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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a National Security Correspondent for The Washington Times. His reporting is regularly featured in the daily Threat Status newsletter.
Previously, he covered energy and the environment, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, and also spent two years as a White House correspondent during the Obama administration.
Before coming to The Times in 2011, Ben worked as political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

President Obama speaks about the Oregon shootings and his agenda for gun control.

Obama pitches Trans-Pacific Partnership to U.S. businesses

President Obama has launched what promises to be a monthslong public relations push to get skeptical lawmakers on board with a controversial trade deal between the U.S. and Pacific nations, and he used a brief speech at the Agriculture Department Tuesday to recruit top business leaders to help promote the landmark agreement.

October 6, 2015
Max Schrems, left, and his lawyer Herwig Hofmann, right, walk in the hallway at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015. Europe's highest court has ruled in favor of an Austrian law student who claims a trans-Atlantic data protection agreement doesn't adequately protect consumers. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

‘Safe Harbor’ data deal between EU and U.S. deemed invalid by high court

Europe's top court ruled Tuesday that data stored on U.S. servers isn't adequately protected because of government spying, a giant blow to companies such as Facebook and Google that had relied on a 15-year-old data-sharing agreement with the European Union and now may be forced to change the way they handle private data and user records.

October 6, 2015
President Barack Obama speaks during the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service at Mount St. Mary's University. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

White House searches for ‘single-issue voters’ on gun rights

The Obama administration wants voters across the country to only weigh gun rights and gun-safety legislation when considering who to support, saying it's necessary for proponents of new firearms restrictions to show the same passion Second Amendment activists are known for.

October 5, 2015
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig burns in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 50 miles southeast of Venice, La., on April 21, 2010. (Associated Press) **FILE**

BP to pay more than $20B in penalties for 2010 Gulf oil spill

More than five years after a well blowout spilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, energy giant BP reached a historic settlement with the Obama administration Monday and will pay the largest environmental penalties in U.S. history.

October 5, 2015
President Obama addressed the country hours after a gunman killed nine and wounded more than a dozen at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon.

Despite Obama’s passion, little movement seen on guns

For the 15th time in his nearly seven years in office, President Obama last week consoled the nation and demanded action on gun-control legislation — but America's most recent mass shooting likely will serve as another reminder that the president's bully pulpit simply isn't powerful enough to drive change on the complex, contentious issue of Second Amendment rights.

October 4, 2015
A new EPA proposal would lower the current national ozone standard for automobiles from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 65 or 70 ppb. Environmentalist are calling for even more stringent pollution caps. (Associated Press)

EPA tightens ozone standard, sets off fight with business groups

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday tightened the federal ozone standard, dismissing the concerns of powerful business groups and setting off a regulatory and legal fight that will last for the remainder of President Obama's time in office.

October 1, 2015
A new EPA proposal would lower the current national ozone standard for automobiles from 75 parts per billion (ppb) to 65 or 70 ppb. Environmentalist are calling for even more stringent pollution caps. (Associated Press)

EPA to release new regulations to restrict ground-level ozone

President Obama on Thursday is expected to take what many expect to be the most costly and contentious step in his ambitious environmental agenda -- the release of a gargantuan set of federal regulations to restrict ground-level ozone in the name of protecting Americans' health.

September 30, 2015
President Obama talks with Cuban President Raul Castro before a bilateral meeting, Tuesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York. (Associated Press)

Raul Castro’s speech spotlights divide with U.S.

President Obama hailed a new chapter in the U.S.-Cuba relationship this week at the United Nations, but analysts say realities on the ground on the communist island -- and the continued "Cold War rhetoric" of Cuban President Raul Castro -- demonstrate that the easy part of mending the bilateral relationship frozen since the early 1960s is now over.

September 29, 2015
President Obama shakes hands with Cuban President Raul Castro in front of members of the media before a bilateral meeting Sept. 29, 2015, at the United Nations headquarters. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Obama, Raul Castro meet at United Nations

President Obama met with Cuban President Raul Castro in New York City on Tuesday morning, further cementing the fact that the U.S. and the communist island are moving past the diplomatic isolation of the last half-century.

September 29, 2015
U.S. President Barack Obama, right, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin head into a bilateral meeting Monday, Sept. 28, 2015, at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) ** FILE **

Vladimir Putin, Obama spar over Syria at United Nations

President Obama and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin tried to downplay personal and policy tensions during a rare face-to-face meeting Monday in New York, but fierce disagreements bubbled to the surface in competing speeches to an audience of other world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly.

September 28, 2015
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk through the Colonnade of the White House in Washington, Friday, Sept. 25, 2015, for a news conference in the Rose Garden. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Cybersecurity deal with China called small step

President Obama claimed victory on cybersecurity after last week's meeting with his Chinese counterpart, and said he's received assurances China no longer will tacitly support the hacking of American companies -- but analysts say the deal is only a small step in the right direction and does not guarantee either nation will cease all forms of spying or cybertheft.

September 27, 2015