Independent voices from the TWT Communities

The economy is growing moderately and employment has picked up recently, but growth continues to be held back by budget constraints, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke testified Wednesday.

For Tom Bender, fighting for his fellow veterans means more than showing up once a year in Washington for an awe-inspiring motorcycle rally.

Even after taking new hits to its stock price, Apple Inc., remains the most valuable corporation in the world. That makes some senators green with envy. They assume such success could only have come at a cost to the government.

The Obama administration has an enemies list, and John Dodson was on it. The special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) infuriated his superiors by alerting Congress and everyone else about the government's gunrunning scheme called Fast and Furious.

NASA faces a financial crisis and does not have the technological means or funding to follow through with its goal of landing astronauts on Mars by mid-2030s, a leading astronomer told lawmakers this week.

Former IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman's testimony that he deliberately kept himself in the dark about the tax service's brewing scandal runs counter to the responsibilities of agency heads regardless of whether they are political appointees, some government analysts said.

The latest report by the Defense Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office documents the dysfunctional consequences of social experiments with human sexuality in our military over many years.

Members of a House panel angry over sexual abuse problems in the military are set to vote on a bill that would strip commanding officers of their authority to unilaterally change or dismiss court-martial convictions — a change that lawmakers believe will lead to a cultural shift that encourages more victims to step forward.

Twenty members of Congress have sent a letter to the Boy Scouts of America, urging it to drop its ban on gay youth and adults.

Several Federal Reserve policymakers this month favored slowing the central bank's efforts to maintain record-low long-term interest rates as early as June — if the economy showed strong and sustained growth. But those officials appeared at odds over what evidence would demonstrate such gains.

Stocks fell in afternoon trading Wednesday on news that several Federal Reserve policymakers in a meeting earlier this month favored cutting back on stimulus programs as early as June if the economy continued to improve.

Anthony Weiner thinks his brief absence from elected office means the public will forget his disrespect and disdain for women. He's wrong. He didn't just treat strange women like sex objects, he sexually harassed female journalists who work on Capitol Hill. Two of us work at The Washington Times.

The United States and several key allies sought Wednesday a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid.

Conservative Republicans said Wednesday that they will demand that Congress produce a budget that balances in 10 years in exchange for agreeing to raise the federal debt limit, and that House Speaker John A. Boehner promised as much during a GOP retreat this year.

The woman at the center of the IRS scandal refused to testify to Congress on Wednesday, but House Republicans said Lois Lerner botched her attempt to invoke her right against self-incrimination and said they likely will force her to come back and explain why the agency targeted conservative political groups.