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** FILE ** Volunteer Stella Chambers, center, explains some of the Affordable Health Care Act to visitors to a health care coverage registration site hosted by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers, Monday, March 31, 2014, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Appeals court upholds Obamacare tax as constitutional

A key appeals court on Tuesday ruled that despite including a tax, Obamacare doesn't violate the Constitution's requirement that all tax bills originate in the House of Representatives, giving the Obama administration another health care win.

July 29, 2014
Various immigrant rights groups held separate demonstrations and carried different messages outside the White House on Monday, indicating splintering within the movement. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Border surge puts Obama legacy on immigration at stake

Immigrant rights groups suddenly find themselves playing political defense, pushing back against proposals to speed up deportations of people surging across the border illegally even while advocates plead with the White House to take politically risky executive action to halt deportations in the interior.

July 28, 2014
A border patrol vehicle stands guard at a section of collapsed fence just west of the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales, Ariz., Sunday, July 27, 2014, after severe storms in southern Arizona over the weekend knocked down a chunk of the metal border fence that divides Mexico and the U.S. Rain runoff from the storms destroyed about 60 feet worth of fence and caused damage to homes just north of it. (AP Photo/Nogales International, Jonathan Clark)

Smugglers, rainstorm combine to poke holes in border fence

A rainstorm knocked over part of the border fence in Arizona this weekend, even as smugglers were cutting their way through another part of the fence less than a few miles away — leaving a hole big enough to drive a vehicle through, according to the Nogales International.

July 28, 2014
U.S. Air Force Capt. Philip Gunn participates in a flyover during the internment ceremony of Brig. Gen. Robinson Risner, Jan. 23, 2014, at Arlington National Cemetery. Risner was the Air Force's 20th ace and survived more than seven years of captivity as a prisoner during the Vietnam War. Gunn is a 336th Fighter Squadron weapons system officer assigned to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. (Courtesy photo)

Thousands of Defense Dept. employees behind on taxes: GAO

It turns out that even having high security clearance doesn't mean you are up to date on paying your taxes: the government's chief watchdog said Monday that 26,000 Defense Department workers and contractors with high clearances are in arrears.

July 28, 2014
Undocumented immigrant leaders protest along Pennsylvania Avenue near the entrance to White House on July 28, 2014. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Illegal immigrants demand representation in White House meetings

Illegal immigrants plan to picketed the White House Monday afternoon, calling on fellow immigrant-rights advocacy groups to refuse to meet with the Obama administration until President Obama specifically includes illegal immigrants in any future meetings.

July 28, 2014

Lois Lerner emails reveal gaping open-records loophole

The Lois G. Lerner emails released this month revealed a potentially huge loophole in federal open-records practices when an IRS tech staffer acknowledged that the agency doesn't regularly store — and never checks — instant message chats as official government records.

July 20, 2014
From left, Raul Amador Sanchez, 7, from Georgia, Alexandra Diaz, 9, and her brother Andy Diaz, 7, both from Baltimore, Md., hold up signs as they join their parent during a news conference of immigrant families and children’s advocates responding to the President Barack Obama’s response to the crisis of unaccompanied children and families illegally entering the US, Monday, July 7, 2014, on the steps of St. John's Church in Washington. A top Obama administration official says no one, not even children trying to escape violent countries, can illegally enter the United States without eventually facing deportation proceedings. But Homeland Security Sec Jeh Johnson basically acknowledged Sunday that such proceedings might be long delayed, and he said that coping with floods of unaccompanied minors crossing the border is a legal and humanitarian dilemma for the US. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Two-thirds of illegal immigrant children approved for asylum: report

Nearly two-thirds of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children requesting asylum this year have had their initial applications approved, the House Judiciary Committee reported Friday in data that suggests those kids surging across the border who ask to stay will likely be able to gain admission to the U.S.

July 18, 2014
Speaker of the House John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, said he can't envision a U.S. response to the border crisis that doesn't involving speeding up the process of returning unaccompanied Central American children home. (Associated Press)

Boehner: No bill on border surge

House Speaker John A. Boehner was pessimistic Thursday that Congress will pass a bill to address the surge of illegal immigrant children before lawmakers head home for a monthlong August vacation, as the gap between Democrats and Republicans grows wider.

