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Jennifer Harper

Jennifer Harper

jharper@washingtontimes.com

Jennifer Harper wrote the daily Inside the Beltway column for The Washington Times.

Articles by Jennifer Harper

Robert E. Lee's boyhood home goes up for sale, priced at $8.5 million and deemed one of the nation's 'most desirable properties." (Washington Fine Properties)

Robert E. Lee’s boyhood home up for sale: $8.5 million

It has eight bedrooms, six baths, six fireplaces and is 223 years old - a remarkable Virginia homestead considered so historic it was once a museum showcasing the dwelling place of a lad who grew up to be the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia

April 11, 2018
Over a third of millennials still live at home with their parents, says new analysis of Census Bureau numbers. (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: 70% of millennials not ‘politically engaged or active’ says Harvard poll

Millennials — often described as a much coveted voting bloc by the fawning news media — have very little trust in that media. A new Harvard University poll of Americans from age 18 to 29 reveals that only 2 percent of them trust the press all the time while 14 percent they trusted it most of the time. But that's it. Eight-out-of-10 millennials either never trust the media, or only trust it some of the time.

April 10, 2018
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will go before Congress to explain his business practices. There are now 2 billion Facebook users. (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: Mark Zuckerberg’s Capitol Hill debut

Facebook must now face the music — and the news media. Capitol Hill will get particularly intense about mid-afternoon on Tuesday when "Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data" gets underway. This much-anticipated hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation features lone witness Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has undergone weeks of specialized coaching for the experience — deemed "Zuckerberg's apology tour" by The New Yorker.

April 8, 2018
Hands-on official: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke takes a horseback ride through the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: Ryan Zinke wrangles the media

"'Do right and fear no man.' That credo has served Ryan Zinke well in his tenure as secretary of the interior for President Trump," writes Frank Miele, managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Montana. "Zinke has become a lightning rod for criticism from the Democratic left, and yet he continues to move forward with his agenda of increasing access to federal public lands and developing funding to pay for infrastructure needs that have been left unaddressed for decades."

April 5, 2018
A new poll reveals that 7-out-of-10 Americans believe they work harder than Congress. Only 15 percent said Congress works harder. (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: Voters say they work harder than Congress

The calendar doesn't lie. The House of Representatives was in session for only 13 days in March, and it plans to be on the job another dozen days in April and again in May. The rest of their time is devoted to "district work periods," federal holidays and free weekends according to a monthly online calendar. It's complicated.

April 4, 2018
In this file photo, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., left, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., take questions during a news conference on Capitol Hill to respond to the Republican tax reform plan in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) **FILE**

Democratic Party could be ‘too liberal’ for voters, poll finds

A new Economist/YouGov poll finds that almost half of registered U.S. voters -- 48 percent -- say the party is "too liberal." It's just one poll, but it illustrates a dynamic which will become more intense as election day approaches: Is the Democratic Party just too liberal for the average voter?

April 3, 2018
About 77 percent of Americans are quite convinced that "outside groups and agents" have invaded the traditional news media. (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: 83% of Americans say ‘outside groups’ have invaded the news media

Several polls already have confirmed that the nation has a "fake news" problem — a phenomenon that President Trump pointed out to the public long ago. A Monmouth University survey is the latest affirmation that shoddy, manipulative and questionable journalism is now a pestilence in the press, revealing that 77 percent of Americans say fake news has invaded "traditional" reporting in print and broadcast.

April 2, 2018
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive for Easter services at Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, Florida. (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: Trump togetherness: The first couple

President Trump and Melania Trump returned to the very church in which they were married for Easter morning services. The couple sat in the third row of Bethesda-by-the-Sea, the Episcopal church in Palm Beach — where they tied the knot on Jan. 22, 2005 — and were photographed looking relaxed and happy despite press accounts from news organizations, gossip publications and at least one pollster addressing possibilities that the first couple's marriage is on the rocks, or that Mrs. Trump was "unhappy with her life" — this reported by US Weekly. That did not appear to be the case Sunday. The first lady was smiling and radiant.

April 1, 2018
Freshly made chocolate bunnies are waiting to be placed in an Easter basket. (AP photo/file)

Chocolate Easter candy now cited as environmental hazard by researchers

Beware the chocolate Easter bunny, and those foil-wrapped chocolate eggs. Both could be "bad for the environment" warns a new study, which says that such confections can damage the environment. Researchers at The University of Manchester in England have identified "the carbon footprint of chocolate and its other environmental impacts," analyzing such factors as ingredients, manufacturing processes, packaging and waste.

March 30, 2018
Pollsters have begun to analyze the revival of "Roseanne" and are wondering if a new demographic has emerged — the "Roseanne voter." (Associated Press)

Inside the Beltway: Here comes the ‘Roseanne voter’

Analysts were astonished when "Roseanne" ran away with the TV ratings this week. The prime-time sitcom did, after all, offer a relatively positive message about President Trump, his administration and the heartland's working-class population. Some jittery observers wondered if a new voter demographic had emerged — the "Roseanne voter" - a hybrid of populist and independent realists who still believe in America and lean patriotic, and could confound even the most astute political strategists. Others wonder if Hollywood will comprehend that its audience is a varied one, and act upon this phenomenon.

March 29, 2018
The U.S. population now stands at 328,231,337 which is up 6.31 percent since the last national census. (U.S. Census Bureau) ** FILE **

Inside the Beltway: Census phobia: Democrats and ‘the question’

Lawsuits and Democratic protests are percolating over the addition of a simple citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. census — with critics claiming the question would suppress response rates and skew accuracy, or have political ramifications for states with heavy immigrant populations like New York or California.

March 28, 2018