Comey’s firing isn’t like the ‘Saturday Night Massacre’

Long ago and far away, when I was a young special assistant first to Attorney General William French Smith and then to Attorney General Edwin Meese, the young staff would automatically stand up whenever William Webster, then director of the FBI, walked into a room. At the Friday morning round-table briefings in the attorney general's massive conference room, when Webster addressed the group, everyone leaned in.

US cuts congressional bill deportation delays for immigrants

U.S. authorities have said they are reducing the amount of time they will delay deporting the few immigrants in the country illegally awaiting congressional decisions to legalize their immigration status after lawmakers file so-called "private bills" supporting their last-ditch bids to remain in the country. In a letter to lawmakers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan said the agency will only hold off deporting immigrants with legislation pending on their behalf for up to six months with the possibility of one 90-day extension.

Workers start filling collapsed plutonium plant tunnel in Washington

Workers began filling in a tunnel containing radioactive waste collapsed at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington, the Department of Energy said Wednesday. On Tuesday, nearly 4,800 employees took shelter indoors for five hours after a 20-foot-by-20-foot section of 360-foot-long tunnel containing eight railcars filled with radioactive material caved in.

US mine blast: Ex-coal CEO Blankenship at end of prison term

Former coal executive Don Blankenship jumped back on Twitter on Wednesday, renewing his feud with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin on the day Blankenship was to finish a one-year prison sentence arising from the deadliest U.S. mine explosion in decades. Even before the U.S. Bureau of Prisons listed Blankenship as leaving a halfway house in Arizona, the ex-Massey Energy CEO rattled off a series of tweets.

Miami billionaire plans political fund to defend unauthorized immigrants

To counter the Trump administration's aggressive deportation policy, a billionaire Miami healthcare mogul plans to spend the next couple of years raising - and spending - serious cash to defend unauthorized immigrants in court. a nonprofit political organization in coming days to aid existing groups that provide legal services to unauthorized immigrants facing removal from the U.S. "Immigrants are key to the fiber and the economic survival of our country," Fernandez said in an interview with the Miami Herald.

Trump defends Comey firing, says both parties will thank him

President Donald Trump defended his firing of FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday, asserting in a flurry of tweets that both Democrats and Republicans "will be thanking me." Trump did not mention any effect the dismissal might have on FBI and congressional investigations into contacts between his 2016 election campaign and Russia.

Here’s one N.J. lawmaker Democrats are wooing to take down Frelinghuysen

WASHINGTON -- Assemblyman John McKeon, a 16-year veteran of the New Jersey legislature, was home over Easter weekend when his cell phone rang. The call was from Denny Heck, a Democratic U.S. representative from Washington state who is in charge of recruiting House Democratic candidates for 2018.

Comeya s Firing Could Be the Beginning of the End of TrumpFrank Rich

Former FBI Director James Comey during the House Intelligence hearing on Russian actions during the 2016 election campaign on March 20, 2017. Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture.

Republicans: No outside investigation into Russian meddling needed

Key Republicans Wednesday emphatically resisted growing calls for an outside, independent investigator or a special panel in the wake of President Donald Trump's abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey. Republicans control the Senate with 52 of its 100 seats.

Trump firing Comey shrouds Russia probe in doubt, turmoil

President Donald Trump's stunning firing of FBI Director James Comey throws into question the future of a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign's possible connections to Russia and immediately raised suspicions of an underhanded effort to stymie a probe that has shadowed the administration from the outset. Democrats likened Tuesday's ouster to President Richard Nixon's "Saturday Night Massacre" and renewed calls for the appointment of a special prosecutor, and some Republicans also questioned the move.

New Mexico lawmakers speak out on firing of James Comey

Democratic U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich told MSNBC Tuesday night "This sends the message that the president thinks he is above the law and that people should be deeply concerned." Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham says "Now more than ever, we have to have an independent, non-partisan investigation."

Senate confirms Scott Gottlieb as FDA commissioner

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Dr. Scott Gottlieb as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration despite Democratic questions about his financial ties to medical companies the agency regulates. Gottlieb is a physician-turned-health consultant who has criticized many FDA regulations as unnecessary and has faced criticism from Democrats over his financial entanglements.

Tunnel collapse latest safety issue at nuclear site

The collapse of an underground tunnel containing radioactive waste that forced workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation to shelter in place is the latest incident to raise safety concerns at the sprawling site that made plutonium for nuclear bombs for decades after World War II. Officials detected no release of radiation Tuesday and no workers were injured, said Randy Bradbury, a spokesman for the Washington state Department of Ecology.

Mike Flynn probed over payments from Russian government-linked firms: Pentagon

Rep. Elijah Cummings just released three damning new documents on former Trump administration National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn's lawyer, Robert K. Kelner, has argued that the retired general briefed the Defense Intelligence Agency, from which he retired in 2014 , before and after his 2015 Russian Federation trip.

GOP congressman: Republicans were ‘irresponsible’ to celebrate AHCA passage at White House

A 15-year-old boy left a suicide note before he was killed by officers after pointing a BB gun at them in a high school parking lot in the dark, police said Monday. Making matters worse, the House plan would kill off the individual mandate's requirement that all Americans buy health insurance, which could lead more young and healthy men and women to go without.