A NEWS CO-OP IN DC SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE

Author

Sam Knight - page 45

Sam Knight has 859 articles published.

After Paris, FCC Chair Seizes on PS4 ISIL Reports to Call for Broadened Wiretap Law

The chair of the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday urged Congress to expand the definition of “lawful intercept” in response to Friday’s Islamic State (ISIL) attacks in Paris. Tom Wheeler said that “things have moved on” since 1994, when the legislative branch passed the relevant wiretapping statute—the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA)–and urged a revisiting of the issue in light of media reports about ISIL communications methods. “You know, you read in the press that they were using Playstation 4 games to communicate on, which… Keep Reading

Rape Allegations Highlight Pentagon Callousness After GAO Criticizes Military’s Take on Fighting Sexual Assault

The Pentagon’s inspector general told a lawmaker one of his constituents was ill-treated by Army investigators after alleging she was sexually assaulted by a reservist officer. The revelation came a week after the Government Accountability Office said the military fails to identify factors that breed a unique rape culture in the services. In a report initiated by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) published last week, the Pentagon Inspector general said the Virginia resident’s charges were not sufficiently investigated and rebuked the US Army Criminal Investigation Command… Keep Reading

After Paris, GOP Lawmakers Rally to Block Obama Syrian Refugee Plans

Some Congressional Republicans on Monday responded to Friday’s Islamic State (ISIL) terrorist attacks in Paris by taking aim at the Obama administration’s plans to admit refugees fleeing the brutal ongoing civil war in Syria. Describing the sanctuary proposals as a threat to Americans, House Judiciary Committee chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Senate judiciary immigration subcommittee chair Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)–both prior critics of the plans–called on the White House to but the brakes on its humanitarian initiative. “When will President Obama take [ISIL] threats seriously, as… Keep Reading

Obama: Invading ISIL Would Be “Mistake” After Paris Massacre; U.S. to Ratchet Up Air War, Oil Targeting

President Obama said Monday that the deployment of a large ground force to combat the Islamic State (ISIL) would be “a mistake” in response to the group’s wave of shocking terrorist attacks in Paris. “If you have a handful of people who don’t mind dying, they can kill a lot of people,” he said. “What happens when there’s a terrorist attack generated from Yemen? Do we then send troops into there? A strategy has to be one that can be sustained,” he added. The President… Keep Reading

“Cromnibus” Put Taxpayers On Wall Street Hook for $9.7 Trillion

House oversight committee ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have concluded after an almost year-long investigation that last year’s eleventh hour budget deal left taxpayers this year insuring Wall Street bets worth about $9.7 trillion. The two lawmakers said in a letter published Tuesday that their conclusion was based on estimates offered by two major financial regulators, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Warren and Cummings noted, however, that an impact assessment… Keep Reading

Senators Denounce E.U. Israeli-Settlement Labels In Letter Treating Parts of West Bank as Annexed

Thirty six US senators suggested Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations with the European Union could be complicated if the EU moves forward with a product-labeling policy to highlight goods made in Jewish-only settlements in Occupied Palestine. The bipartisan group on Monday, led by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to EU head envoy Federica Mogherini in a message that effectively treated wide swaths of the West Bank as Israeli territory. “Differentiating between products made by Israeli companies creates a… Keep Reading

McCaskill Shows Solidarity With Mizzou Anti-Racist Movement

UPDATE: Mizzou president Tim Wolfe announced his resignation, shortly after this article was published. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said she supports students and faculty at the University of Missouri who this week are staging walkouts to protest the school’s handling of numerous allegations of racial abuse. McCaskill said Monday that she is “proud of the young people on this campus have decided they’re going to make a stand.” “It’s not their perception. There is systemic racism,” she said on CNN. “This administration has not prioritized some… Keep Reading

MSF Probes Kunduz, Asks If U.S. Thinks Hospital Was Fair Game

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) President Joanne Liu asked if its hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan had “lost its protected status” in the view of US policymakers, after the organization conducted an inquiry into the American airstrikes that leveled the facility, killing over two dozen people. MSF concluded in a report published Thursday that the hospital had been treating wounded combatants from all sides, and that its neutrality had been respected prior to the Oct. 3 attack. “What we know is that we were running a hospital… Keep Reading

TPP Malaysia Trafficking Report Inquiry Pivots to Kerry

Secretary of State John Kerry might soon be summoned to Capitol Hill to answer questions about the Trans-Pacific Partnership corrupting key elements of a consequential annual department paper. Lawmakers in a foreign affairs subcommittee hearing on Wednesday blasted this year’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report before department officials who claimed to be unable to divulge institutional thinking on country rankings. The information was sought widely by members of the panel and other lawmakers who were invited to the proceedings. “As you yourself indicated, we don’t… Keep Reading

Fed Chair Pressured To Complete Long Overdue Rules On Banker Pay Incentives

Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday that it was “very challenging” to implement a Dodd-Frank rule that regulators were ordered to formulate to stop the encouragement of risky behavior through pay incentives. Yellen noted that multiple agencies have been “involved in trying to come up with this,” and said other actions taken by the Fed have stopped destabilizing activity. She was asked about the lack of rule-making during a House Financial Services Committee hearing by Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) in an exchange that got… Keep Reading

Ex-NSA Chief: CISA Weak, Should Give Pentagon Info at “Network Speed”

Former National Security Agency head Keith Alexander said Congress should grant the Pentagon the same sort of surveillance powers it is seeking to bestow upon the Department of Homeland Security in the Cyber Information Sharing Act (CISA). On Tuesday, Alexander urged the House and Senate to grant the Defense Department access to information CISA will allow DHS to glean from Americans at “network speed.” “When there’s a military response required from actions, that has to go immediately to the Defense Department,” he told Senate Armed… Keep Reading

1 … 43 44 45 46 47 … 79
Go to Top