Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has pulled back an offer of $25 billion for President Donald Trump's long-promised southern border wall, as lawmakers scrambled to figure out how to push a deal to protect 700,000 or more so-called Dreamer immigrants from deportation. Schumer had made the offer last Friday in a last-ditch effort to head off a government shutdown, then came scalding criticism from his party's liberal activist base that Democrats had given up too easily in reopening the government without more concrete promises on immigration.
Emails, calendars and text messages of the Washington state Legislature are public records subject to disclosure. Following last week's ruling by a Thurston County judge affirming that requirement, lawmakers need to move quickly to ensure disclosure is the practice.
Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords speaks, as her husband, Mark Kelly looks on, during the memorial dedication for Tucson's January 8th Memorial at El Presidio Park in Tucson on Jan. 8, 2018. The dedication was held on the seven-year anniversary of the Tucson-area mass shooting that left six people dead and 13 others injured, including Giffords.
Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois, will become the first United States senator to give birth while in that office when she delivers her second child this spring, she announced on Tuesday. Ms. Duckworth, who gave birth to her daughter Abigail in November 2014 while serving in the House of Representatives, is already one of only 10 women who have given birth while serving in Congress.
Bill Cosby is suddenly out and about in his hometown of Philadelphia in what legal experts say appears to be an effort by the comedian to rebuild his good-guy image ahead of his retrial on sexual assault charges in the spring. In the past two weeks, the 80-year-old Cosby emerged from a long period of near-seclusion to have dinner with friends at a restaurant and gave his first comedy performance in more than two years.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the legislation brought forth by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois is "unacceptable" to Trump. Sanders adds that the legislation should be "declared dead on arrival" and does not meet White House requirements on border security.
Township officials are hoping to come up with an ordinance that, if approved by the council, would ban the sale of recreational marijuana in Old Bridge, should it be legalized in the state. CIA Director Mike Pompeo says the intelligence agency is bolstering efforts to help interdict shipments to the North Korea regime, which he said is moving "ever closer" to putting Americans at risk with its nuclear weapons.
President Trump will not consider a bipartisan immigration proposal struck by Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin because it falls far short of the requirements Trump has laid out for any deal that helps Dreamers, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Tuesday. "I'd like to leave no doubt about where the White House stands on the Flake, Graham and Durbin agreement on immigration reform.
Two lawmakers are calling for Facebook and Twitter to immediately investigate allegations that Russian accounts engaged in a social media campaign aimed at undermining Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of the Trump campaign. "If these reports are accurate, we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors," Senator Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Adam Schiff say in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
WASHINGTON – The deal that ended the government shutdown on Monday paved the way for Senate consideration of immigration legislation, but it did nothing to ensure that the House would act on such a bill – or that President Trump would sign it. That has raised fears among immigrant advocates that the shutdown-ending compromise merely sets up a repeat of what happened five years ago, when eight senators forged an immigration deal that passed the Senate but went nowhere in the House after the GOP's conservative base revolted against any attempt to give "amnesty" to illegal immigrants.
That was as long as Democrats could, or would, stand united against a Republican-backed temporary spending bill in pursuit of a plan to protect hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation. When the high-stakes game of chicken ended Monday evening, liberal activists were furious, Republicans were giddy, and vulnerable Senate Democrats were quietly relieved.
As the dust settled Monday on an agreement to reopen the government, the path forward for immigration remained as murky as ever. Democrats and Republicans who worked to break the impasse over the shutdown spun their vote to accept a slightly shorter continuing resolution as a victory because of a commitment to turn to immigration.
Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday to permanently eliminate earmarks, a system of spending in Congress that allows funds for a specific purpose to be drawn into a larger federal spending bill. "The swampiest of swamp creatures is what earmarks are," McCaskill said.
President Trump signed a short-term spending bill that will fund the government through Feb. 8, ending a weekend-long government shutdown. The measure also extends the Children's Health Insurance Program through 2023 and suspends three Obamacare-related taxes and fees.
Prominent immigrant advocacy groups are skewering Democratic senators for relenting in a fight that linked immigration changes to continued government funding. The youth group United We Dream says Senate Democrats who supported a deal to keep the government running through Feb. 8 are "enablers" of President Donald Trump's agenda.
The federal government shutdown entered Day 3 on Monday with the senate set to vote on a short-term fix at noon. Essential federal employees will continue working, such as postal service and homeland operations, but hundreds of thousands of other employees are staying home to wait it out without pay.
On Monday, The Senate advanced a bill reopening federal agencies through Feb. 8 after Democrats relented and lifted their blockade against the legislation. The shutdown began Saturday after Democrats derailed a Republican measure that would have kept government open until Feb. 16. Democrats wanted to pressure the GOP to cut a deal protecting young immigrants from deportation and boosting federal spending.
In this Dec. 7, 2017 file photo, a Palestinian defaces a painting on the separation barrier of U.S. President Donald Trump, with a warning that Vice President Mike Pence is not welcome, in Bethlehem, West Bank. Palestinian Christians say Pence's brand of evangelical Christianity, with its fervent embrace of modern-day Israel as fulfilment of biblical prophecy, lacks their faith's compassion and justice, including for those who have endured half a century of Israeli occupation.
The chairman of the House Armed Services committee on Monday criticized the short-term fix agreed on to end the government shutdown, saying the stopgap spending measures were damaging the military's readiness. "For several months we've had some folks on Capitol Hill who have been willing to hold military funding hostage to some other issue, whether it was increasing funding on a domestic issue or in this case some sort of immigration issue," Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, told Fox News' Harris Faulkner.