School board votes to hire lawyer to remove Trump supporter

A local school board in upstate New York has voted to hire a law firm in the board's efforts to remove a Donald Trump supporter over his insulting comments about President Barack Obama and his wife. The Buffalo School Board voted during a special meeting Wednesday night to hire an attorney to petition the state Education Department to remove board member Carl Paladino.

Questions at the Senate Hearing on Russian Hacking

Senior intelligence officials will testify this morning before the Senate Armed Services Committee about foreign cyberthreats to the U.S. Much of the testimony is likely to focus on what role Russia had in the U.S. election. U.S. intelligence officials say Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee and others in an attempt, they say, to influence the U.S. presidential election.

Obama pens Harvard Law Review opus on criminal justice reform

Looking back at his administration's accomplishments, while laying out a road map for future reforms, the president leaves office with an emphasis on reforming the American justice system. U.S. President Barack Obama attends a military full honor review farewell ceremony given in his honor, accompanied by Defense Secretary Ash Carter at Joint Base Myer-Henderson in Washington, D.C. on January 4, 2017.

Senator: Russia’s election meddling should alarm Americans

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday that "every American should be alarmed" by Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, and lawmakers pressed intelligence officials about foreign cyberthreats. There is "no escaping the fact that this committee meets today for the first time in this new Congress in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

URGENT – Top intelligence officials reject Trump view on Russia hacks

Lawmakers and senior US intelligence officials are drawing a line in the sand for President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, presenting a united front before Congress on their conclusion that Russia is a major threat to the United States and was behind election hacking -- a conclusion Trump has refused to accept. "We assess that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre and the Commander of US Cyber Command, Michael Rogers, said in a joint statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.

When It Comes To Russia, So Far Donald Trump Mostly Stands Alone

The Republican Party has embraced President-elect Donald Trump's positions on immigration, trade, the deficit and conflicts of interest, but when it comes to Russia, Trump and his party are not even close to being on the same page. Trump has repeatedly and consistently expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin and has refused to accept intelligence community findings that Russia hacked Democratic Party emails during the campaign.

Al-Qaida-linked group in Syria says truce ‘humiliating’

Much of Northern California and the Sierra Nevada braced for potential flooding into the weekend as a winter storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow around Lake Tahoe made its way toward Utah and the Rockies. Much of Northern California and the Sierra Nevada braced for potential flooding into the weekend as a winter storm that dumped more than 2 feet of snow around Lake Tahoe made its way toward Utah and the Rockies.

Will Trump let Obama go quietly?

Will Donald Trump deprive President Barack Obama of what we have come to think of as a normal post-presidency, the relatively serene life of reflection, writing, philanthropy and high-minded speeches to friendly audiences? In recent decades, we have become accustomed to the idea of ex-presidents who leave political combat behind. They might occasionally speak out on behalf of their party: Bill Clinton was an effective "explainer in chief" for Obama at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Trump stalls bad ethics proposal

President-elect Donald Trump's reliance on Twitter to address complex issues - from trade policy with China to nuclear proliferation - is frightening. Occasionally, though, issues are simple enough to fit in a tweet, and that was the case with the House GOP proposal to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics.

12:48 Congress begins Russia hacking probe, Trump still skeptical of U.S. intelligence

Senior U.S. intelligence officials will testify in Congress on Thursday on Russia's alleged cyber attacks during the 2016 election campaign, even as President-elect Donald Trump casts doubt on intelligence agencies' findings that Moscow orchestrated the hacks, Reuters reported. The hearings come a day before Trump is due to be briefed by intelligence agency chiefs on hacks that targeted the Democratic Party.

Chuck Schumer Issues Warning to Trump

On Wednesday, the top Democrat in the Senate, New York Senator Chuck Schumer issued a warning to President-elect Donald Trump about his eventual Supreme Court choice. In an interview, Schumer said that Trump if Trump does not name a "mainstream" nominee, Democrats will oppose the individual "with everything we have."

Repealing Obamacare ‘first order of business’

US President Barack Obama has encouraged fellow Democrats to preserve his legacy-defining healthcare law as Republicans moved ahead with their long-sought bid to scrap it in what Vice President-elect Mike Pence called the "first order of business" of Donald Trump's administration. The emerging Democratic strategy is to warn that Republicans risk throwing the entire US healthcare system into chaos by moving to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, without a plan to replace it.

Dayton to Chamber of Commerce: State needs call for new spending

Gov. Mark Dayton told a packed ballroom of business leaders Wednesday that even in the face of uncertainty over how the U.S. economy might perform under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, Minnesota should dedicate additional resources to health and human services and other major needs. "While Congress is pondering, the Minnesota Legislature must be active," Dayton said during the annual Minnesota Chamber of Commerce dinner, held in downtown St. Paul.

Bill O’Reilly Blames ‘Reverse McCarthyism’ For Entertainers…

Judging from the needle on Bill O'Reilly's Venom-O-Meter last night, his buddy Donald Trump must be deeply smarting from his inabilit y to find any A-list celebrities to perform at his inauguration. So, O'Reilly reacted just like any right-wing bully: by blaming others and in this case, coming up with new smears for those who don't want to support the least popular president-elect in recent history.