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Articles by Stephen Dinan

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and other Republicans on Capitol Hill introduced their far-reaching tax overhaul on Thursday. Republican tax-writers have decided to shift the tax code's inflation index from the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, to something known as chained CPI, which is a slower-growing method of calculating cost-of-living increases. (Associated Press/File)

Tax bill’s chained CPI sneaks in rate hikes

Buried amid the deductions and credits, House Republicans have made a major shift in tax policy that will mean an escalating tax increase on every American taxpayer over the ensuing decades.

November 5, 2017
The Dallas Cowboys, led by owner Jerry Jones (center) took a knee prior to the national anthem and an NFL football game against the Arizona Cardinals. ESPN anchor Jemele Hill last month targeted Jones, after the Dallas Cowboys owner stated that players who disrespect the flag would not play for his team. (Associated Press/File)

GOP bill slashes tax break for NFL, other pro sports stadiums

The NFL would lose its ability to claim tax breaks for stadiums, colleges and universities would have to start paying taxes on massive endowments, and house "flippers" could no longer shield their income from the taxman under House Republicans' proposed tax bill, which takes aim at a number of quirks that have developed over the years.

November 2, 2017
President Trump promises to kill the Diversity Visa Lottery. (Associated Press)

Donald Trump vows to end Diversity Visa Lottery

President Trump and top congressional Republicans promised Wednesday to scrap the country's green-card lottery after it became clear that the suspect in this week's terrorist truck attack in New York City used the Diversity Visa Lottery to gain a foothold in the U.S. in 2010.

November 1, 2017
Law enforcement work the scene off an apartment building in Paterson, N.J. early Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. Authorities are searching for evidence tied to the suspect accused of killing several people and injuring others along New York’s Hudson River in Tuesday’s bike path attack. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Lindsey Graham: Treat NYC suspect as ‘enemy combatant’

A top senator said Wednesday that the suspect in Tuesday's attack in New York should be held as an unlawful enemy combatant, denied Miranda rights and subject to interrogation to try to find out more about what motivated him and whether he is working with others.

November 1, 2017
This undated photo provided by the St. Charles County Department of Corrections in St. Charles, Mo., via KMOV shows Sayfullo Saipov. A man in a rented pickup truck mowed down pedestrians and cyclists along a busy bike path near the World Trade Center memorial on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017, killing several. Officials who were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity identified the attacker as Saipov. (St. Charles County, Mo. Department of Corrections/KMOV via AP)

NYC suspect came to U.S. on Diversity Visa Lottery

The suspect in Tuesday's New York City terrorist attack is an immigrant who came to the U.S. through the Diversity Visa Lottery, a controversial program that since 1990 has doled out pathways to citizenship in the U.S. based literally on luck of the draw.

November 1, 2017
Sen. Richard Burr, North Carolina Republican, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 15, 2015. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Richard Burr says media botched Russian-social media story

The Russian operatives who ran Facebook ads surrounding last year's election ran four times as many ads in Maryland -- a deep-blue state -- than they did on the critical swing state of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee said Wednesday.

November 1, 2017
Facebook's general counsel, Colin Stretch, told a Senate committee that the platform found efforts to sow doubts about the election's validity until it disabled bad accounts. Facebook, Twitter and Google will present more testimony to Congress on Wednesday. (Associated Press)

Russian ads targeted issues, not candidates, social media execs say

Russian-backed mischief-makers and disinformation accounts were a tiny fraction of the online conversation leading up to last year's presidential election, and most of their efforts sowed discord over hot-button issues such as immigration and guns rather than attacking specific candidates, top social media executives told Congress on Tuesday.

October 31, 2017
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner John Koskinen talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2017 following his testimony before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the fiscal 2018 federal budget. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

IRS fends off 4 million hacking attempts a day

The IRS fends off 4 million hacking attempts a day, Commissioner John Koskinen said Tuesday, saying the tax agency does a solid job of keeping intruders out of its databases, though hackers have managed to spoof some taxpayers and steal their information individually.

October 31, 2017
A policeman stands guard at the site of a suicide attack in central Kabul, Afghanistan, Oct. 31, 2017. An Afghan official says at least three people were killed after a suicide bomber carried out an attack in central Kabul, near the U.S. Embassy. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)

Afghanistan security deteriorates as U.S. takes deeper role

Even as the U.S. takes a deeper role in Afghanistan the situation there is getting worse, with armed clashes at an all-time high, insurgents controlling more territory and civilian casualties from pro-government forces up 52 percent this year, an inspector general told Congress Tuesday.

October 31, 2017