Category: Barack Obama

Two Ohio Coal-Fired Plants to Close, Deepening Industry Decline

Electricity company Dayton Power & Light said on Monday it would shut down two coal-fired power plants in southern Ohio next year for economic reasons, a setback for the ailing coal industry but a victory for environmental activists. Republican President Donald Trump promised in his election campaign to restore U.S. coal jobs that he said had been destroyed by environmental regulations put into effect by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.

U.S. Hopes to Launch NAFTA Talks in Just Over 90 Days: Ross

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Friday that he hopes to launch formal talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in a little over three months, setting in motion a campaign promise made by President Donald Trump. During his election campaign, Trump threatened to pull out of NAFTA, which he views as damaging to U.S. workers, unless it was renegotiated to his liking and reduced the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico.

Trump’s Run of Dumb Luck

How quickly Washington forgets. It was only two weeks ago that the biggest story in the nation’s capital was how President Donald Trump’s aides were pressuring the FBI and allies in Congress to shoot down the stories whirling around about his associates’ ties to Russia.

House GOP Finally Puts Out Repeal Plan

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., plans to send the bill to the House floor for a vote and then forward it to the Senate by the beginning of April. Employers would no longer face a tax for offering high-value “Cadillac” health plans under the latest House Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.

As president, Trump seeks answers on his own wiretap mystery

White House Press secretary Sean Spicer walks out of the West Wing of the White House in Washington to speak with members of the media, Monday, March 6, 2017. White House Press secretary Sean Spicer walks out of the West Wing of the White House in Washington to speak with members of the media, Monday, March 6, 2017.

Wall St Dips on Trump Tumult, North Korea Action

U.S. stocks pulled back on Monday in a broad decline as investors grew uneasy over the latest tumult surrounding the Trump administration and geopolitical tensions emanating from North Korea. The S&P 500 has rallied about 11 percent in the wake of President Donald Trump’s victory in November, with investors betting on the implementation of reduced regulations, lower taxes and increased infrastructure spending.

Equity Futures Drop as Risk Appetites Hit

U.S. stock futures dropped but Asian shares were resilient on Monday as investors weighed the near-certain prospect of an interest rate hike in the United States this month against news of China’s slower 2017 growth target. Risk appetites also took a hit on rising geopolitical tensions in East Asia, as North Korea fired four ballistic missiles early in the day, while a spat between China and South Korea over missile defense deepened.

FCC, in potential sign of the future, halts new data security rules

The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday halted new government rules related to data security from taking effect this week, in a potential prelude to a broader repeal of privacy protections for users of high-speed internet. After a 2-to-1, party-line vote by the Republican-led commission, Ajit Pai, the chairman, announced that a portion of privacy rules passed in October would be temporarily stayed.

3 Global Factors Including Trump, Brexit That Could Smash Consumer Spending in 2017

Developed markets such as North America and Europe will be bogged down by slowing consumer spending in 2017, as debt, an ageing population and economic stagnation takes hold, analysts at market research firm Euromonitor International predicted in a new report. Euromonitor said that events such as Brexit and the “Trump effect,” as they called it, creates political instability that will be “a key challenge going into 2017.”

Trump is upset the media is not reporting a meaningless statistic about the national debt

Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events People use mobile devices to record President Trump as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland on Feb. 24. On “Fox & Friends” Saturday morning, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain credited President Trump with reducing the national debt, after just one month in office. “And here’s another statistic that I haven’t heard anybody talk about.

Trump to Speak at Conservative Forum

President Donald Trump takes the stage on Friday at an annual conservative forum, looking to plant his personal stamp firmly on the political movement even as some activists fret his immigration and trade policies go too far. Trump will address the third day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, which has focused on how to fulfill long-held Republican goals to revamp the U.S. tax code, repeal federal regulations on industry and repeal former Democratic President Barack Obama’s healthcare law.

Ajit Pai adopts a ‘light touch’ leading Trump’s FCC

The head of the Federal Communications Commission wants to embrace a “light touch” approach to regulation under his leadership and the new administration. “Light touch regulation means that we create broad regulatory frameworks that can protect consumers to ensure an overall competitive marketplace,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” last week.

The top 20 presidents in US history, according to historians

It should come as little surprise to anyone that, for the third time in a row, historians agree that Abraham Lincoln was the best US President. As part of C-SPAN’s third Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership , almost 100 historians and biographers rated the 43 former presidents on ten qualities of presidential leadership: Public persuasion, crisis leadership, economic management, moral authority, international relations, administrative skills, relations with congress, vision, pursued equal justice for all, and performance within the context of his times.

Meet the man who’ll dismantle net neutrality ‘with a smile’ – CNET

Ajit Pai, the newly christened chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, won’t let a little thing like a hurricane stop him from his obligations. When the rest of the East Coast was taking cover from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, then-FCC Commissioner Pai was sitting in his kitchen at his home in Northern Virginia delivering a keynote speech via video conference to attendees at the 4G World Trade show in Chicago.

