|
Lois Lerner's Brief And Awful Day On Capitol Hill The IRS bureaucrat showed up long enough at a House hearing into the scandal engulfing her agency to declare her innocence and her constitutional right to say no more. |
|
Think Obama's In Trouble? That Depends On Your Party Despite the scandals consuming Washington, the president's job approval ratings remain steady. Why? Reaction is breaking along partisan lines, with Democrats inclined to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. |
|
Fears Of Killing Immigration Bill Doomed Same-Sex Amendment Amid warnings the proposal would shatter support for the measure, Democrats backed away from a provision that would allow gay U.S. citizens to sponsor foreign-born spouses for green cards. Advocates for gay and lesbian immigration rights accused Democrats of caving in to threats. |
|
Scandal Politics: The Downstream Effect The trio of scandals that have engulfed the White House may not be big news by 2014, but now is the time when prospective candidates must decide if they want to be on the ballot. Is the news of the moment hurting the effort? |
|
I'm hoping the administration won't go through my personal e-mails to reveal the answer to this week's ScuttleButton puzzle. Hopefully they'll wait a week, like everyone else. |
|
London Attack Deemed Likely Terrorist Incident   The incident occurred Wednesday when the suspects attacked the man near a London military barracks. |
|
IRS Witness Turns Down Questions At Congressional Hearing Lois Lerner was the first IRS official to explain how conservative groups' applications for tax-exempt status were flagged for extra scrutiny. On Wednesday, she cited her constitutional right not to incriminate herself and declined to answer questions from a House committee. |
|
Anthony Weiner Tries To Put Indiscretions Behind Him Anthony Weiner, the New York congressman whose career ended after a series of raunchy tweets, announced he is entering the mayoral race with an ad on YouTube. |
|
Oregon's Cash-Strapped Counties Reject Public Safety Levies Two Oregon counties have reportedly rejected property tax increases that would have funded law enforcement and public safety services. The counties once received federal timber subsidies, but those days are over — and now they're scrambling to pay for essential services. |
|
With White House Bogged Down By Scandal, GOP Looks For Boost As criticism of the Obama administration over a string of scandals grows, conservatives see an opportunity to gain momentum for 2014 races. Host Neal Conan and Political Junkie Ken Rudin talk with political science professor Jack Pitney about the GOP and the re-emergence of the Tea Party. Plus: the week in politics from Anthony Weiner's New York mayoral candidacy to the Senate immigration bill. |
|
Sandy Hook's Future: What's To Become Of The School? It's been over five months since the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. And there have been plenty of opinions about what should be done with the school building. Host Michel Martin speaks with Rich Harwood about the emotional decision-making process. |
|
Libya 'Talking Points' Emails Put Petraeus Back In Spotlight The role former CIA Director David Petraeus played in creating the discredited U.S. "talking points" about the violence in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including a U.S. ambassador, last year is under new scrutiny, as a Washington Post story suggests that Petraeus sought to shape the resulting memo to favor his agency. |
|
'I Have Not Done Anything Wrong,' Key IRS Official Says Lois Lerner, who's at the center of the political firestorm over her agency's singling out of some conservative groups for extra scrutiny, invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions from Congress. |
|
Eric Garcetti Wins L.A. Mayor's Race In a nonpartisan race in which two Democrats were the top contenders, the city councilman has edged out City Controller Wendy Greuel. |
|
Anthony Weiner Jumps Into Race To Be NYC Mayor   The former congressman's career appeared to be over when he resigned in 2011 because of an extramarital sexting scandal and his lies about it. Now, he tells voters, "I've made some big mistakes. ... I hope I get a second chance to work for you." The Democratic primary is set for Sept. 10. |
|
Battle Lines Harden In Debate Over Blame For IRS Controversy The Treasury Department's inspector general, who faulted the IRS for flagging conservative groups for extra scrutiny, is now investigating how the agency is monitoring the political activities of tax-exempt groups. These so-called social welfare organizations are not supposed to be primarily about politics, although many seem to be. |
|
Senate To Debate Immigration Overhaul After weeks of debate, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Tuesday to send a massive immigration overhaul bill on to the full Senate. Dozens of changes were made to the legislation drawn up by a bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight. But the bill's basic compromises remained intact after the withdrawal of a sharply divisive measure granting equal immigration rights for same-sex married couples. |
