by Shirley Li | Feb 29, 2012 | Business, Politics
AUDIO: Democratic lawmakers rally members of the National Treasury Employees Union. (Shirley Li/Medill) WASHINGTON – Moving indoors to escape the heavy Washington rain didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the National Treasury Employees Union Wednesday. Members...
by Megan Neunan | Feb 29, 2012 | Education
WASHINGTON — Dishawn Jackson said he used to get in a lot of trouble. Now he just gets on the ice. Jackson is one of more than 3,000 young people who have benefitted from the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation, which offers at-risk students in the Philadelphia...
by Patrick Svitek | Feb 29, 2012 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday told lawmakers he is willing to go only so far in trimming the Pentagon budget to avoid putting the nation at serious risk. Testifying before the House Budget Committee, Panetta reiterated what he said to the...
by Rachel Morello | Feb 29, 2012 | Business, Environment, Health & Science
WASHINGTON – Former President Bill Clinton said Wednesday that the Obama administration is making great strides in creating green jobs, but environment-friendly industries are still not getting recognition. “We’re left with a time of real excitement here, that...
by Rebecca Nelson | Feb 29, 2012 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — During World War II, the FBI took Lorraine Bannai’s parents and grandparents from their homes in California and imprisoned them in Manzanar, an internment camp for Japanese Americans. Bannai, a law professor at Seattle University, wants to make sure that...
by David Uberti | Feb 29, 2012 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON— Middle East experts expressed doubt Wednesday that either Israel or United States is on the brink of conflict with Iran, despite hawkish headlines and aggressive rhetoric from all three countries. Their skepticism, they said, stems from the political...
by Kit Fox | Feb 28, 2012 | Health & Science
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration mandate that requires employers to cover contraception in their insurance plans is not a women’s health issue, it’s a religious freedom issue, the woman who heads the Center for Human Dignity told a House Judiciary Committee...
by Safiya Merchant | Feb 28, 2012 | Education
WASHINGTON — A red-faced Rep. George Miller refusing to yield his time to a Republican lawmaker highlighted the simmering partisan tension at Tuesday’s House committee hearing on education reform. The session amounted to a debate between majority Republicans wanting...
by Chris Kirk | Feb 28, 2012 | Environment
WASHINGTON — In a Senate hearing that was supposed to be about the Interior Department’s proposed $11.4 billion budget, senators instead bickered Tuesday over the question of whether President Barack Obama’s energy policies are responsible for skyrocketing gasoline...
by Ben Kamisar | Feb 28, 2012 | Business
WASHINGTON — Testifying before a key Senate committee, Housing and Urban Development, Secretary Shaun Donovan offered qualified optimism about the state of the U.S. housing market Tuesday, but made clear that significant strides needed to be taken. “More than 13...
by Patrick Svitek | Feb 28, 2012 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Tuesday that the United States will lose its standing as a world power if almost $500 billion in spending cuts are piled on top of nearly the same amount of savings already proposed by President Barack Obama over the...
by Ariel Rothfield | Feb 28, 2012 | National Security, Politics
WASHINGTON—Secretary of State Hilary Clinton defended the State Department’s tight 2013 budget Tuesday, saying the agency had to make “difficult trade-offs and painful cuts.” “The request represents an increase of less than the rate of inflation and just over 1...
