Kavanaugh’s role in Bush-era detainee debate now an issue in…

Brett Kavanaugh was adamant as he sat in the witness chair at his 2006 confirmation hearing to be an appeals court judge. Kavanaugh was being questioned by Democrats about his knowledge of President George W. Bush's torture policy and treatment of detainees while he served as associate White House counsel.

Durbin: Trump claim a “damage control event”

It didn't take long for Illinois Senator Dick Durbin to provide his take on President Trump's claim he misspoke during a news conference with Russia President Vladimir Putin . He demanded Trump release a transcript of his secret two-hour meeting with Putin and added this demand, "President Donald Trump can no longer refuse to disclose his income tax returns.

The Latest: Durbin: 66 separated migrant kids in Chicago

The Latest on the separation of immigrant children from their parents following President Donald Trump's order allowing them to remain with their parents : U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin says that 66 of the more than 2,300 migrant children separated from their families at the border in recent weeks under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy are in Chicago area shelters. Durbin's comments marked the first time a public official has specified how many of them are in the Chicago area.

Durbin: Trump – unreliable, unpredictable and usually unprepareda

At a wide-ranging news conference in his Chicago office, Senator Dick Durbin had opinions about President Trump and Speaker Madigan. Durbin called in the news cameras to take pictures of a mother and child separated at the border whom he pressured the Trump administration to re-unite, "The immigrant policy of the Trump Administration is heartless and cruel and this is the worst example."

Trump welcomes freed American after ‘ordeal’

The Latest on the release of a Utah man, Joshua Holt, who has been held in Venezuela : President Donald Trump has welcomed to the White House an American held for two years in a Venezuelan jail, saying the Utah man has undergone a "very tough ordeal." Twenty-six-year-old Joshua Holt and his wife arrived Saturday evening at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Illinois Senator leaves door open to work requirement for food stamps

One of the Senate's leading Democrats seems to be leaving the door open for supporting a work requirement for recipients of federal food assistance. Requiring able-bodied Americans to either work or train to work in order to get food stamps is up for debate in Washington D.C. Republicans are siding with the majority public opinion that there should be some sort of work requirement that excludes kids, the elderly and the disabled.

For Illinois $245M Legionnairesa fix, rhetoric meets reality

A deadly Legionnaires' disease crisis at a state-run veterans' home, persisting for years, has so flummoxed Illinois officials that they have concluded the best remedy is to start over. Now, rhetoric meets reality.A report last week from Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration recommends a re-do of up to $245 million on the campus of the Quincy veterans home.

Appeals court upholds national injunction against targeting ‘sanctuary cities’

A federal appeals court in Illinois upheld a nationwide injunction Thursday that blocks the Trump administration from withholding federal money to hundreds of "sanctuary cities" in the United States. The grant money, which comes from a program called the Byrne JAG, is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local governments.

Durbin, Duckworth announce $5 million in DOT funding to repair Illinois roads damaged by flooding

WASHINGTON U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth today announced $5,004,113 in grant funding to repair roads and infrastructure across Illinois damaged by flooding and severe weather. The funding which was awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Emergency Relief and Emergency Relief for Federally Owned Roads programs will support reconstruction and repair efforts in nine Illinois counties.

Sen. Durbin visits Venezuela on diplomatic mission

A powerful U.S. senator traveled to Venezuela on Wednesday as pressure mounted on President Nicolas Maduro to hand over a Utah man jailed in the turbulent South American country for nearly two years. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois was to meet with members of the government and opposition, a spokesman for his office said.

‘Give me a break’: California Rep calls BS on Trump…

An angry California Congressman repeated over and over again "give me a break," as CNN's Jim Sciutto read President Donald Trump's tweets about Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals . During a Monday morning interview, an incensed Rep. John Garamendi asked what the president thinks he's doing and specifically what does spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders "think she's doing."

The real reasons Congress can’t act on guns or immigration

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin has spent the last six months attempting to do the impossible: find a solution inside the US Capitol to an immigration quagmire. Standing on a marble staircase just off the Senate floor, he lamented Thursday that one of his worst legislative fears had come true: after a brief shutdown over immigration, fits and starts of negotiations with the White House and more than one bipartisan bill, Congress would leave for the Easter recess without enshrining in law a program that has given individuals who entered the US illegally as children a chance to live, work and be educated in the United States without fear of deportation.

Shutdown looming, Congress and White House seek budget deal

Congressional leaders and the White House are pressing to strike an accord on a $1.3 trillion catchall spending bill, though disputes remain over immigration, abortion and a massive rail project that pits President Donald Trump against his most powerful Democratic adversary. An agreement by Monday would pave the way for a House vote on Wednesday.

Trump tweets revive chatter he’s preparing to fire Mueller

President Donald Trump is not considering firing the special counsel investigating Russian election interference, a top White House lawyer said, after a cascade of Trump tweets revived chatter that the deeply frustrated president may be preparing to get rid of the veteran prosecutor. In a first for Trump, he jabbed directly at special counsel Robert Mueller by name in weekend tweets that both challenged the investigation's existence and suggested political bias on the part of Mueller's investigators.