NewsTrust - All Rated Stories

Anatomy of an Ethics Leak

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Mike Lillis - Oct. 30 (News Analysis) - The news that “dozens” of House lawmakers are under scrutiny by ethics investigators — reported last night by The Washington Post — will likely stir a small storm in Washington, particularly on an otherwise quiet Friday when Congress is out of session.

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Senators Slog While Unemployed Suffer

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Mary Kane - Oct. 26 (News Report) - A protracted and very partisan Senate skirmish has left hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans without unemployment benefits — an impasse that Democrats leaders are hoping to break this week. They have their work cut out.

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Tea Party Patrons Point New Recruits Toward 2010

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Oct. 05 (News Report) - For months, liberal researchers from the Center for American Progress to Firedoglake to the Rachel Maddow Show have pored over the financial records of libertarian tycoon David Koch to see just how deep his influence ran within the Tea Party movement.

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Experts Weigh in on Obama’s Explanation of Iran’s Nuclear Facility

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Sep. 28 (News Report) - Flanked by the French president and the British premier, President Obama on Friday dramatically stated that the “size and configuration” of a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear facility near the clerical city of Qom make it “inconsistent with a peaceful program.” Several independent experts believe the facility is most likely being constructed to support a nuclear weapons program, especially as Iran’s concealment of it comes after years of nondisclosure and obstruction of inspections. But even those experts believe that the “size and configuration” of the facility does not necessarily mean it could only be used to build an atomic bomb.

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Supreme Court Eyes Decades of Campaign Finance Laws

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Sep. 09 (News Analysis) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a case that could reverse major gains made in recent decades to reduce the influence of corporate money on federal elections. At first blush, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission appears to

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Feingold Set to Oppose Further Troop Boost for Afghanistan

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Aug. 05 (News Report) - “I don’t think the case has been effectively made for continuing to send more and more troops into Afghanistan,” Feingold said in a Wednesday interview. “I am very unhappy with the answers I’ve received about the issue of whether constantly increasing troops is helping the situation in Pakistan or making it worse. I suspect it could be making things worse.” Feingold fears that increasing troops in Afghanistan might lead insurgents to cross the border into Pakistan, which is engaged in its own fight against a distinct but affiliated insurgency,

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Gun Rights Advocates Hope to Flip Red-State Dems on Sotomayor

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Jul. 14 (News Report) - For Republicans and many movement conservatives, the key moment of the first day of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings was not the blistering opening statement of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee who bulldozed through the most controversial parts of her record. It was the jokey, resigned statement of Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), who regretted that President Barack Obama had given the Senate a candidate who could not be stopped.

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Republicans Test 2010 Message: Cancel the Stimulus

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Dave Weigel - Jul. 11 (Special Report) - The day after President Obama signed the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) took to the airwaves to offer voters a different kind of new deal. “If the American people will let the Republicans back in charge,” said Gohmert on the Feb. 19 episode of Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, “the 60 percent of this bill that won’t be spent until after the next election, we’ll cut it off and let it go to the Americans.”

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Obama’s Sideline Strategy May Signal Shift in U.S. Democracy Policy

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Jun. 19 (News Report) - It turned out money couldn’t buy a revolution. After the 2005 election of hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Bush administration sought about $75 million from Congress with which it hoped to recruit or support alternative voices in Iran to push the Islamic Republic in a more democratic direction. While dissidents in Iran were significantly weaker than during the 1999 student protests — a squelched moment of apparent liberalism that The Economist wrote could be a “second revolution” — there were still prominent voices for reform, like Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and journalist Akbar Ganji. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who ultimately got around $66 million from Congress, said the money would go to “a new effort to support the aspirations of the Iranian people.”

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Supreme Court Detainee Decision May Not Block Suits Against Top Officials

Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - May. 20 (News Report) - In denying the right of a Muslim Pakistani immigrant to sue former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller for his prolonged imprisonment and harsh treatment based on his religion and national origin, the Supreme Court on Monday raised the bar for plaintiffs seeking to sue high-level government officials for policies carried out by their subordinates.

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School of Hock

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Martha C. White - May. 01 (Opinion) - With a growing number of college grads finding themselves crushed under the weight of their student loan debt, the Obama administration is considering action that could derail the entire student loan industry. Groups who monitor campaign contributions, though, worry that the strength of the industry could block any shot at real change.

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Big Break From Bush on ‘State Secrets’ Unlikely Under Obama

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Evitar - Apr. 11 (News Analysis) - In an interview that aired Wednesday night on the CBS Evening News, Attorney General Eric Holder suggested to Katie Couric that the Obama administration is unlikely to depart dramatically from the Bush administration’s position on the use of the state secrets privilege, noting just one case out of about 20 currently under review in which the Justice Department is seriously considering changing its stance. He did not say which case that was.

