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Sam Knight - page 43

Sam Knight has 859 articles published.

High Court in Philippines Upholds “Pivot to Asia” Agreement with U.S. Military

The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday declared legal a defense agreement that the country signed in 2014 with the United States. The accord, which had never been implemented, passed judicial review in a 10-4 vote after the high court ruled that the government of President Benigno Aquino didn’t require prior legislative consent. When the agreement was signed, President Obama said that the agreement would grant the US military “greater access to Filipino facilities, airfields and ports, which would remain under the control of the Philippines.”… Keep Reading

Obama Admin Backs Nikki Haley Healthcare Deregulation On Eve of Her State of the Union Response

The Obama administration told South Carolina’s Republican Gov. Nikki Haley on Monday that it supports a healthcare policy reform initiative she has pushed. The Justice Department Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission told Haley it agrees with her calls to deregulate the state’s healthcare licensing scheme. “South Carolina lawmakers have the opportunity to help health care consumers in the state,” Antitrust Division chief Bill Baer said. “[Certificate of need] laws raise the cost of investment in new health care services and can shield incumbents from… Keep Reading

Post-Recession First: Discontent Index Dips Below Century Mark in Oct.

The District Sentinel Discontent Index fell below 100 points in October for the first time since before the Great Recession. The measure dropped to 99.72, down from 101.79 in September and 102.05 in August. The decrease was caused by improvements in the labor and housing markets. Housing Discontent and and Labor Discontent respectively fell by 2.33 points and 1 point. Driving the decline to the housing subcomponent was another sharp drop in the percentage of seriously delinquent FHA-backed mortgages—down to 5.76 percent from 6 percent… Keep Reading

Report Details Nearly Two Decades of State Department Transparency Woes

The Office of Secretary of State going back to Bill Clinton’s presidency is routinely failing to comply with the Freedom of Information Act, according to a department inspector general report published Thursday. The staff charged with responding to FOIA inquiries about America’s top envoy has routinely conducted insufficient searches and failed to respond to requests within the 20-day time limit established by the law. The inspector general noted the Department’s Executive Secretariat (S/ES) “took four and one-half times as long” as the average federal government… Keep Reading

Additional FOIA Exemption for the Pentagon Likely This Year

Congress appears ready to grant the Pentagon another exemption to the Freedom of Information Act, according to internal Defense Department documents. The exemption, which would shield unclassified but non-public “military tactics, techniques and procedures” from disclosure was proposed last year, but was kept out of the 2016 defense policy bill by lawmakers, the memo noted, “due to jurisdictional concerns and process issues (but not content issues).” National security researcher Steven Aftergood, who reported on the “planning documents,” said Wednesday that the administration is going to… Keep Reading

Sessions: “Strange and Dangerous Cults” Justify Religious Immigration Bans

Four Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted against a resolution calling on the United States to not bar individuals from entering based on their religion. The measure in particular drew the ire of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala) who launched into a 25 minute-long speech that described “many” religions as “strange and dangerous cults and criminal organizations.” “Many religions go broader than personal relationships with God. They include a belief in the ordering of government, of what the law should be and what public policy should be,” Sessions said.… Keep Reading

Harry Reid: Scalia Spouting “Racist Ideas from the Bench”

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) on Thursday morning called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a peddler of racist ideas. Reid said Scalia’s comments on Wednesday, during oral arguments on an affirmative action case, were “racist in application, if not intent.” “It is deeply disturbing to hear a Supreme Court Justice endorse racist ideas from the bench of the nation’s highest court,” Reid said. The conservative justice had questioned the merits of University of Texas admissions policies designed to give historically-marginalized African-Americans a minimum of… Keep Reading

“Safe Zone” Intervention Could See Syrian Refugees “Expelled” from Turkey, Europe, and Elsewhere, Carter Cautions

A leading Obama administration official warned that a popular proposal for humanitarian intervention in Syria could lead to refugees being forced back into the war-torn country. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said that the creation of “safe zones” inside of Syria could result in people being “expelled, so to speak, into this zone.” He noted the possibility of forced repatriation among a number of reasons why the Pentagon isn’t cavalier about the idea. “I think it would be undesirable if it became a place into which people… Keep Reading

In Conference, McCaul Fighting to Keep CISA Info from Pentagon, Intel Community

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is holding up a bicameral, bipartisan agreement on cybersecurity legislation, saying it gives too much power to American spies. The House Homeland Security Committee wants an ongoing conference committee deal on three bills, including the Cyber Information Sharing Act (CISA), to ensure that data gleaned as a result of their passage is handled primarily by the Department of Homeland Security–an entity outside of the Pentagon’s purview. “McCaul and his staff [have] been adamant that all private sector sharing should go through… Keep Reading

Feinstein Reacts to San Bernardino By Reintroducing “Broad” Social Media Informant Bill

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) is planning this week on reintroducing legislation that would compel social media companies to inform federal officials of “terrorists” using their services. Feinstein told reporters that she felt the move was necessary in the wake of the Dec. 2 shootings in San Bernardino, Calif. “This is the largest attack since 9/11,” she told The San Francisco Chronicle late last week. “We are in a different age.” “I’m all for freedom of speech, but it doesn’t mean encouraging terrorism,” she also remarked.… Keep Reading

Privately, Geithner Called Fannie/Freddie Elimination A “Bank-centric Model,” Said it “Benefits Larger Institutions”

Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged in 2011 that a push to reduce the federal government’s involvement in the mortgage insurance industry is overwhelmingly Wall Street-friendly and potentially harmful to consumers. Geithner then described the call to wind-down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac using different language the Department eventually employed when assessing the proposal, according to a memo published Monday by The New York Times. “The bank-centric model reduces distortion in the allocation of credit and preference for housing,” he noted. “However, this model benefits… Keep Reading

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