By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
The White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling tours of the president's home for the foreseeable future as the sequester spending cuts begin to bite and the administration makes good on its warnings of painful decisions.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has hailed its new automated inspection system as a "data-driven" approach to protecting the nation's food supply, but inspectors say systematic failures keep them stuck in front of office computers while potential public health hazards go unchecked.
The top leaders in both parties on the House and Senate Agriculture committees have agreed to a one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill that expired in October, a move that would head off a possible doubling of milk prices next month.
It's not always easy to tell who's coming or going as the Obama administration starts its second term, but multiple agencies have quietly commissioned artists to paint official portraits of Cabinet secretaries and other top appointees — an expenditure often seen when officials are on the way out the door or already gone.
The editorial, "Biofuel mandates worsen drought's effect" (Comment & Analysis, Tuesday) makes some dubious assumptions and comes to inaccurate conclusions regarding ethanol production and the food supply. While there is no denying the drought has had a substantial impact on this year's corn crop, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack has gone on the record to say that year's yield, while down from record predictions, will still meet our food needs, and that obligated parties have the ability to meet the volume requirements of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
Mitt Romney is preferred over President Obama on the economy, despite attacks on his record at Bain Capital, according to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll.
The Obama administration keeps reporting supposed good news on the employment front. Americans sense that something is not quite right about the rosy official numbers, and a series of independent reports confirms their skepticism.
Creditors of the bankrupt wireless company Open Range Communications, which closed in October owing more than $70 million in unpaid federal loans, say the Justice Department is refusing to turn over records as part of a court-ordered investigation, including details from a meeting between two top Obama administration officials and the White House.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it will close 259 domestic offices, labs and other facilities as part of an effort to save $150 million per year in its $145 billion budget.
Job creation is at the forefront of most Americans' minds - and rightly so. With unemployment hovering in the 9 percent range, the need for family-sustaining jobs is abundantly clear.
The potato will not be kicked out of the nation's school cafeterias without a fight.
U.S. Department of Agriculture activists want to impose their intense brand of homosexual sensitivity training government-wide, including a discussion that compares "heterosexism" — believing marriage can only can be between one man and one woman — to racism.
For 10 years Republican Rep. Steve King has represented a deeply conservative wedge of Iowa, a place where constituents apparently didn't object to his comparison of the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib to fraternity hazing or his suggestion that an electric fence separate the U.S. from Mexico so that illegal immigrants get the same treatment as wandering livestock.
Before there was Scott Walker, Rick Scott, Nathan Deal or Nikki Haley, there was Arizona's Jan Brewer — the original Republican protest governor, going toe-to-toe with the Obama administration over immigration, fighting the White House in the courtroom and becoming an early symbol of states' frustration with the White House.
Neither Mr. Brown nor the main APHIS office in Washington returned calls seeking comment, but Agriculture Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack, who oversees the agency, told Congress he is trying to give flexibility where he can.
"When the system is fully implemented, it will allow us to access information from other public health agencies, to identify risks and trends before they harm the public, and to make decisions to protect consumers from unsafe food."
