WASHINGTON -- Two Democratic congressmen are investigating whether the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's tenacious attack on a key anti-bribery statute has less to do with high-minded economic principles and more to do with the fact that nearly one in four board members of the Chamber's "legal reform" arm represents a...
(10744) Comments | Posted May 18, 2012 | 2:48 PM
RICHMOND, Va. -- The Obama administration Friday morning continued its headlong attack on the right of reporters to protect their confidential sources in leak investigations.
Before a panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a Department of Justice lawyer argued that New York Times reporter James Risen should be...
(708) Comments | Posted May 17, 2012 | 7:55 PM
WASHINGTON -- A Democratic senator has asked the Obama administration to immediately bar Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin from re-entering the U.S., based on a previously unenforced 1996 law.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, who as a congressman in 1996 authored an amendment that excludes from reentry into the U.S....
(15201) Comments | Posted May 17, 2012 | 12:11 PM
WASHINGTON -- Populist anger at Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin's decision to renounce his U.S. citizenship -- a move that could save him hundreds of millions in taxes if his Facebook stock gains value after the company goes public on Friday -- has inspired two senators to...
(525) Comments | Posted May 15, 2012 | 2:00 PM
WASHINGTON -- One of the most consequential campaign finance loopholes affecting the 2012 race -- the one allowing big-money donors to secretly funnel millions into campaign ads -- is now closed, after an appellate court ruling on Monday.
In April, a district court judge struck down a...
(851) Comments | Posted May 14, 2012 | 11:54 AM
WASHINGTON -- When the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) first started facing public scrutiny about its extraordinary ability to turn "model bills" written by corporate lobbyists into state law, the secretive group sent out a list of talking points to its members, telling them what to do when faced with...
(9475) Comments | Posted May 9, 2012 | 3:23 PM
WASHINGTON -- In his new book, former Secretary of State Colin Powell provides what may be the most authoritative confirmation yet that there was never a considered debate in the George W. Bush White House about whether going to war in Iraq was really a good idea.
In a chapter...
(4288) Comments | Posted May 7, 2012 | 8:42 AM
WASHINGTON -- Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, the political ad-buying organization cofounded by Republican strategist Karl Rove in 2010, has officially submitted its first tax forms with the Internal Revenue Service, and as expected, the group is formally requesting that the IRS treat it as a nonprofit operating under...
(2075) Comments | Posted April 30, 2012 | 5:54 PM
Two senators privy to classified information angrily dispute the claim by a former CIA official that the Bush administration's coercive interrogation techniques were effective and helped locate Osama bin Laden.
Jose Rodriguez, former head of CIA clandestine services, told the Washington Post last week that...
(2209) Comments | Posted April 30, 2012 | 12:55 PM
WASHINGTON -- Afghan reconstruction efforts remain severely hampered even after nearly $100 billion in spending over the last 10 years, according to a new watchdog report. The most immediate challenge stems from the insistence by Afghanistan's government that the private army of hired guns providing security for ongoing projects be...
(5169) Comments | Posted April 26, 2012 | 3:31 PM
WASHINGTON -- Money traditionally follows power in the nation's capital. As a result, corporate campaign contributions have historically been split among incumbents of both political parties, with a decided advantage for whichever controls Congress and the White House.
But that pattern has begun to fray, as companies in some major...
(41) Comments | Posted April 25, 2012 | 5:19 PM
WASHINGTON -- A whistleblower who exposed systemic fraud by Countrywide mortgage lenders called on the Department of Justice on Wednesday to prosecute her former colleagues, if not with fraud, then with covering it up.
"If there is insufficient legal evidence to convict these executives of what we believe...
(120) Comments | Posted April 24, 2012 | 2:41 PM
WASHINGTON -- This city loves a scandal -- as long as it's just the right size. Not too small. But also not too big.
While official Washington remains in a tizzy over profligate spending on a General Services Administration junket in Vegas and alleged dalliances between Secret...
(180) Comments | Posted April 18, 2012 | 6:04 PM
WASHINGTON -- The capitulation by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to a grassroots campaign denouncing its positions on gun laws and voting rights may end up being a pyrrhic victory for progressives.
After 10 companies -- including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, Kraft and Intuit -- distanced themselves from...
(75) Comments | Posted April 17, 2012 | 7:50 PM
WASHINGTON -- A full year after the official deadline came and went, key regulations necessary to enforce the Dodd-Frank financial reform law remain unwritten, leaving vast areas of the financial market still vulnerable to self-destruction and failing to discourage corrupt practices overseas.
Among the overdue regulations from the Securities and...
(5595) Comments | Posted April 17, 2012 | 12:28 PM
WASHINGTON -- The American Legislative Exchange Council, the controversial corporate-sponsored lobbying group whose push for "stand your ground" gun laws and voter ID legislation ignited grassroots protests, announced Tuesday that it is getting out of the social policy field to focus on core economic issues.
Corporations associated with ALEC had...
(68) Comments | Posted April 10, 2012 | 1:29 PM
WASHINGTON -- Despite the Internal Revenue Service's promise to bring new scrutiny to tax avoidance schemes used by the super rich, a new report finds that of the nearly 8,300 individuals recently reporting adjusted annual gross income of $10 million or more, as few as a dozen may...
(647) Comments | Posted April 9, 2012 | 2:23 PM
WASHINGTON -- A tax dodge that millionaire hedge fund managers use to slash their income taxes could soon become a major election issue, as congressional Democrats and the White House gear up for a fight to close the loophole.
What makes it a real hot-button issue is that presumptive Republican...
(16146) Comments | Posted April 6, 2012 | 4:40 PM
WASHINGTON -- A six-year-old memo from within the George W. Bush administration that came to light this week acknowledges that White House-approved interrogation techniques amounted to "war crimes." The memo's release has called attention to what has changed since President Barack Obama took office, but it also raises questions about...
(2017) Comments | Posted April 5, 2012 | 2:14 PM
WASHINGTON -- Succumbing to pressure from public interest groups, Coca Cola and Pepsico have severed their ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an ultra-conservative lobby group that has pushed so-called Stand Your Ground gun legislation and voter-identification bills through state legislatures across the country.
Public interest groups, including...

(102) Comments | Posted May 22, 2012 | 3:37 PM