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AIG Contracts Provide No Escape From Bonus Fury

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Mar. 20 (News Analysis) - The AIG bonus scandal probably won’t lead to any forced return of those bonuses after all. Instead, what emerged from the House Financial Services Committee hearing on AIG’s payment of $165 million in bonuses to executives was that there probably isn’t a legal way to avoid paying those bonuses now.

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Conservative Think Tank Adjusts to Tough Times

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By David Weigel - Mar. 14 (Special Report) - These are trying times for most Washington, D.C. think tanks. Since the financial crisis began, the corporate and philanthropic foundations and donors who gird most think tanks have become stingier about their grants. In the case of AEI, the economic downturn has meant cutting back one prestige product and trimming some minor costs and low-level staff. AEI Outlooks are sent around digitally, instead of printed out en masse. Several long-time scholars have left for more complicated reasons. “I wouldn’t hear anything,” said one former staffer, “and then I’d notice that a name was off a door, or a scholar’s profile had been taken down from the web site.”

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Future of Public Diplomacy Unsettled at State

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Feb. 19 (News Report) - As President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton near an announcement of a top State Department official to promote the United States’s image abroad, some veterans of the public diplomacy field wonder if the administration views job as a national security position or a public relations one.

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Immigration Fight Simmered During Stimulus Negotiations

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Feb. 12 (News Report) - Among the many provisions of the $800–plus billion stimulus bill that were hotly debated and horse-traded behind closed doors, one that remained largely under the radar through the negotiations would have forced employers receiving stimulus money to use a controversial federal computer system to verify that all of its employees are legal U.S. workers. Although preliminary indications are that the requirement did not make it into the final version, the battle over E-Verify is far from over.

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The Triumph of Blue Patriotism

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Jefferson Morley - Jan. 21 (Opinion) - When Barack Obama took the stage at the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, he signaled not only the arrival of a new administration to Washington but the arrival of a patriotism that looks new but isn’t.

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Lawmakers & Lobbyists Celebrate Inauguration

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Lindsay Beyerstein - Jan. 21 (Special Report) - Despite Obama’s efforts, inaugural festivities still represent a giant loophole in lobbying rules that have grown progressively stricter in recent years. Whether it’s the high-dollar fundraisers underwriting the official inaugural program, or the corporations and lobbyists throwing lavish parties to woo legislators and government officials, influence appears to come with a price tag.

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Freddie, Fannie Force Borrowers to Waive Legal Rights

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Mary Kane - Jan. 16 (Special Report) - When the government announced in November that it would use mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to streamline loan modifications for possibly hundreds of thousands of borrowers, officials billed the idea as a fast-track program to fight foreclosures. What no one mentioned is that homeowners would have to sign away their rights to sue, if they wanted to get those loans modified.

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Obama Faces Legacy of Lawlessness at Justice

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - Jan. 02 (News Analysis) - After 29 years enforcing the civil rights laws at the Department of Justice, in 2002 Richard Ugelow was abruptly transferred from his position as deputy chief of employment litigation to an administrative job in the civil division, which defends the government against, among other things, claims of civil rights violations. Ugelow was just one of many highly experienced justice department lawyers who, beginning in the early years of the Bush administration, were transferred, demoted or otherwise pushed out of their positions at Justice because their aggressive enforcement of federal laws didn’t match the new administration’s conservative ideology.

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Does the U.S. Owe Torture Victims?

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Dec. 11 (News Analysis) - Should the U.S. government have to pay damages to a innocent man arrested and secretly sent overseas where he faced certain torture during questioning about his alleged connections to terrorists?

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At Frontline of Foreclosure Crisis, Counties Go It Alone

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Independent - By Mark Kane - Nov. 25 (Special Report) - Places hit hard by the foreclosure crisis, like Prince William County, are dealing with hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of abandoned and deteriorating properties like the Irongate townhouse — the damage left behind by the subprime mess.

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Shop Till We Drop — or Save?

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Mike Lillis - Oct. 18 (Special Report) - For the first time in 17 years, retail sales have dropped for three months straight. Both for households and individuals, the trend might be good news: Many economists and consumer advocates have, for years, encouraged low- and middle-income people to pay down debts and save for stable futures.

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Debate Highlights Security and 'Understanding'

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Ari Melber - Sep. 27 (Opinion) - The mood here at the debate site -- admittedly irrelevant compared to the opinions of the TV audience at home -- was measured, even bored, throughout much of the evening. Unlike other major debates, there was no singular exchange, be it angry, humorous or otherwise, that the press seized on to define the night.

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Karzai's Popularity Slips in Afghanistan

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Sep. 26 (Special Report) - ... for the first time in Karzai's meteoric ascent -- and ahead of national elections scheduled for next year -- Afghans are beginning to express disillusionment with the president. Corruption, instability and tough economic times are starting to turn even Karzai's fellow Pashtuns against him. While the anti-Karzai antipathy is building, some experts wonder if Washington has blundered into an Afghanistan policy without a Plan B.

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