Category: US Politics

What Others Say: Passage of Cures Act is great news

The so-called “do nothing” Congress has done something very special before taking its end-of-the-year holiday break. Both the House and Senate approved the far-reaching 21st Century Cures Act, which includes key funding for Alzheimer’s research, mental health treatment and to battle the scourge of opioid addiction.

Trump Seen Paying Off for Putin With Sanctions Relief Next Year 18 minutes ago

The U.S. will start easing its penalties, imposed over the showdown in Ukraine in 2014, during the next 12 months, according to 55 percent of respondents in a Bloomberg survey, up from 10 percent in an October poll. Without the restrictions, Russia’s economic growth would get a boost equivalent to 0.2 percentage point of gross domestic product next year and 0.5 percentage point in 2018, according to the median estimates in the poll.  Donald Trump’s surprise election in November is feeding expectations of a sea change in U.S. policy even after the European Union this week rolled over its economic penalties against Russia for an additional six months.

Trump Seen Paying Off for Putin With Sanctions Relief Next Year 18 minutes ago

The U.S. will start easing its penalties, imposed over the showdown in Ukraine in 2014, during the next 12 months, according to 55 percent of respondents in a Bloomberg survey, up from 10 percent in an October poll. Without the restrictions, Russia’s economic growth would get a boost equivalent to 0.2 percentage point of gross domestic product next year and 0.5 percentage point in 2018, according to the median estimates in the poll.  Donald Trump’s surprise election in November is feeding expectations of a sea change in U.S. policy even after the European Union this week rolled over its economic penalties against Russia for an additional six months.

Will Trump live up to his infrastructure promises?

Even as they maneuver for a share of the $1 trillion in spending Donald Trump promised to rebuild America’s roads, bridges and airports, lobbyists for transportation and utility industries are beginning to wonder whether Trump really meant what he said. From the day he formally entered the presidential race to the moment he declared victory, Trump pledged to rebuild the nation’s aging and inadequate infrastructure.

The Latest: McConnell says no to select panel on Russia

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is rejecting calls for a special Senate investigative committee focused on possible interference in U.S. elections by Russia and other countries. McConnell says a finding by U.S. intelligence officials that Moscow hacked Democratic emails in a bid to elevate Donald Trump “is a serious issue, but it doesn’t require a select committee.”

Court to unseal Clinton email search warrant

A federal court in New York is scheduled to release redacted copies Tuesday of the search warrant that allowed the FBI to dig into a trove of Hillary Clinton emails days before the presidential election. The emails were found on a computer belonging to former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of a top Clinton aide.

Coal mine rule draws GOP’s ire

The Obama administration Monday unveiled a new rule designed to protect streams and groundwater from coal mining, but the threat of a Republican-led challenge of the measure looms large after President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The Interior Department said in a news release that the rule “updates 33-year-old regulations and establishes clear requirements for responsible surface coal mining that will protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests over the next two decades, preserving community health and economic opportunities while meeting the nation’s energy needs.”

Local briefs, Dec. 20, 2016

The three finalists are William DeFord, Michael Grattan III and Kevin Kennedy, all of Grand Junction. The three were nominated Friday by the 21st Judicial District Nominating Commission.

Appraising Trump’s pick for secretary of state

Robert Gates served as defense secretary under George W. Bush, a Republican, and then Barack Obama, a Democrat, which qualifies him as an honest broker and independent thinker. How honest? He wrote in September that Donald Trump is “beyond repair” on national security, “stubbornly uninformed about the world” and “unfit to be commander-in-chief.”

[Peter Singer] The empathy trap

Soon after Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, he told a young girl, “We don’t have enough empathy in our world today, and it is up to your generation to change that.” Obama expressed a widespread view, so the title of a new book, “Against Empathy,” by Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom, comes as a shock.

U.S. Electoral College Finalizes Trump’s Victory

The Electoral College has finalized Republican Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president, rejecting a last-minute push by some Democrats to sway its members. The December 19 vote awarding Trump 304 of the 270 votes he needed to claim victory is the next-to-last step in the presidential election process, as laid out in the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

Trump owes nothing to the ‘Bush Barnacles’

Hillary Clinton’s Democrats are now three-time losers, having lost the election, lost the recounts, and lost the electoral college, but the Republicans will be winners in 2020 only if they keep their promises. Because they are doomed to fail, we could be witnessing the death throes of the Democratic Party as we know it.

