March 23 2018 5:45pm The Toronto Zoo says goodbye to the giant pandas who have been with us here for the last five years. As they make their way to Calgary for a five-year visit, we look back at some of the warm and fuzzy panda highlights. ‘ }); } else { var rel_id = svp.releaseInfo.contentId+””; if( typeof gnca_social_share_collection =…
I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded. Powered by WPeMatico
There has been a lot of news this week, and it’s hard to keep track of it all. Including White House staff shake-ups — President Trump is on to his third national security adviser — and major trade action against China, here are six of the biggest stories driving American politics this week. (And some links to other stories if you want to read further.) Congress approved a government spending bill. The president signed it, but only after reversing…
Well here it is, all 2,232 budget-busting pages. The House already started votes on it. The Senate is expected to soon. No one has read it. Congress is broken… pic.twitter.com/izvJlUEgUM Powered by WPeMatico
In a rambling and disjointed statement from the Diplomatic Reception Room, Mr. Trump called the process that yielded the legislation “this ridiculous situation,” and he warned, “I will never sign another bill like this again — I’m not going to do it again.” The dramatic denouement for the spending bill, which drew fury from Mr. Trump’s core supporters, left both political parties in Washington reeling and some of his own aides bewildered about the president’s contradictory actions. Yet it…
The Pentagon requested, and Congress enacted, pay increases smaller than the index’s growth rate from 2014 through 2016. But both before and after that time — from 2011 to 2013 and 2017 to 2018 — pay for troops rose at the exact rate as the index grew. Mr. Trump’s proposed budgets for 2017 and 2018 had requested pay increases of 1.6 percent and 2.1 percent — rates that were lower than the statutory formula, and that were ultimately ignored…
“You have to be pretty sophisticated,” said Dr. Arthur L. Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University who has been working with companies, including Johnson & Johnson, to develop better early-access programs. But the bill passed this week, he said, “does somewhere between nothing and absolutely nothing to help you.” The bill’s passage represented a victory for proponents of “right to try,” a campaign championed by Vice President Mike Pence and initiated by the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian think…
China is the United States’ third-largest export market, and a top destination for agricultural goods harvested in Trump strongholds. Beijing said that it would impose a 15 percent tariff on goods like fresh fruit, nuts, wine and seamless steel pipes, and that it was considering a second round of levies, of 25 percent, on other goods, including aluminum. Why the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum? Mr. Trump campaigned on the promise to resurrect American steel mills, and vowed…
Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns. Powered by WPeMatico
The low-income housing tax credit was created in 1986 as part of Congress’s last sweeping tax overhaul and has grown into a $9 billion-a-year program. It funds virtually all of the nation’s subsidized rental housing and created a sprawling industry of affordable-housing developers that now makes up a vital piece of the safety net — especially in high-cost cities like New York, San Francisco and Seattle. The program has been increasingly important in the aftermath of the Great Recession….
