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Articles by Stephen Dinan

FILE - In this April 1, 2014, file photo, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Barack Obama scored a rare win in his 5-year-old campaign to close the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a Senate panel approved giving him the authority to transfer terror suspects to the United States if Congress signs off on a comprehensive plan to shutter the facility. Levin hailed the defense bill provision as a significant change in the long standoff between the Obama administration and bipartisan congressional opponents over the post-Sept. 11 prison for terror suspects. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File)

Top Dem vows review of police access to military equipment

The top Senate Democrat overseeing the military said Friday that Congress will reexamine the programs that allow state and local authorities to buy or borrow military equipment, as the backlash against heavily armed and armored police grows.

August 15, 2014
Supporters of immigration reform protest in San Antonio. Gay immigrants are now mounting a campaign to demand that they be included in any unilateral moves President Obama makes this year to halt deportations. (Associated Press)

Gay illegal immigrants demand deportation protection

Gay immigrants are mounting a campaign to demand that they be included in any unilateral moves President Obama makes this year to halt deportations, arguing that they face unusual circumstances that otherwise might leave them on the outside.

August 12, 2014
**FILE** Illegal immigrants file into a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Tucson, Ariz. (Associated Press)

DHS broke law in releasing hundreds of criminal aliens: Audit

The Obama administration violated the law when it released thousands of illegal immigrants last February, more than 600 of whom had criminal records, according to an internal audit released Tuesday that blamed the problem on poor planning and bad leadership from Washington.

August 12, 2014
Sen. Kay R. Hagan of North Carolina has yet to have a piece of legislation named for her pass the Senate, a fact Republican opponent Thom Tillis points to as evidence she isn't helping voters. (Associated Press)

Senators’ effectiveness attacked over lack of namesake laws

Senate Democrats haven't had to take many tough votes this year, but the flip side is that this also means they aren't notching many legislative accomplishments for voters back home — and it's becoming an issue in politically vulnerable Democrats' re-election races.

August 10, 2014
FILE - In this July 24, 2014, file photo, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, talks with the media on Capitol Hill in Washington. While much of the rest of the world watches the Gaza war in horror and scrambles for a cease-fire, U.S. lawmakers are pressing the Obama administration to take no action that puts pressure on Israel to halt its military operations. Boehner said Monday, July 28, the administration should "stand with Israel, not just as a broker or observer but as a strong partner." (AP Photo/File)

Boehner: Lack of Obama strategy ‘emboldens’ ISIL

President Obama was right to strike at ISIS targets in Iraq, but he still needs to come up with a broader strategy for halting the insurgents' advance, House Speaker John A. Boehner said Friday morning.

August 8, 2014
** FILE ** President Obama speaks at the Wallace Theater in Fort Belvoir, Va., Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Lost emails scandal spreads to top Obamacare official

The Obama administration admitted Thursday it has lost emails from the key official who oversaw the botched rollout of the federal Obamacare website, and may have broken the law by failing to report the problem to the National Archives.

August 7, 2014
Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who worked on the bipartisan USASpending.gov website to audit government spending, says that the site's accuracy rate is incredibly flawed. (Associated Press)

Federal spending transparency website riddled with errors: GAO audit

It's supposed to be the government's transparency website so that the public can see how taxpayer money is spent, but USASpending.gov is so error-prone that it's missing more than $600 billion in awards from 2012 alone, and as much as 98 percent of its records were plagued by inaccuracies, according to a scathing new audit.

August 5, 2014
** FILE ** This June 23, 2014, file photo shows a temporary shelter for unaccompanied minors who have entered the country illegally at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. The government said Monday it will soon close three emergency shelters it established at U.S. military bases to temporarily house children caught crossing the Mexican border alone. It said fewer children were being caught and other shelters will be adequate.  (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Feds to stop using military bases to house illegal immigrant children

The Obama administration is shutting down the three emergency shelters for illegal immigrant children it opened on military bases, health officials said Monday in another sign that the federal government is getting a handle on the surge of Central Americans trying to jump the U.S. border.

August 4, 2014
** FILE ** Texas Parks & Wildlife Wardens patrol the Rio Grand on the U.S.-Mexico border in Mission, Texas. Texas is spending $1.3 million a week for a bigger presence from the Department of Public Safety along the border. (Associated Press)

With Congress adjourned, new options sought for border

With Congress gone for August, the duty of trying to stop the illegal immigrant surge on the southern border now belongs to President Obama and border governors — chiefly Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who said Sunday he will move ahead with plans to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops on the border.

August 3, 2014
Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, leaves a closed-door Republican strategy session on the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border after last-minute maneuvering failed to lock down conservative support, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 31, 2014. The surprise developments, coming on Congress' final day of action ahead of a five-week summer recess, were an embarrassing setback for Speaker John Boehner and his leadership team as a small group of tea party lawmakers once again upset their plans. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House backs faster deportations, cancels ‘dreamer’ policy

House Republicans resurrected their border bill Friday, powering it through on a late-evening near party-line vote and sending it over to a Senate that's already gone home for a five-week summer vacation, leaving the border chaos unsolved.

August 2, 2014
Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio, walks past reporters following a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Aug. 1, 2014, to discuss the border crisis. House Republicans expressed optimism that a revised, $694 million bill addressing the surge of immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border would win over reluctant conservatives and give a divided GOP a political win. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House GOP resurrects border bill, predicts successful Friday vote

House Republicans resurrected their border bill Friday morning and said they were on track to pass the rewritten measure later in the day — though with the Senate gone for the summer the vote will be more a political statement than a policy-making exercise.

August 1, 2014
A stuffed bear and children's book sit on a child's bed the Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, Texas on Thursday, July 31, 2014. Federal officials gave a tour of the South Texas immigration detention facility that has been retooled to house adults with children who have been apprehended at the border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Congress leaves Obama holding the burden of border children

In a last gasp of futility, the House and Senate failed to get their border bills passed Thursday, and lawmakers heading into a five-week recess are leaving President Obama with no extra funding and no additional powers to grapple with a surge of children in the U.S. illegally.

July 31, 2014
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents work at a processing facility, Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Brownsville,Texas. CPB provided media tours Wednesday of two locations in Brownsville and Nogales, Ariz. that have been central to processing the more than 47,000 unaccompanied children who have entered the country illegally since Oct. 1.  (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)

Border agents cleared of civil rights complaints from illegal immigrant children

Internal investigators have already dismissed most complaints of civil rights violations against immigration agents handling the surge of illegal immigrant children on the border, the Homeland Security Department inspector general said in a new report Thursday that details near-heroic efforts agents and officers are making.

July 31, 2014