Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Good morning from Augusta, where we emerged from the year's biggest storm to Gov. Paul LePage saying he's looking to replace his former lawyer on the state commission that regulates utilities and calling on an Orono legislator to resign. That first item is a continuation of the Republican governor's crusade against the Maine Public Utilities Commission after their - and not repeal - a solar energy policy that allows panel owners to be credited for energy sold back to the grid.
Four Republican U.S. senators have not yet said whether they will support labor secretary nominee Andrew Puzder, raising suspense about whether he will survive an initial confirmation hearing this week. The four senators - Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Johnny Isakson of Georgia - all sit on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which will on Thursday hold the first confirmation hearing for Puzder, President Donald Trump's pick to head the Labor Department.
Donald Trump's administration is built around a brain trust of white nationalists. To deny that fact is to ignore a crucial element of this national crisis: America's "greatest generation" defeated Nazism during World War II, and 70 or so years later one of the country's two leading political parties has injected a more polite version of that poison into its veins and rode to power in Washington on a wave of bigotry and racism.
A simmering dispute between leaders of the House intelligence committee spilled into the public Monday over an investigation into whether President Donald Trump has ties to Russia, even as they pledged to conduct a bipartisan probe. The Republican committee chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, said he has heard no evidence so far that anyone in Trump's orbit was in contact with Russians during the presidential campaign.
A quick review: democracy is a system where the people have the right to determine the rules; autocracy is a system where one person makes the rules. The autocratic manifestations have been variously named: monarchy, dictatorship, fascism.
President Donald Trump is "evaluating the situation" regarding his embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn's conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., the White House said Monday, deepening the uncertainty surrounding Flynn's future in the new administration. Flynn apologized privately for the controversy to Vice President Mike Pence, according to a White House official.
Last week, President Donald Trump reportedly voiced an unfounded claim of voter fraud in New Hampshire, and one of his top aides later repeated the position on national TV. "It is un-presidential.
OCTOBER 21: Seen in a convex mirror, Rep. Tim Huelskamp is surrounded by journalists after leaving a House Republican caucus meeting in the U.S. Capitol October 21, 2015 in Washington, DC. A member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, Huelskamp said that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan is asking for "more power and less responsibility" in his pursuit of the speakership.
NOVEMBER 30: A Planned Parenthood office is seen on November 30, 2015 in New York City. A gunman killed three people November 27, including a police officer, at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Remember the days when if Republicans had majorities in the Kansas House and the Kansas Senate and the guy sitting in the governor's office was a Republican, well, things generally took care of themselves, for better or worse.
Along with his remarked-upon shortfalls in diplomacy, nuance, finesse, rationality and often good manners, our 45th president has also been docked for his diversity shortfall. This means he is surrounded by too many persons of pallor and of masculinity, in other words, by white males.
"The Lego Batman Movie" executive producer was confirmed in the United States Senate 53-47, with Democrat Joe Manchin crossing party lines to vote with Republicans In a mostly party line vote, former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin has been confirmed in the United States Senate as the Trump administration's new Treasury Secretary. Mnuchin was confirmed by a vote of 53-47, with nearly every Democrat voting against him.
The Senate voted Monday to confirm former Goldman Sachs executive Steven Mnuchin as the next treasury secretary, the latest Cabinet member to be approved after a lengthy and at times contentious confirmation process. "Mr. Mnuchin has 30 years of experience working in a variety of capacities in the financial sector," said Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican.
Former South Carolina GOP Chair Chad Connelly officially entered the race to replace Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney , President Trump 's budget director nominee, The Post & Courier of Charleston reports. A special primary will take place 11 weeks after Mulvaney vacates the seat.
Supporters of Puzder are launching a campaign ... . FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2017 file photo, Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer issued a statement saying President Donald Trump is "evaluating the situation" around Flynn, who is in hot water after possibly misleading Vice President Mike Pence. The issue stems from whether Flynn discussed sanctions against Russia with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office and then misled Pence about it.
Two senators have given Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer until February 23 to answer lingering questions regarding the two massive data breaches the company sustained in 2013 and 2014 . In a letter sent to Mayer last Friday , Sen. John Thune and Sen. Jerry Moran write that the company has been "unable to provide answers to many basic questions about the reported breaches."
A West Virginia local judge elected last year is being suspended for two years for a photoshopped campaign advertisement-published on his Facebook page and elsewhere-that depicted his opponent drinking beer with then-President Barack Obama. Nicholas County Circuit Judge Stephen Callaghan's suspension is without pay, and it includes a $15,000 fine.
Steve Marshall sworn in as Alabama attorney general Former Marshall County DA says he'll step away from any direct investigations of Gov. Robert Bentley Check out this story on montgomeryadvertiser.com: http://on.mgmadv.com/2kDLiOg Steve Marshall called it "the cloud" -- floating questions about whether the attorney general's office was investigating Gov. Robert Bentley while Luther Strange interviewed for and won appointment from Bentley to the U.S. Senate. That cloud is part of a storm front that has settled over Alabama's political leadership for the past three years.
J.G. Scott, left, the chief fiscal analyst for the Kansas Legislative Research Department, confers with Bobbi Mariani, another fiscal analyst, during a meeting of the Kansas House Appropriations Committee, Monday, Feb. 13, 2017, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The committee has endorsed budget-balancing proposals that would allow the state to avoid cuts in education funding.