U.S. Senate Expected to Confirm Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary

The U.S. Senate is expected to confirm former Goldman Sachs banker and Hollywood financier Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary on Monday, returning a Wall Street veteran to the top U.S. economic and financial job for the first time in eight years. Mnuchin’s appointment to Treasury signals the Trump administration’s trust in bankers and other senior business executives after Democrat Barack Obama launched his presidency with career regulator Timothy Geithner running Treasury and a mandate to rein in Wall Street for its role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

New FCC chair closely guards his strategy to restructure net neutrality

WASHINGTON: The new chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission under President Donald Trump is keeping under wraps his strategy to revise or reverse the Obama administration’s “net neutrality” rules, but emphasized he is committed to ensuring an open internet. Ajit Pai, 44, a Republican lawyer who has served as a FCC commissioner since 2012, strongly opposed former Democratic President Barack Obama administration’s 2015 net neutrality rules that reclassified broadband providers and treated them like a public utility.

House Passes Bill Requiring Warrants to Search Old Emails

A lone worker passes by the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, October 8, 2013. A few faint glimmers of hope surfaced in the U.S. fiscal standoff, both in Congress and at the White House, with President Barack Obama saying he would accept a short-… term increase in the nation’s borrowing authority to avoid a default.

Trump Extends Timetable to Replace Obamacare

President Donald Trump downgraded expectations for his party’s swift repeal and replacement of the 2010 health law in a Sunday interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, saying “maybe it’ll take til some time into next year” “Obamacare doesn’t work. So we are putting in a wonderful plan.

Iran Avoids Taking Trump Bait to Collapse Nuclear Deal, for Now

Since the U.S. imposed new sanctions on Tehran over a ballistic missile test Friday, Iran’s conservative media has railed against the government for being too soft, the military has tested another projectile, and officials have generally thumbed their noses at a White House warning that they were now “on notice.” What hasn’t happened, however, is as important: no official has threatened to abandon the nuclear deal signed in 2015 under the previous U.S. administration of President Barack Obama.

Trump on jobs report: ‘It’s going to continue, big league’

President Donald Trump greeted news of a robust January jobs report Friday with his signature blend of gusto, self-promotion and promises of good times yet to come. Flanked by leading CEOs who met with him at the White House, Trump suggested that his November election victory had lifted America’s morale – and emboldened many employers to step up hiring.

U.S. Eases Sanctions on Russian Intelligence Agency

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday eased sanctions on Russian intelligence agency FSB put in place by former President Barack Obama last year over accusations that Moscow launched cyber attacks to try to influence the U.S. presidential election. The Treasury Department said in a statement it would allow U.S. companies to make limited transactions with the intelligence service that are needed to gain approval to import information technology products into Russia.

U.S. Eases Sanctions on Russian Intelligence Agency

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday eased sanctions on Russian intelligence agency FSB put in place by former President Barack Obama last year over accusations that Moscow launched cyber attacks to try to influence the U.S. presidential election. The Treasury Department said in a statement it would allow U.S. companies to make limited transactions with the intelligence service that are needed to gain approval to import information technology products into Russia.

Cigna’s Profit Beats Estimates

Cigna, which is awaiting a ruling on the U.S. government’s lawsuit to block its acquisition by Anthem, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by strength in its commercial business. Cigna’s results come a day after Anthem said it expected to break even or make a small profit in the Obamacare individual market in 2017 even as it considers pulling out of that business next year.

Trump’s New FCC Chairman Ajit Pai May Drain the TCPA Swamp

In one of his first official actions, newly elected President Donald Trump tapped Ajit Pai as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission , replacing outgoing chairman Tom Wheeler. Pai is a sharp critic of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act as it is currently being applied, meaning the FCC’s regulatory approach to the TCPA is likely to shift under his leadership.

Fired: Trump Dumps Top Lawyer Who Defied Immigration Order

President Donald Trump fired top federal government lawyer Sally Yates on Monday after she took the extraordinarily rare step of defying the White House and refused to defend new travel restrictions targeting seven Muslim-majority nations. It was another dramatic twist in the unusually raucous roll-out of Trump’s directive that put a 120-day hold on allowing refugees into the country, an indefinite ban on refugees from Syria and a 90-day bar on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Top Justice Official Won’t Defend Trump Immigration Order

Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates said Monday that she wouldn’t allow the Justice Department to defend President Donald Trump’s order banning immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, questioning its legality. The highly unusual declaration by Yates, an Obama administration holdover, was the latest twist in a controversy that has sparked protests at airports across the country and seen many congressional Republicans break from the White House.

What Happens If Net Neutrality Goes Away?

The “days are numbered” for the net neutrality rules enacted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission under Barack Obama, at least if you take President Trump’s newly appointed FCC chairman Ajit Pai’s word for it. So what happens after they are gone? Pai , an FCC commissioner since 2012, was a harsh critic of the agency’s ” Open Internet Order ,” which it passed in 2015 via a 3-2 party line vote.

Starbucks to hire 10,000 refugees over next 5 years

Starbucks says it will hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years, a response to President Donald Trump’s indefinite suspension of Syrian refugees and temporary travel bans that apply to six other Muslim-majority nations. Howard Schultz, the coffee retailer’s chairman and CEO, said in a letter to employees Sunday that the hiring would apply to stores worldwide and the effort would start in the United States where the focus would be on hiring immigrants “who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel.”