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Articles by Stephen Dinan

A SWAT team unloads from armored vehicles as they go door to door while searching for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Police saddled with unwanted equipment amid militarization scrutiny

The sheriff's department in Chelan County, east of Seattle, figured it could use an armored vehicle to transport its SWAT team's response to thorny situations, thereby erasing the fear of taking fire as they sped into active shooter or barricade incidents.

August 28, 2014
President Barack Obama speaks the economy, Iraq, and Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014, in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, before convening a meeting with his national security team on the militant threat in Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Obama says immigration action still to come

President Obama said Thursday his plans to take unilateral action on immigration were affected by the surge of illegal immigrant children on the southwest border, but he still vowed to move ahead where he can later this year.

August 28, 2014
President Obama is nearing a self-imposed deadline for taking unilateral action to try to halt deportations, and is facing pressure from immigrant-rights groups to go as broadly as possible. (Associated Press)

Legal settlement likely to slow deportation of illegal immigrants

Federal agents will have to read a Miranda rights-style list of protections to immigrants before sticking them in fast-track deportation proceedings, according to the terms of a legal settlement announced Wednesday that will make it tougher for the Obama administration to quickly deport illegal immigrants.

August 27, 2014
President Obama is poised to notch the lowest deficit of his six-year tenure at just more than a half-trillion dollars, but more financial pain lies ahead. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Federal deficit to drop this year, but financial pain will return: budget office

President Obama is poised to notch the lowest deficit of his six-year tenure at just more than a half-trillion dollars, reflecting slow but steady progress he and Congress have made on cutting annual spending. But the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the long-term problems remain with entitlements such as Social Security and the major health care programs, which will send deficits soaring back toward $1 trillion within a decade.

August 27, 2014
Alonzo Cushing photo provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society shows First Lt. Alonzo Cushing. A Civil War soldier is to be honored with the nation's highest military decoration 151 years after his death.The White House announced Wednesday that President Barack Obama will give the Medal of Honor to Alonzo H. Cushing. His descendants and Civil War buffs have been pushing for the Union Army lieutenant killed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to receive the award. (AP Photo/Wisconsin Historical Society)

Obama to award belated Medal of Honor to Union Civil War officer

President Obama will award the Medal of Honor to 1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing, who gave his life at Gettysburg leading the effort to repel Pickett's Charge, the White House said Tuesday in an announcement historians say corrects a glaring omission in the rolls of the nation's top military honor.

August 26, 2014
(AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

California waiting period nixed for existing gun owners

A federal judge severely limited California's gun-purchase waiting period in a ruling released Monday that says the law is unconstitutional when applied to those who have gone through the process to get a concealed-weapons permit, or who the state already knows to be firearms owners.

August 25, 2014
Jani Bergdahl, mother of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, listens as President Barack Obama speaks about the release of her son, during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Saturday, May 31, 2014. Bergdahl, 28, had been held prisoner by the Taliban since June 30, 2009. He was handed over to U.S. special forces by the Taliban in exchange for the release of five Afghan detainees held by the United States. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Bergdahl release violated law, used improper monies

Obama administration officials broke two federal laws when they exchanged Taliban warriors for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the government's top investigative office said in a legal report Thursday.

August 21, 2014
**FILE** Illegal immigrants file into a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Tucson, Ariz. (Associated Press)

DHS saw no option but to free 169 illegals convicted of murder

The Obama administration says it had no choice but to release almost all of the 169 murderers it let go from immigration detention last year, saying court decisions gave officials no choice in the matter — but it's promising a new system to better screen who gets let out.

August 21, 2014
Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a discussion on "The Border Crisis and the New Politics of Immigration" at the Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C., Thursday, August 21, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Rick Perry: U.S. must consider ground troops in Iraq

Texas Gov. Rick Perry called for deepening U.S. involvement in Iraq, including sending heavy weapons to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and deploying more American military air power and special operations teams.

August 21, 2014
Texas Gov. Rick Perry leaves the Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center after he was booked in Austin Tuesday. Mr. Perry was indicted last week on charges of coercion and official oppression for publicly promising to veto $7.5 million for the state's public integrity unit unless the head of the unit, a district attorney convicted of drunken driving, resigned. (Associated Press)

Defiant Perry booked on abuse-of-office charges

Texas Gov. Rick Perry turned himself in to police on Tuesday to be processed in connection with his indictment on abusing his office — though the Republican made the most of it, holding a rally outside the courthouse to rail against the charges.

August 19, 2014
Rep. William Lacy Clay, a Democrat whose district includes Ferguson, Missouri, says the federal government needs to provide training with weapons. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Military equipment for local police questioned amid Ferguson violence

Police forces are not only turning to military-style equipment to take on law enforcement tasks, but sometimes aren't even trained properly in how to use the weapons of war, the congressman who represents the St. Louis suburb that has been ensnared in a week of violence said Sunday.

August 17, 2014