Skip to content
TRENDING:
Donald Trump
Advertisement

Articles by Valerie Richardson

Appeals court overturns Day of Prayer ban

A federal appeals court Thursday threw out a ruling that would have prohibited the president from declaring a National Day of Prayer, in a decision that cheered social conservatives and occasioned much wailing and gnashing of teeth by groups advocating a strict separation of church and state.

April 14, 2011

Environmentalists suffer on key budget provisions

The biggest losers in the federal budget deal may have been environmentalists, who suffered setbacks not only with cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency budget but also with the shellacking of two of the movement's pet programs.

April 13, 2011
Donna Deuster, assistant city clerk, verifies security tags on sealed bags of 15,600 ballots cast in Racine, Wis. The ballots may have to be recounted in the wake of the narrow margin of victory in the state Supreme Court race. (Associated Press)

Labor-backed candidate for Wis. court justice leads

Wisconsin voters are likely to face the first statewide recount in more than 20 years after unofficial results in the fractious state Supreme Court race showed a paper-thin margin of victory for the labor-backed candidate in a race that centered on the power of public-employees unions.

April 6, 2011

Justice’s race now a governor’s referendum

An ordinarily humdrum vote on whether to retain a Wisconsin state Supreme Court justice has exploded into a bare-knuckles referendum on Gov. Scott Walker's recently signed law curbing the power of public-employee unions.

April 4, 2011
"There's more than one way to get to the goal, ... I'm going to find a way to get our budget balanced," says Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown. (Bloomberg)

California looking into a $26 billion abyss

The breakdown of budget negotiations this week between California Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative Republicans leaves the state with a handful of options for handling the $26 billion deficit, none of them particularly attractive.

March 30, 2011

Brown urges tax measure on ballot

California Gov. Jerry Brown wouldn't top anyone's list of tax-and-spend liberals. Famous for his frugality, he ushered in his latest stint as governor by replacing the sleek boardroom table in his new office with a hard, wooden picnic table.

March 28, 2011
OUSTED: Elizabeth Wrigley-Field of Madison, Wis., is escorted out of the Wisconsin State Capitol Assembly Room lobby in Madison on Thursday after staying overnight with other demonstrators there. (Associated Press)

Wis. governor signs bill limiting unions’ power

Capping weeks of political drama and open political warfare with the state's public-sector unions, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Friday quietly signed landmark legislation reining in the power of public-employee unions after a pitched battle over collective bargaining that shows no signs of abating.

March 10, 2011
MARCH SADNESS: Brandon Davies has been suspended from the BYU basketball team for the rest of the season for violating the school's honor code. (Associated Press)

BYU hoops star suspended for sex acts

The same behavior that cost Brandon Davies the rest of his basketball season at Brigham Young University might have earned him an "A" at Northwestern.

March 3, 2011
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins (Associated Press)

House GOP eyes DOMA defense

House Republicans and conservative groups are working together behind the scenes to fill the legal void created Wednesday when the Obama administration announced that it would no longer defend the federal law banning gay marriage.

February 24, 2011

Obama gets out of way of gay marriage

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it had withdrawn its legal support for the federal Defense of Marriage Act, stating that the law is unconstitutional and therefore the administration is under no obligation to defend it.

February 23, 2011
Opponents of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's bill to eliminate most collective-bargaining rights for many state employees take part in their eighth day of protesting Tuesday at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away in Denver, union activists rallied in a show of support. (Associated Press)

Three states away in Colorado, union backers rally for Wisconsin

Denver was one of at least a dozen cities where labor organizations hosted solidarity rallies Tuesday in support of Wisconsin's public-sector unions and against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has proposed limiting their collective-bargaining rights and requiring members to contribute more to their pension and health care plans.

February 22, 2011

Bingaman’s exit puts ‘safe’ N.M. seat in play

Democrats put on a brave face after Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico announced Friday that he would leave office in 2012, but it's hard to see how his retirement contains any good news for the party.

February 20, 2011
Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, set off a flurry of speculation about his successor after he announced that he would not seek another Senate term next year. (Associated Press)

Giffords is seen as shoo-in for Kyl’s seat

Any discussion of who's likely to succeed outgoing Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona needs to factor in the following: If Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wants the seat, it's hers.

February 10, 2011

Colorado GOP chief won’t seek 3rd term

With some scathing words for his critics, Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams dropped his bid for a third term this week in the face of a challenge from state Sen. Ted Harvey, who said he aims to return "authentic conservative leadership to the party structure."

February 9, 2011
John Heubusch, executive director of the Ronald Reagan Foundation, shows off a new bronze statue of President Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan. (Garrett Cheen/Special to The Washington Times)

Reagan library update grabs attention and holds it

There's nothing quite like the thought of visiting a presidential library to make the average American stifle a yawn and reach for the remote. As it turns out, the people behind the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum understand this. That's why they never stop loading the library with goodies.

February 3, 2011

N.Y., California sing blue-state budget blues

California's Jerry Brown and New York's Andrew M. Cuomo won their gubernatorial election bids last year with strong support from public-employee unions, which puts them each in a particularly dicey position when it comes to their states' mammoth budget deficits.

February 1, 2011