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Articles by Stephen Dinan

Customs and Border Protection Officer Rebecca Rhinehart asks a passenger about something in his suitcase at Washington Dulles International Airport. Customs officers search for illegal drugs, plants, animal products and food items. (The Washington Times)

Court curbs laptop searches at U.S. border

The Border Patrol cannot confiscate or download every laptop or electronic device brought into the U.S., a federal appeals court said, ruling that people have an expectation their data are private and that the government must have "reasonable suspicion" before it starts to snoop.

March 8, 2013
**FILE** Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson (Associated Press)

Senator: EPA lied about using private emails

Environmental Protection Agency officials lied when they said a top official used his private email only once for public business, a Republican senator said Friday as he released copies of several emails in which that official conducted business with the EPA's director and with outside groups.

March 8, 2013
**FILE** John Brennan, then-nominee for CIA director, testifies Feb. 7, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. (Associated Press)

Senate confirms CIA director Brennan after Paul gets assurances

Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday his 13-hour filibuster was a success after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. sent a letter saying the Obama administration does not think it is legal to use drones to kill non-combatant Americans on U.S. soil.

March 7, 2013
Rep. Tom Cole, Oklahoma Republican (Associated Press) ** FILE **

House reaffirms sequesters in latest funding measure

With deadline fatigue setting in, a bipartisan House voted Wednesday to fund the federal government through the end of the fiscal year, which would head off the potential for a government shutdown later this month.

March 6, 2013
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky challenged the Republican Party establishment to win his seat in 2010. He started a nearly 13-hour filibuster Wednesday, demanding assurances that the Obama administration would not use drones in the U.S. to kill terrorist suspects. (Associated Press)

After almost 13 hours, Rand Paul ends Brennan filibuster

After years in the shadows, the administration's secret drone program burst into very public view Wednesday with lawmakers grilling the attorney general over legal justification for targeted killings and Sen. Rand Paul launching an old-style one-man filibuster to demand answers from President Obama.

March 6, 2013
President Obama announces in the East Room of the White House in Washington March 4, 2013, he will nominate, Gina McCarthy to head the EPA; MIT physics professor Ernest Moniz for Energy Secretary; and Walmart Foundation President Sylvia Mathews Burwell to head the Budget Office. (Associated Press)

Email tells feds to make sequester as painful as promised

The White House announced Tuesday that it is canceling tours of the president's home for the foreseeable future as the sequester spending cuts begin to bite and the administration makes good on its warnings of painful decisions.

March 5, 2013
**FILE** Demonstrators carry signs during a rally on Capitol Hill in Washington on Sept. 5, 2006, in support of a bill to ban horse slaughter for human consumption. (Associated Press)

Horse meat slaughter poised to return to U.S.

Animal rights groups are bracing for the federal government to license the first horse-meat slaughter plant in the U.S. since 2007, criticizing the Obama administration Friday for moving ahead with the application process.

March 1, 2013
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada (right) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, face reporters Thursday on Capitol Hill to talk about the automatic government spending cuts that take effect Friday. (Associated Press)

Even at 2.3%, sequester cuts can cause some pain

In theory, it shouldn't be tough to trim 2.3 percent from the federal budget — the size of the sequesters, compared with the overall budget. But the way Congress and President Obama wrote the sequester cuts taking effect Friday means that some deep pain will be inevitable.

February 28, 2013
**FILE** Danny Werfel (Associated Press)

Federal bonuses are early casualty in sequestration

The White House budget office has told federal agencies to slow down new hiring, curtail travel and conferences, and to stop doling out bonuses unless absolutely required to by law, according to a new memo released late Wednesday.

February 28, 2013
** FILE ** Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. (Associated Press)

House refuses Obama’s demand to rush immigration reform

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee laid out a go-slow approach on immigration Wednesday, saying he doesn't think having President Obama write a bill and demand that Congress vote on it would be successful.

February 27, 2013
**FILE** Illegal immigrants prepare to enter a bus after being processed at the U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector headquarters on Aug. 9, 2012, in Tucson, Ariz. (Associated Press)

White House: ICE to blame for release of illegals

The White House said Wednesday it had nothing to do with the decision by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release immigrants awaiting deportation back into the country in order to save money ahead of the looming budget "sequesters."

February 27, 2013
**FILE** Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel testifies Jan. 31, 2013, before the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Associated Press)

Hagel wins confirmation to be new defense secretary

Chuck Hagel survived a rocky process and won Senate confirmation to become the next secretary of defense, surmounting a fizzled Republican filibuster on Tuesday — though he takes office chastened and potentially damaged.

February 26, 2013