July 17, 2014
FILE - This June 18, 2014, file photo, detainees sleep in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection, processing facility in Brownsville,Texas. Immigration courts backlogged by years of staffing shortages and tougher enforcement face an even more daunting challenge since tens of thousands of Central Americans began arriving on the U.S. border fleeing violence back home. For years, children from Central America traveling alone and immigrants who prove they have a credible fear of returning home have been entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool, File)

Overwhelmed feds putting illegal immigrant children at risk

While much of the focus in the illegal immigrant surge has been on border security, the federal government does a poor job of ensuring relatives who claim children who enter the U.S. illegally are giving them the care they need, according to internal audits that suggest problems remain despite years of warnings.

July 16, 2014
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy said the agency is considering a ban on certain hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), used in many industrial and consumer products, as part of the Obama administration's climate change efforts. The Clean Air Act allows the agency to restrict certain pollutants if there are available alternatives, though no HFC alternatives have been suggested. (Associated Press)

EPA showed no bias in records-request decisions: IG

The EPA's inspector general concluded that the agency did not show bias in denying fee waivers on open-records requests from conservative-leaning groups while approving those from liberal-leaning groups, according to an audit released Wednesday.

July 16, 2014
President Obama reads briefing material while meeting with advisers inside his cabin at Camp David in 2012. Compared with President Bush, seen right with first lady Laura Bush on a 4-mile walk, Mr. Obama seldom uses the presidential retreat. On weekends, he often opts to play golf. The Bushes founds the grounds to be a good place for family. (WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS)

Obama may be misreading 2008 deportation law, report shows

The Obama administration may be misreading a 2008 law when it says it has to release most illegal immigrant children from Central America who are surging across the border, according to a new report being released Wednesday by the Center for Immigration Studies.

July 16, 2014
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's declaration that "The border is secure" signals congressional gridlock over tens of thousands of children and families who have surged across the border this year. (Associated Press)

Harry Reid declares border ‘secure’

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pronounced the southwestern border "secure" Tuesday, rejecting a bipartisan push to strengthen enforcement and swiftly deport many of the children surging across the border illegally.

July 15, 2014
President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about the economy at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Va., Tuesday, July 15, 2014. The first major donations to President Barack Obama's presidential library are rolling in from New York and Chicago, two cities that are competing vigorously to host the future library. Since launching in February, the Barack Obama Foundation has raised at least $850,000 from four major donors, the group said Tuesday. The foundation is voluntarily disclosing donations of more than $200, but only in broad dollar ranges. The nonprofit declined to say how much it has raised in total. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Obama executive actions seen as threat to Constitution

A prominent law professor and avowed supporter of the Obama White House will tell the House on Wednesday that the president has created one of the biggest constitutional crises in the country's history and will endorse House Republicans' effort to sue to rein him in.

July 15, 2014
President Barack Obama, flanked by National Economic Council Director Jeff Zients, left, and senior White House Adviser Valerie Jarrett, meets with with company executives and their small business suppliers to talk about the economy, Friday, July 11, 2014, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Debt from Obama administration will lead to big federal deficits: CBO

Budget cuts and tax increases over the last few years have helped improve the federal government's financial picture for now — but over the next few decades big deficits will return, deepened partly by all of the debt racked up over the last seven years, the Congressional Budget Office reported Tuesday.

July 15, 2014
Ronald Robinson, U.S. Army Ret., senior veterans' service representative, AFGE Local 520, testifies to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs hearing to review the Veterans Benefits Administrations progress in achieving VAs goal of ending its disability compensation claims backlog by 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, July 14, 2014. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Hundreds of millions in bogus claims at VA

The VA's rush to cut a huge backlog of claims from disabled veterans has forced it to cut corners elsewhere, and yet the department is still botching about one out of every 10 claims decisions, top officials and whistleblowers testified to Congress on Monday, signaling that the problems go far beyond the hospital wait times that have plagued it.

July 14, 2014