|
House, Senate Consider Cuts In Food Stamp Program Both the House and Senate are considering farm bills that would cut spending on food stamps, one of the most expensive government programs. But people disagree on how much the changes would affect recipients. |
|
IRS Official In Charge Of Nonprofits Declines To Testify Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division dealing with nonprofits seeking tax-exempt status, will not testify on Wednesday despite a congressional subpoena, her attorney says. She is accused of closely scrutinizing conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status. |
|
Former IRS Head To Senate: It Wasn't My Fault Douglas Shulman, who led the IRS during the years when agency workers targeted tax-exempt applications from conservative groups, did his best to deflect accusations from unhappy senators. |
|
Oklahoma's GOP Senators Find Themselves In Tornado Aid Bind Sens. Tom Coburn and James Inhofe have become the faces of pushback on federal emergency spending. Now the deadly and devastating tornado in their home state has put them in an awkward position. |
|
Why Don't We Pay (More/Any) Attention To Los Angeles Mayoral Elections?  After eight years of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles voters will pick a, shall we say, more charismatically-challenged successor. |
|
'I Was Dismayed' To Learn What Agency Did, Ex-IRS Chief Says Under Douglas Shulman's watch, IRS personnel singled out some conservative groups for extra scrutiny. That, he conceded Tuesday, has "justifiably led to questions" about the tax agency's motivation. |
|
Former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and outgoing acting Commissioner Steven Miller are being grilled. The IRS is under fire because some conservative groups' applications for tax-exempt status were given extra scrutiny in recent years. An inspector general has called the actions "inappropriate." |
|
Fox News Reporter James Rosen Caught Up In Federal Probe There is word of another controversial leak investigation by the Department of Justice. The target is Fox News reporter James Rosen, who was monitored by the department after breaking a story about North Korea's nuclear weapons program in 2009. |
|
Unclear Laws May Have Contributed to Tax-Exempt Controversy IRS and Treasury officials can expect a hard time in their appearances on Capitol Hill Tuesday. A key question that so far has not gotten much attention: How did it come to be that social welfare organizations became vehicles for political activity? |
|
Apple CEO Faces Senate Panel's Accusations Of 'Tax Gimmickry' Tim Cook will address reports that his company pays billions less than it should in U.S. taxes each year at a Tuesday hearing in Washington. According to a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Apple avoids the tax payments by shifting profits to subsidiaries in Ireland. |
|
Senate Debates 5-Year Farm Bill The measure includes farm and food subsidies totaling almost $100 billion. Lawmakers have trimmed more than $2 billion in annual farm spending. The question, though, is whether to trim more. |
|
Texas Medicaid Debate Complicated By Politics And Poverty In Texas, it may be politically unwise to cross the governor, but some politicians and advocates in the poor Rio Grande Valley are starting to speak out in support of expanding Medicaid. Gov. Rick Perry opposes all parts of Obamacare. |
|
Mont. One-Room School House Boasts International Diversity Melissa Block talks to teacher Shelly Hoisington. Hoisington teaches fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade at McCormick Elementary School — a one-room school in Troy, Mont. Hoisington recently convinced Gov. Steve Bullock to speak at the graduation ceremony for the five students in eighth grade. |
|
Turnabout Is Fair Play: Senators Have Many Questions For IRS The IRS gave some conservative groups extra, improper scrutiny. Now there's a bipartisan request for the IRS to answer dozens of questions. Read the queries and demands for information from the top Democrat and top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee. |
|
ABC's Karl Expresses Regret, But Stands By Benghazi Story The White House correspondent's story about administration emails created an uproar. Then a key part of it turned out to be wrong. |
|
Decades Of History Behind IRS Flap Host Michel Martin looks into why some non-profits are tax exempt, and how something like the recent IRS flap could happen. She speaks with David Cay Johnston, a columnist for Tax Analysts and reporter Brentin Mock of Colorlines.com. |
|
Supreme Court Takes Case On Prayer At Government Meetings Prayers said before meetings of the town board in Greece, N.Y., have predominantly been Christian. A lower court ruled that officials hadn't done enough to seek out prayers from other faiths. That violates the Constitution's Establishment Clause, the court said. Now the Supreme Court will weigh in. |