Warrant Related to Clinton Emails to Be Unsealed Tuesday

A federal judge in New York has ordered that a search warrant and supporting documents that authorized the FBI in the final days before the election to examine a laptop computer in connection with Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server be unsealed Tuesday at noon. The laptop’s hard drive, which sources say was discovered in an unrelated investigation into alleged sexting by former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, had been used by Weiner and his estranged wife, top Clinton adviser Huma Abedin.

California’s Electoral College goes to Clinton amid protests

Tate Atherton-Shipp, 5, of Fairfield, Calif., holds a sign at a rally outside the state Capitol, Monday, Dec. 19, 2016, in Sacramento, Calif. People turned out at a rally before the Electoral College was scheduled to meet, urging electors to vote their conscience and reject the expected selection of President-elect Donald Trump.

Obama signs bill to allow Brownsville ship channel project

Brownsville port officials say a measure signed into law by President Barack Obama authorizes the deepening of the Brownsville Ship Channel and makes the project eligible for federal money. Brownsville Navigation District Chairman John Wood says the Water Resources and Development Act of 2016 signed Monday by the president will deepen the channel from 42 feet to 52 feet, allow the waterway to accommodate larger cargo vessels carrying heavier loads and allow companies along the channel to expand their businesses.

New York members of Electoral College vote for Clinton

New York’s 29 members of the Electoral College have cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton, who won the state despite losing the presidential race to Republican Donald Trump. Among the electors gathered Monday in the state Capitol’s Senate chambers was former President Bill Clinton, who says he’s never been prouder of any vote.

Trump cruises to Electoral College victory despite protests

There were many protesters but few faithless electors as Donald Trump won the Electoral College vote Monday – ensuring he will become America’s 45th president. An effort by anti-Trump forces to persuade Republican electors to abandon the president-elect came to practically nothing and the process unfolded largely according to its traditions.

it’s Official: The Electoral College makes Trump the…

Donald Trump secured the necessary 270 electoral votes on Monday to formally be elected as the 45th president of the United States. Trump won the popular vote in 30 states and one of Maine’s districts – which, along with Nebraska, splits up its electors by district – giving him 306 electoral votes.

Democrats Need to Reach Out to the Heartland

If Democrats want to keep blaming others for their sorry performance on Election Day, they’re obviously free to do so. Yes, they were hurt by the disclosure of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, claims that the Clinton Foundation was a “pay-to-play” operation, and even fake news.

Bliss Tapped to Run House Gop Pac

Corry Bliss, who managed Sen. Rob Portman’s reelection campaign, will serve as executive director for House Republicans’ main PAC next cycle. Bliss’s work on Portman’s race resulted in a 21-point victory for the Ohio Republican and received bipartisan praise from campaign operatives.

McCain blasts Navy warships in report on Pentagon waste

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee is blasting the Navy’s expensive new warships that have been plagued by engine problems and have yet to demonstrate key warfighting functions. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a Navy fighter pilot in the Vietnam War, said the $12.4 billion spent for 26 littoral combat ships is the most egregious example of what he calls “America’s Most Wasted: Indefensible,” the latest in a series of reports on wasteful spending by the Pentagon.

Cook explains to employees why he attended Trump tech summit

Apple CEO Tim Cook said he felt it was necessary to “engage” when President-elect Donald Trump – who has railed against Apple and other tech companies – invited him and 11 other tech executives to attend a summit in New York last week Cook explains to employees why he attended Trump tech summit Apple CEO Tim Cook said he felt it was necessary to “engage” when President-elect Donald Trump – who has railed against Apple and other tech companies – invited him and 11 other tech executives to attend a summit in New York last week Check out this story on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/2i37sM6 Apple CEO Tim Cook listens as President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with technology industry leaders at Trump Tower.

The Democrats and their ‘Cry Me a River’ song

When will it end for the Democrats and their ilk to stop the whining, crying and the-sky-is-falling childish tantrums? Evidently, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts will not cease and desist in their obsessive hatred of Donald Trump and conservative Republicans, as evidenced by their numerous false attempts to derail Trump’s presidency before it begins. If such came to be, then, my fellow Americans, World War II would be a skirmish compared to the very real possibility of what could transpire here in the United States.