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Seen, Heard & Whispered: Birthright citizenship; Pulte and FISA; Ja Rule and Don Jr.'s club

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Articles by Stephen Dinan

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell E. Issa prepares to leave as ranking member Rep. Elijah E. Cummings begins his statement Wednesday at a hearing at which former Internal Revenue Service official Lois G. Lerner invoked her constitutional right not to incriminate herself. (associated press)

House defeats Democrats’ attempt to rebuke Issa

Republicans circled around Rep. Darrell Issa Thursday, rejecting a Democratic effort to censure the House's top investigator after he cut off the microphone of the top Democrat on the oversight committee Wednesday during a heated hearing.

March 6, 2014
**FILE** Demonstrators rally in front of the White House in Washington on July 24, 2013, calling for immigration reform. The demonstrators urged President Obama to use executive authority to expand the policy that allowed hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children to remain. (Associated Press)

Obama declares himself ‘champion in chief’ for immigration

President Obama on Thursday tweeted that he is the "champion in chief for comprehensive immigration reform" — a move activists saw as an admission that he's suffering from his administration's record-setting level of deportations.

March 6, 2014
**FILE** Debo Adegbile, special counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, speaks with reporters outside the Supreme Court in Washington on Feb. 27, 2013, after arguments in the Shelby County, Ala., v. Holder voting rights case. The justices are hearing arguments in a challenge to the part of the Voting Rights Act that forces places with a history of discrimination, mainly in the Deep South, to get approval before they make any change in the way elections are held. (Associated Press)

Senate blocks Obama’s civil rights nominee

Senators blocked President Obama's nominee to lead the Justice Department's civil rights division Wednesday in a bipartisan filibuster, with opponents saying his history defending a convicted cop-killer in the Supreme Court made him a poor choice.

March 5, 2014
The attorney for former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner says his client will continue to assert her rights not to testify about the IRS targeting of conservative groups. (Associated Press)

House GOP considers contempt of Congress charge for Lerner

Top House Republicans signaled Wednesday that Lois G. Lerner, the former IRS official at the center at the tea party targeting scandal, will eventually have to testify or be held in contempt of Congress after she once again refused to answer lawmakers' questions.

March 5, 2014
Thomas M. Harrigan, deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, told the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations on Tuesday that easing laws governing marijuana threatens U.S. institutions. (Associated Press)

DEA: Drug cartels look to capitalize on legal marijuana laws

Drug cartels are already trying to take advantage of the Obama administration's new rules allowing banks to do business with marijuana shops in Colorado and Washington, a top Drug Enforcement Administration official testified to Congress on Tuesday.

March 4, 2014
Copies of President Barack Obama's proposed fiscal 2015 budget are set out for distribution by the Senate Budget Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 4, 2014. President Obama is unwrapping a nearly $4 trillion budget that gives Democrats an election-year playbook for fortifying the economy and bolstering Americans' incomes. It also underscores how pressure has faded to launch bold, new attacks on federal deficits. (Associated Press)

Obama budget raises spending, taxes

Saying he's optimistic the economy and the government's fiscal picture have finally turned the corner five years into his tenure, President Obama announced a $3.9 trillion 2015 budget Tuesday that calls for tax hikes and a $60 billion boost in spending next year.

March 4, 2014

Obama budget likely to be political document

The budget President Obama will release Tuesday bows more to political realities than it does to the government's fiscal picture, as the White House looks to do no harm to fellow Democrats in the run-up to November's elections.

March 3, 2014
Sally Jewell

National parks shutdown cost local economies $400 million

When federal officials closed national parks during last year's government shutdown, it meant nearly 8 million fewer visits to the parks and cost local communities more than $400 million in economic activity, the National Park Service said Monday.

March 3, 2014

Selling Hillary Clinton: Papers reveal advice, ‘fans’

As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton and her team had a deep preoccupation with the press, repeatedly searching for ways to soften her image and taking stock of who her friends in the media might be, according to documents released last week from her private papers.

March 2, 2014
First lady Michelle Obama talks at the Jessie Trice Community Health Care Center in Miami, Wednesday, March 5, 2014, to highlight the work that hospitals, doctors and clinics are doing to educate their patients about the Affordable Care Act and how patients can get insurance. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

1M kids stop school lunch due to Michelle Obama’s food standards

The federal government's changes to school lunch menus have been disastrous, causing problems for cafeterias trying to comply with the rules and leaving the menu so expensive or unpalatable that more than 1 million students have stopped buying lunch.

February 27, 2014
Ousted IRS chief Steve Miller, right, and J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, are sworn in on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Friday, May 17, 2013, prior to testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) practice of targeting applicants for tax-exempt status based on political leanings. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Official’s testimony reveals IRS planned crackdown rules in 2012

The IRS's new proposal to crack down on nonprofits was in the works a year before the tea party targeting scandal broke, according to a Treasury Department official who told congressional investigators it was spurred by pressure from outside parties.

February 27, 2014
** FILE ** House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, holds a Jan. 23, 2013, news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington to discuss the reintroduction of the Violence Against Women Act. (Associated Press)

Pelosi: I’m not retiring

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the looming retirements of many of her top lieutenants doesn't mean she will be leaving soon.

February 27, 2014
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress on Wednesday that he wants to keep the department's drones focused on border security. He did not rule out, though, the possibility of loaning to drones out to other governmental agencies. (Associated Press)

Jeh Johnson wants Homeland Security drones focused on border

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress Wednesday that he wants to try to keep the department's drones focused on border security — though he didn't rule out lending them out to other law enforcement agencies for serious investigations.

February 26, 2014
Internal Revenue Service (IRS( Commissioner John Koskinen arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014, to testify before the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee hearing on the IRS. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

New IRS rules on tea party won’t be ready before election

The IRS said Wednesday its new proposal to crack down on tea party and other nonprofit groups won't be ready before the November elections — even as House Republicans voted to halt the entire process for the next year, arguing the tax agency hasn't even learned the lessons of its previous problems.

February 26, 2014