ground force to Syria to assist the fight against ISIS terrorists there. Though the White House is describing the move as an expansion of their current strategy to help local Syrian Arab and Kurdish forces fight ISIS, experts say the decision to send less…
Bremerton School District in Washington state has created a “faith-free zone,” according to Sen. James Lankford. Lankford was referring to the school district’s decision to suspend high school football coach Joe Kennedy for his post-game prayers on the 50-yard line. “Government does not have the authority to confine your faith to the location of government’s…
Pennsylvania’s wilting horse-racing industry can no longer support the fund that pays to oversee the sport, a development that could lead to a shutdown by late November. Yet the races could go on, through Thanksgiving and thereafter, if lawmakers push through a plan to subsidize the depleted State Racing Fund with money from another pot…
Young 11-year-old Jin-ho treks into the North Korean mountains every morning collecting firewood to earn just enough to keep him and his starving mother alive. One morning, he trips and breaks his leg, leaving him unconscious for multiple days in the isolated, freezing woods. He eventually staggers home, but his injury takes him out of…
Building a culture of life requires looking beyond Planned Parenthood, participants in a panel discussion on Thursday at The Heritage Foundation concurred. Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is facing allegations that it is trafficking the body parts of aborted babies following the release of hours of undercover footage by the Center for Medical Progress….
In a speech Thursday on the Senate floor, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, sharply criticized the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, a budget deal between former House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama. Cruz said the deal is yet another example of the failure of the “so-called Republican majority” to deliver on their promises to…
On the 800th anniversary year of Magna Carta, I sat down with the Honorable Daniel Hannan, a conservative member of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom and a long-time friend of The Heritage Foundation. Hannan represents the area of the UK, Runnymede, England, where Magna Carta was signed on June 15, 1215. Often known…
Less than five days after it was introduced, the Senate passed the 144-page, two-year budget deal that suspends the debt limit until March 2017 and raises spending caps. The Senate passed the budget deal, 64-35, just after 3 a.m. on Friday. Thirty-five Republican senators opposed the deal, though it was not enough to stop the bill…
It’s like straight out of a movie. Washington state high school football coach Joe Kennedy, inspired by the Christian faith-based film “Facing the Giants,” walks to the 50-yard line after games to thank God for the players he has the opportunity to coach. As of Wednesday, Kennedy has been suspended and is no longer able…
Ralph Reed, the influential CEO of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, believes the issue of religious liberty will be front and center throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. “I think it’s important because of what are likely to be the consequences of the Obergefell decision,” Reed tells The Daily Signal. “I think the redefinition of marriage begins…
General Electric admitted it will ship American jobs overseas, even if the Export-Import Bank gets reauthorized. General Electric officials have previously said that more jobs are likely to move overseas, unless the Export-Import Bank gets reauthorized. In accordance, GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt has campaigned to revive Ex-Im, according to Reuters. Ex-Im provides taxpayer-backed…
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Alabama from terminating Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Gov. Robert Bentley, R-Ala., ordered that the state end its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood after the Center for Medical Progress released a series of undercover videos that raised allegations that the organization is trafficking the body…
Pennsylvania lawmakers are on the brink of closing a legal loophole that exempts parties to an organized labor dispute from charges of stalking, harassment, and threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction. The stalking loophole has existed since the state officially defined the offense in its criminal code in 2002. As of 2012, Pennsylvania…
NASHVILLE, Tenn.—This past August, during an acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West announced his plan to run for president of the United States in 2020. The admission, widely reported by media outlets, was perhaps not entirely shocking in 2015, when awards shows frequently resemble either popularity contests or spectacles. (As the…
China is abandoning its controversial “one-child policy” in favor of a universal two-child policy, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. The move comes after several years of the Chinese government slowly relaxing the 35-year-old mandate. The most recent policy modification came last year, when Chinese men and women who are only children were told that…
Rep. Jim Jordan, a former college wrestler and coach, looks ready to pounce from his chair as he taps his feet and leans forward his burly frame during a discussion about his expectations for the newly elected speaker of the House, Rep. Paul Ryan. “I hope going forward, the new leadership, the new speaker, will…