Stephen Dinan

Lawmakers move 3 spending bills forward for House vote

Negotiators reached a deal Monday on the first three spending bills for the new fiscal year, in what lawmakers touted as the best progress in a decade on making the annual funding process work.

September 10, 2018

Tax Reform 2.0 revealed as House Republicans move to permanently lock in last year’s cuts

House Republicans announced legislation Monday to permanently lock in last year's tax cuts, looking to remind voters of the surging economy -- and the Republicans' role in getting it there -- in the weeks before the November elections.

September 10, 2018

HIV-positive immigrant convicted of abusing illegal immigrant kids in feds’ custody

A federal jury has convicted a legal immigrant of sexually abusing teenage illegal immigrant boys he'd been hired to care for as part of the government's massive program to deal with the surge of Unaccompanied Alien Children.

September 10, 2018

Congress on track to pass first three spending bills weeks before deadline

Negotiators reached a deal Monday on the first three spending bills for the new fiscal year, in what lawmakers touted as the best progress in a decade on making the annual funding process work.

September 10, 2018

48 percent of voters say Trump is ‘mentally stable’: Poll

Americans are higher on the economy than they've been in years -- but still don't much care for the job President Trump is doing, according to the latest Quinnipiac University Poll, released Monday.

September 10, 2018

Jeff Sessions rallies immigration judges to defend country against ‘open borders’

Attorney General Jeff Sessions told a new class of immigration judges Monday they are the country's defense against open borders policies and activist lawyers trying to twist the law in favor of migrants.

September 10, 2018

Other Eric Conn-type Social Security scams operating, whistleblowers say

The man behind the biggest Social Security fraud in American history was given another 15 years in prison last week, for a total of 27 years behind bars — but those who helped expose his con say the legal penalties shouldn't obscure the very real problems they say led to the fraud, and that remain unfixed even now.

September 9, 2018

Democrats’ memos about delay of GOP judicial pick for affirmative action case resurface

A long-forgotten set of memos from Senate Democrats details how they sought to delay a Republican president's judicial picks in order to skew the outcome of a key affirmative action case at the behest of the NAACP.

September 9, 2018

Assaults on ICE, Border Patrol surge as illegal immigrants get more violent

Assaults on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents reached a decade high in 2017, and assaults on Border Patrol agents also have surged in recent years, according to government numbers that seem to support agents' claims that immigrants living in the U.S. illegally increasingly are looking to fight rather than flee.

September 7, 2018

Social Security’s ‘Conn’ man gets 27 years in prison

A federal judge slapped an additional 15-year sentence on Social Security fraudster Eric C. Conn, giving him a total of 27 years in prison for his role in the largest disability con in history, and for his subsequent escape.

September 7, 2018

Donald Trump says Barack Obama’s speech a snoozer

President Trump said he "fell asleep" trying to watch President Obama's 2018 election takedown speech Friday -- and bristled at his predecessor's claiming credit for the surging economy.

September 7, 2018

Trump eyes shutdown, but worries it would hurt GOP in election

President Trump's favorite conservative talk show hosts may convince him to orchestrate a government shutdown.

September 7, 2018

Trump: Doubling of China trade tariffs ‘ready to go’

President Trump said Friday that he has another $267 billion in tariffs ready to slap on China, calling his testy relationship with that nation "a far bigger problem" than dealing with Russia right now.

September 7, 2018

Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings feature wild accusations

Over three days of hearings, Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh has been accused of being an accomplice to criminal theft, of being complicit in sexual harassment and of using code words to suggest allegiance to racists.

September 6, 2018

Deportations up 9 percent in 2018; still below Obama peak years

Immigration arrests and deportations are rising under the Trump administration, according to the latest statistics released Thursday -- though they're still far shy of the levels during the peak years of President Obama.

September 6, 2018

Ben Sasse worries over Brett Kavanaugh’s comments on precedent

Sen. Ben Sasse said Thursday he was unsettled by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh's answers to questions about abortion precedent during his confirmation hearing this week.

September 6, 2018

DHS proposes new rules for treatment of illegal immigrant children

The Trump administration moved Thursday to regain control of immigration detention decisions, proposing rules that would allow them to hold parents and children together in facilities until they're either deported or win their cases.

September 6, 2018

Brett Kavanaugh declines to recuse himself from Trump cases

Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh said Wednesday that he respected Supreme Court precedents on abortion and insisted he has an open mind on whether a sitting president can be indicted. But he refused to recuse himself from any cases involving President Trump.

September 5, 2018

Chuck Schumer shuts down Senate over Kavanaugh hearings

Senate Democrats closed down the chamber floor Wednesday to protest the confirmation hearings of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh.

September 5, 2018

Kavanaugh defends ruling against illegal immigrant teen seeking abortion

Judge Brett Kavanaugh defended his decision to slow an illegal immigrant juvenile's quest to get an abortion, telling senators Wednesday that he was following precedent in ruling the government didn't have to immediately grant her an "abortion on demand."

September 5, 2018