The Hill: The Senate is expected to cast a key procedural vote Tuesday on a spending measure freezing federal worker pay. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Sunday evening filed a cloture motion to end debate on a continuing resolution, which would fund the government through March 4. A spokesman for the Senate Appropriations [...]
Politico: Senate Democrats appear to have enough votes to overcome a Republican filibuster on the new START arms-control treaty, though it’s unclear if they will have the 67 votes needed for ratification. At least five Republicans have committed to supporting the U.S.-Russia treaty or are leaning that way, including two who say they will vote [...]
Fox News: Mexican citizens will soon be eligible to apply for a “trusted traveler” status that will allow them to bypass some elements of airport security when they fly into the United States — a U.S. government-approved program that critics say could be exploited by violent drug cartels. Under the program, Mexicans who have undergone [...]
MSNBC: Waste Management workers are out and about when almost everyone else is not. Except someone who might be up to no good. A former FBI agent recently trained all Waste Management drivers, helpers and technicians in Rensselaer and Albany Counties to act as a mobile community watch. “They’re on these routes every day so [...]
Wall Street Journal: By ROBERT M. MCDOWELL Tomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will mark the winter solstice by taking an unprecedented step to expand government’s reach into the Internet by attempting to regulate its inner workings. In doing so, the agency will circumvent Congress and disregard a recent court ruling. How did the [...]
Washington Times: Responding to the federal repeal of the military policy banning open gays from serving in the armed forces, a state lawmaker in Virginia plans to fight back with legislation that bars “active homosexuals” from serving in the Virginia National Guard. Delegate Robert G. Marshall said the Constitution reserves states with the authority to [...]
Washington Times: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Sunday defended what he acknowledged as a “morally troubling” decision by President Obama to extend tax rates for all Americans as part of wide-ranging interview on key national and international issues. Mr. Biden said the president still thinks extending the George W. Bush-era rates for the [...]
Los Angeles Times: Reporting from Washington — Fifteen years ago, Carol Nietmann and her husband bought a spacious house in Maryland near Chesapeake Bay. And thanks to the time-honored tax deduction for mortgage interest, she said, their new place was a little bigger and a little nicer than they would otherwise have thought they could [...]
YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea (AP) – South Korea’s military staged live-fire drills from an island just miles (kilometers) from rival North Korea’s shores Monday, but Pyongyang said it would not strike back despite earlier threats to retaliate for the maneuvers. Seoul launched fighter jets, evacuated hundreds of people away from its tense land border with [...]
The Hill: Senators will convene a closed-door session Monday at 2 p.m. as part of a final push by the administration to ratify the New START nuclear arms treaty by Christmas. The meeting, which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) described as a “secret session,” will be held in the Old Senate Chamber. Two Democratic [...]
LONDON (AP) – British police on Monday arrested a dozen men suspected of plotting a large-scale terror attack—the biggest anti-terrorist sweep since April 2009, when 12 men were detained over an alleged al-Qaida bomb plot in the northern city of Manchester. Police who swooped in on the men’s houses early in the morning were unarmed, [...]
China is warning that it will be forced to stoke up a dangerously escalating arms race in Asia in response to Japanese plans to build a missile-defence system designed to protect the country from North Korean attacks. The Telegraph: Japan said last week that it planned to purchase Patriot PAC3 interceptors, which are meant to [...]
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Police in Taiwan say a 67-year-old man crashed his car through the gates of a Taipei school, injuring himself and at least four students. All of the students are expected to be okay. (Dec. 20)
World Net Daily: A diversity plan from a group of journalists says reporters should not be using the term “illegal aliens” because it is not constitutional. “Frequent use of the phrases ‘illegal immigrant’ and ‘illegal alien’ by our mainstream media is being questioned in order to remain faithful to the principles of our U.S. Constitution,” [...]
SAN MARTIN TEXMELUCAN, Mexico (AP) – A pipeline exploded in central Mexico early Sunday as suspected cartel thieves were trying to steal oil, killing at least 27 people and sending rivers of flaming crude through city streets. Authorities said 12 of the dead were children and estimated that the explosion and resulting spill affected a [...]
