Lincoln Chafee, a political enigma, eyes his old Senate seat

In this Dec. 13, 2006 file photo, newly elected U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, right, speaks with the media following a transition meeting with outgoing Sen. Lincoln Chafee, left, at Chafee's office in Providence, R.I. Chafee, a Republican-turned independent-turned-Democrat, is considering a 2018 run for the Senate seat Whitehouse won from him in 2006. FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2015, file photo, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee speaks during the a Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.

Leaders outline vision for Pawtucket/Central Falls development site

A busy district on the border of Pawtucket and Central Falls is set to undergo a major facelift, and local leaders hope the project will breathe new life into the area. "This is really a great project that's going to benefit the city of Pawtucket and the city of Central Falls," Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien said.

Senate committee plans Monday vote on Pompeo as secretary of state

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has set a vote for Monday on Mike Pompeo's nomination as President Donald Trump's secretary of state. Pompeo, who has made headlines in recent days for his secret trip to North Korea over Easter weekend, won the backing of the committee last year as CIA director but faces longer odds this time.

Senators ask EPA to explain if Pruitt lied in Fox News interview

Three Democratic senators on the committee that oversees the Environmental Protection Agency are asking for answers on reports that the agency granted significant raises to two aides and whether Administrator Scott Pruitt lied about his knowledge of the raises in an interview on Fox News. The Atlantic reported last week that Pruitt granted raises to two of his aides at the EPA under a provision of the Safe Drinking Water Act after the White House personnel office denied the raises.

Pruitt faces renewed questions over cost of security detail

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is facing renewed questions about the size and cost of his 24-hour security detail, adding to a string of ethically questionable arrangements or actions on his part that have surfaced over the past year. Pruitt's security team currently consists of 19 agents and includes a fleet of at least 19 vehicles, a source with direct knowledge of Pruitt's security detail said.

Let’s Bag Plastic Bags

Trump on China's Xi consolidating power: 'Maybe we'll give that a shot some day' - President Donald Trump bemoaned a decision not to investigate Hillary Clinton after the 2016 presidential election, decrying a "rigged system" that still doesn't have the "right people" in place to fix it Mueller's Focus on Adviser to United Arab Emirates Indicates Widening of Inquiry - WASHINGTON - George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, has hovered on the fringes of international diplomacy for three decades.

Democrats jeer Trump for ‘treason’ charge

Congressional Democrats are reacting with outrage to President Trump's accusation they were "treasonous" and "un-American" for failing to applaud during his State of the Union speech. "The president once again is making a simple but scary mistake here," Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said on CNN on Tuesday morning.

Judiciary chairman plans to release Donald Trump Jr. transcript

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said Thursday he wants to release the transcript of the committee's closed-door interview with Donald Trump Jr., joining Democrats on the committee who have pressed to make it public. Grassley said he will now move to release all of the panel's interviews involving the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between a Russian lawyer and Trump Jr., the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

WH claiming sweeping a executive privilegea in Russia probes

President Donald Trump's White House is relying on a sweeping interpretation of executive privilege that is rankling members of Congress on both sides of the aisle as current and former advisers parade to Capitol Hill for questioning about possible connections with Russia. The argument was laid bare this week during former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon's interview with the House Intelligence Committee.

Coal baron’s ‘action plan’ became Trump policy initiatives

In this Aug. 20, 2007 file photo, Robert "Bob" Murray, founder and chairman of Cleveland-based Murray Energy Corp., arrives at a news conference at the entrance to the Crandall Canyon Mine, in northwest of Huntington, Utah. In the early days of the Trump administration, Murray, the head of one of America's largest coal companies sent a four-page "action plan" to the White House calling for rollbacks of key environmental and mine safety regulations he claimed would help revive the struggling mining industry.

Sen. Whitehouse: Release of Fusion GPS Transcript Refutes GOP Distortions

Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse defended his Democratic colleague Sen. Dianne Feinstein for making public the closed-door congressional testimony of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, telling MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Wednesday that it helped clarify what he told the Judiciary Committee. What Republicans "tried to do is create this sense that there's some collusion between the Russians and Christopher Steele, the guy who wrote the dossier that Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS published," Whitehouse said.

News | Noel Frias: 17 Who Made a Difference in 2017

Frias was part of a group that pressed for answers about the financial and non-profit accountability of the Providence NAACP Branch in May -- when he appeared on GoLocal LIVE to express his concerns . He was part of a group of minority leaders that questioned Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's membership to the all-white Bailey's Beach Club -- after Whitehouse had transferred his stock ownership in the club to be solely in his wife's name when he first ran for Congress in 2006.

Trump’s judicial nominee withdraws after viral video

Washington, Dec 19 - Matthew Petersen, US President Donald Trump's district court nominee who struggled to answer basic legal questions at his confirmation hearing last week, has withdrawn his nomination, the media reported. Petersen, who was up for a lifetime appointment on the US District Court for the District of Columbia, struggled to answer basic questions including how many depositions he had worked on, how many jury trials he had tried, the last time he had read the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, during an exchange with Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, reports CNN.

A Trump judicial nominee starred in a a must watcha viral video. In 2017, does that matter?

Sen. John Neely Kennedy asked President Trump's U.S. District nominee Matthew S. Petersen law questions during a hearing on Dec. 13. Peterson struggled to answer the standard questions. As of this writing, a video of one of President Trump's judicial nominees failing to answer basic legal questions from a Republican senator is viral.

Health | Weiss: Medicare Takes a Blow Under GOP’s Major Tax Plan Fix

In early December, the GOP-controlled Senate passed by a partisan vote of 51 to 49 its sweeping tax rewrite , sending the $1.4 trillion tax package, detailed in a 492 page bill, to the Conference Committee to iron out the differences between the Senate and House bill, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act , that was passed by a 227-to-205 vote on November 16, 2017. While Democrats are technically part of the conference committee, Republicans are yet again hashing out the details behind closed doors on a purely partisan basis.