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Articles by Stephen Dinan

**FILE** Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher smiles with satisfaction as President Ronald Reagan makes a farewell speech June 9, 1982, outside her Downing Street office in London prior to his departure for Bonn. (Associated Press)

Margaret Thatcher a ‘fiercely loyal’ and tough ally of the U.S.

Margaret Thatcher captured Americans’ hearts and minds in a way few other foreign leaders have done, and much of that was because of the symbiotic relationship she had with President Reagan — a relationship that in many ways mirrored the storied “special” friendship between the two countries.

April 8, 2013
**FILE** Gina McCarthy, Assistant Administrator with the Environmental Protection Agency, speaks at a climate workshop sponsored by the Climate Center at Georgetown University in Washington on Feb. 21, 2013. (Associated Press)

EPA promises to retrain employees to follow open-records laws

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that it will retrain all employees on how to comply with open-records laws and acknowledged that it needs to do better at storing instant-message communications, after the agency came under severe fire from members of Congress who say it appears to have broken those laws.

April 8, 2013
**FILE** U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (Associated Press)

‘D.C. Groper’ deported to Nicaragua

A man who police said terrorized a tony Washington neighborhood last year by groping women in broad daylight was deported Wednesday by the Obama administration.

April 3, 2013
** FILE ** Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. (Associated Press)

Sen. Schumer’s prison lobby ties alarm immigrant advocates

Immigration rights advocates are turning their fire on one of their own champions, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, demanding he stop taking donations from lobbyists for private prisons, which earn money by holding illegal immigrants for the U.S. government.

April 2, 2013
A man who only identified himself as Pete from Winchester, Va., carries an Aeroprecision AR-15 rifle for sale on his back at the Nation’s Gun Show in Chantilly. He said he only sells to people with a concealed carry license, because then he knows that they have been through a background check and have had some gun training. The three-day show wrapped up Sunday. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

Court rules legal immigrants can carry concealed weapons

While the debate over restricting guns rages in Congress and state legislatures, firearms advocates are turning to the courts to expand the playing field for carrying concealed weapons — and scoring some victories.

April 2, 2013
Gina McCarthy

Lawsuit against EPA seeks evidence of hidden messages

Top Environmental Protection Agency officials used computer instant messages to try to circumvent open-records laws, according to a lawsuit filed by a researcher who has been hounding the agency to comply with the law.

April 1, 2013
The Capitol building in Washington, D.C. (Associated Press)

Congress passes bill to avoid government shutdown

Acting with striking unity, Congress on Thursday passed a $1 trillion spending bill to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, heading off a government-shutdown showdown and beginning to rearrange some of the sequester cuts.

March 21, 2013
**FILE** Government workers, supporting union members and activists protest against the across-the-board federal spending cuts called sequestration at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia on March 20, 2013. (Associated Press)

Shutdown averted: Congress passes 2013 spending bill

Acting with striking unity, Congress on Thursday passed a $1 trillion spending bill to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, heading off a government shutdown showdown and beginning to rearrange some of the sequester cuts.

March 21, 2013
**FILE** House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, holds up a copy of the House Budget Committee 2014 Budget Resolution as he speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 12, 2013. (Associated Press)

Debate over budget balance less than balanced

For Republicans, the budget debate is all about "balance." For Democrats, it's about being "balanced." That letter "d" amounts to a $4 trillion difference between the two sides.

March 21, 2013
**FILE** A worker throws a piece of meat among cattle carcass scraps dropped into a truck at the Hallmark Meat Packing slaughterhouse in Chino, Calif., on Jan. 30, 2008. (Associated Press)

Senate votes to keep White House closed, slaughterhouses open

Senators voted Wednesday to make the first significant changes to the budget sequesters, shifting money to keep slaughterhouse inspectors on the job full time but refusing to rearrange money to reopen the White House for public tours.

March 20, 2013
**FILE** Law enforcement officers gather Oct. 2, 2012, at a command post in the desert near Naco, Ariz., after a Border Patrol agent was shot to death near the U.S.-Mexico line. The agent, Nicholas Ivie, 30, and a colleague were on patrol about 100 miles from Tucson, when shooting broke out shortly before 2 a.m., the Border Patrol said. (Associated Press/U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

DHS tells Congress it still can’t measure border security

Top Homeland Security officials told Congress on Wednesday that they still don't have a way to effectively measure border security — a revelation that lawmakers said could doom the chances for passing an immigration legalization bill this year.

March 20, 2013

ICE had some flexibility before releasing detainees, official says

The Obama administration's top deportation official acknowledged Tuesday that he could have asked Congress for flexibility to avoid having to release more than 2,000 immigrants back onto the streets ahead of the budget sequesters, but he decided the releases were a better option.

March 19, 2013
**FILE** An illegal immigrant from El Salvador is searched June 26, 2012, on the tarmac at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Ariz., as the sun rises prior to boarding an MD-80 aircraft for a repatriation flight of 80 immigrants to their home country. (Associated Press)

Obama immigrant release included drunk drivers

The Obama administration's top deportation official acknowledged on Tuesday that he could have asked Congress for flexibility to avoid having to release more than 2,000 immigrants back onto the streets ahead of the budget sequesters, but he decided the releases were a better option.

March 19, 2013
Peralta

Congress revives push for Marine to get Medal of Honor

Three months after former Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta denied him the Medal of Honor, Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta's congressional backers have started a new effort to have him awarded the nation's top military honor.

March 19, 2013
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Hotel at National Harbor, Md., on Thursday, March 14, 2013. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Congress closer to agreement on illegals

Top House leaders said Tuesday they're inching closer to an immigration deal they can bring to the floor for a vote "in the near term," and political momentum continued to build across the Capitol with Sen. Rand Paul adding his voice to those calling for the GOP to take a softer line on illegal immigration.

March 19, 2013