Valerie Richardson

Tax rates on cellphone service hit record high: report

Forking over $399 for an iPhone is only the beginning: Wireless customers pay an all-time high of nearly 18 percent on average in combined taxes and fees on their cellphone bills.

November 16, 2015

Aaron Allmon verdict deals blow to military’s high-profile attack on sex-related offenses

As Air Force missions go, the prosecution of Tech. Sgt. Aaron D. Allmon II on explosive sexual-harassment charges ran into turbulence and wound up in a nosedive.

November 15, 2015

Republicans call on Obama to start defeating Islamic State

Frustrated Republicans called Sunday on the White House to get serious about fighting Middle East terrorism in the wake of a series of attacks, culminating in the massacre in Paris.

November 15, 2015

Bernie Sanders, Democratic presidential candidate: Terrorist attacks linked to climate change

Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders doubled down Sunday on his insistence that climate change leads to terrorism, a connection he called "pretty obvious."

November 15, 2015

Marco Rubio: Hillary Clinton’s refusal to blame ‘radical Islam’ like refusing to blame Nazis in WWII

Marco Rubio said Sunday that Hillary Rodham Clinton's refusal to agree that the United States is at war with radical Islam would be "like saying we were not at war with the Nazis because we were afraid to offend some Germans."

November 15, 2015

Obama still plans to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees despite Paris terrorist attacks

The White House says it won't let its plans to bring Syrian refugees to the U.S. be derailed by Friday's terrorist attack in Paris, with a top official insisting Sunday that American authorities know how to weed out potential problems within the refugee community.

November 15, 2015

Aaron Allmon, Air Force photographer, cleared of most charges in sexual-harassment ‘witch-hunt’

An award-winning combat photographer who once faced up to 130 years in prison for sexual harassment may avoid jail altogether after being cleared Friday of the most devastating charges against him.

November 14, 2015

Aaron Allmon witness testimony challenges military sex assault claims by 4 women

An attorney for Tech. Sgt. Aaron D. Allmon II ripped Air Force prosecutors Thursday for taking the military's war on sexual assault "too far" by essentially criminalizing boorish behavior.

November 12, 2015

Aaron Allmon II on trial for sexual harassment at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota

Tech. Sgt. Aaron D. Allmon II listened stoically in court Wednesday as three female former co-workers described feeling uncomfortable, even violated, by his behavior toward them. One airman testified that he touched her on the thigh to get a better look at the tattoo peeking out from under her shorts. Another said he put his hands on her face and kissed her forehead after learning she was going through a painful divorce.

November 11, 2015

University of Missouri resignations fuel backlash as campus hit with more turmoil

It was another day of upheaval Tuesday at the University of Missouri at Columbia, but not everyone was on board with social-justice protesters who succeeded Monday in toppling the president and chancellor.

November 10, 2015

University of Missouri president, chancellor forced out for failure to combat ‘systemic racism’

The University of Missouri president and chancellor stepped down Monday after weeks of unrest over ambiguous accusations that they had been insufficiently responsive to racial "oppression" on campus.

November 9, 2015

Initiative to replace Obamacare with $25B ColoradoCare qualifies for 2016 ballot

A landmark measure that would replace Colorado's Obamacare exchange with universal health-care coverage--at an estimated cost of $25 billion--qualified Monday for the statewide November 2016 ballot.

November 9, 2015

Yale, Cornell, Syracuse, Vassar, Oberlin administrators agree to rip up Constitution

Conservatives have long accused academics of shredding the Constitution, figuratively speaking, but a Project Veritas sting operation recently caught them doing it literally.

November 8, 2015

Six Democrats picked to investigate Planned Parenthood took $81,000 from its PAC

The six Democrats named this week to the House Select Investigative Panel looking into Planned Parenthood's fetal-tissue practices have received more than $81,000 from PACs affiliated with the organization.

November 6, 2015

EPA email trail reveals Alaska Pebble Mine plot

It didn't take long for Thursday's House committee hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency's role in blocking the Pebble Mine to start sounding less like a congressional probe and more like the plot of a Michael Crichton thriller.

November 5, 2015

Voters reject liberal social proposals, candidates; Obama blame denied

Voters hit the stop button on the advance of social liberalism Tuesday in some high-profile races, rejecting a transgender discrimination ban in Houston and marijuana legalization in Ohio, in off-year elections that left conservatives claiming more victories.

November 4, 2015

Pebble Mine rejection by EPA was from rigging, collusion: report

The Environmental Protection Agency is coming under increased scrutiny over accusations that it rigged its own review process to block the Pebble Mine project in Alaska.

November 4, 2015

Annise Parker, Houston mayor, rips defeat of transgender ‘bathroom bill,’ predicts economic backlash

Houston Mayor Annise Parker wasn't exactly gracious in defeat, accusing those who opposed the city's transgender-rights ordinance of "deliberate lies" and predicting the city's economy would suffer as a result of the measure's repeal.

November 4, 2015

Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco sanctuary champion, tossed out as sheriff in re-election bid

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi lost his re-election bid late Tuesday to challenger former Chief Deputy Vicki Hennessy after an uproar over his sanctuary city policy, which was blamed for the death of a woman in July at the hands of an illegal immigrant.

November 4, 2015

Election night: Conservatives win as voters elect GOP governors, reject ‘bathroom bill,’ marijuana

In the election races across the country Tuesday, Houston voters rejected a transgender "bathroom bill," Ohioans torched legal marijuana, and Republicans captured both gubernatorial contest races at stake.

November 3, 2015