|
Why Congress Has Reasons Not To Be Bipartsan Some political columnists say President Obama needs to exercise more "leadership" to bend a divided Congress to his will. But congressional Republicans have little incentive to cooperate with the president. And the more he "leads," the harder it may be for them to follow. |
|
Calif. Law To Require Ships To Cut Pollution California is about to become the first state to require shore power at its ports. A new law mandates at least half of a shipping line's fleet to shut down their diesel engines and plug into shore-side electric power when they unload their cargo. It's part of a larger effort to cut pollution at the state's busiest ports, but costs have been a sticking point. |
|
Growing Vegetables From Seeds Takes Root For Many Gardeners More and more gardeners are bypassing the local nursery and instead starting their veggies from seed. Seeds are often cheaper, and they give growers a bigger choice of varieties. At a community garden in Venice, Calif., students learn the ins and outs of gardening from scratch. |
|
Is There Really A Second-Term Curse? Whether it's Richard Nixon's resignation or Bill Clinton's impeachment, presidents tend to have a tough time during the back half of an eight-year presidency. |
|
Political Takeaways: Headaches For The White House Controversies dominated this past week's political headlines, leaving the Obama White House on the defensive, trying to contain any lasting damage. Host Rachel Martin talks with NPR's Mara Liasson. |
|
Nonconservative Groups Say IRS Scrutinized Them, Too The IRS has admitted it flagged tax-exemption requests from groups with "Tea Party" or "Patriot" in their names starting in 2010. But some liberal groups and journalism organizations say their applications also faced long delays during the same period. |
|
Tesla Rides High, But Faces Formidable Foe: Car Dealers The Model S from electric car manufacturer Tesla has been named Motor Trend Car of the Year. But the company's business model is under attack by a formidable foe: the National Automobile Dealers Association, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington. |
|
Impossible Choice Faces America's First 'Climate Refugees' The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says the tiny town of Newtok, Alaska, could be completely underwater by 2017. Its 350 residents must relocate or stay to face the floods, but a move is easier said than done. |
|
What A Week: White House Rattled By Controversy NPR's Ari Shapiro joins host Scott Simon to talk about the Obama administration's week. The president was buffeted by revelations that the IRS had targeted Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status and that the Justice Department had subpoenaed reporter phone records. On top of that, Republicans continue to allege that the White House engaged in a cover-up of talking points about the attack in Benghazi, Libya. |
|
Highly Charged IRS Case Pulls In Political Agendas NPR's Peter Overby reports on the Congressional testimony of IRS officials in response to the scandal over special scrutiny of tea party groups. Underneath all the politics, there's a policy question that hasn't been addressed. |
|
Immigration Bill Chugs Along, But Some See Deal-Breakers The bipartisan immigration overhaul proposed by the Senate's Gang of Eight has been the target of scores of amendments. So far, the bill has largely held its own, but its prospects for getting through Congress are uncertain. |
|
Afghan Mineral Treasures Stay Buried, Hostages To Uncertainty Afghanistan is believed to be home to world-class mineral deposits, valued at up to $3 trillion and offering hope for the country's economic future. But in the current environment of uncertainty, investors are nervous and it could be many years before Afghanistan strikes pay dirt. |
|
Not Your Grandpa's RV: This Roving Lab Tracks Air Pollution Atmospheric scientist Ira Leifer installed special air sensors on a camper, then drove from Florida to California, measuring methane levels all along the way. More than 6,000 readings later, he found some noticeable spikes, especially around petrochemical plants and urban areas like Los Angeles. |
|
Why The IRS Scandal Is Built To Last Of all the current Washington scandals, the one involving the IRS appears to have the most staying power. It rolls into one package an agency many love to hate, partisan suspicions and the American appetite for conspiracies. |
|
Obama U: What Graduation Speeches Say About The President  President Obama's commencement speeches often seem more about the big-picture state of the union than do his State of the Union addresses, which read like to-do lists. And his assessment of where the country stands and where it's going has changed over the past four years. |
|
A Field Guide To Democratic Responses To Scandals A long week of scandal has been tough on more than just the White House. President Obama's allies are struggling with how to respond to their first taste of really bad news within the administration. |
