Year: 2017

President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, federal appellate Judge Neil Gorsuch, made clear his conservative leanings by speaking out against judicial activism Monday during the first day of confirmation hearings before a sharply divided Senate panel. “It’s for this body, the people’s representatives [in Congress] to make new laws,” Gorsuch said. “If judges were just…

Authorities say a man who drove to a security checkpoint near the White House in a stolen car was arrested after stating “there’s a bomb in the trunk.” A police report says 29-year-old Sean Patrick Keoughan of Roanoke, Virginia, got out of the car at the checkpoint Saturday and was clasping something in his hand…

They sat on either end of the congressmen’s couch, one a Jewish healthcare executive whose parents fled Germany in 1936, the other the Kashmiri Muslim chairman of a well-known American furniture chain. The men, Stanley Bergman and Farooq Kathwari, came to draw attention to an outbreak of hate crimes. But Bergman and Kathwari hoped their…

U.S. House Republicans are working on changes to their health care overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday. Ryan said Republican leaders still planned to bring the health care bill to a…

President Donald Trump’s budget director says the proposed government spending plan is the vision on which the president ran and that he actually is following through on his promises to the American people. Mick Mulvaney told NBC television’s Meet the Press Sunday that means “more money for defense, more money to secure the border, more…

A former North Carolina police chief who now works as a law enforcement consultant said Sunday that he’s disappointed with his country of 42 years after he was detained at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Former Greenville Police Chief Hassan Aden of Alexandria, Virginia, said he was detained March 13 on his return trip from…

President Donald Trump risks driving wedges between the United States and its closest allies, something America can ill-afford. So say lawmakers of both political parties as public disputes have arisen between the White House and Britain as well as Germany. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington. …

The eastern U.S. city of Philadelphia has canceled this year’s celebration of Cinco de Mayo, an event that attracts as many as 15,000 people. Edgar Ramirez, one of the event’s organizers, said the unanimous decision by the planners was “sad,” but it was the “responsible” thing to do because of “the severe conditions affecting the…

Before President Trump’s Supreme Court choice testifies before a Senate panel, Republicans are optimistic Judge Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed while Democrats face enormous pressure from progressive activists to block him. “Hopefully a week from Thursday, I’m able to tell you he [Gorsuch] has done such a good job in answering questions [at the confirmation…

With warm words from Chinese President Xi Jinping Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ended his first trip to Asia since taking office with an agreement to work with China on North Korea. They put aside trickier issues. China has been irritated at being repeatedly told by Washington to rein in North Korea’s nuclear…

North Korea ground-tested a new high-thrust rocket engine, the country’s official news agency, KCNA, said Sunday. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the test was successful and “emphasized that the world will soon witness the great significance of the epoch-making victory we achieved today,” KCNA reported. The test consisted of firing the rocket engine…

President Donald Trump has chosen the husband of White House counseler Kellyanne Conway to head the civil division of the Justice Department, The Wall Street Journal reported.   George Conway was chosen to head the office that has responsibility for defending the administration’s proposed travel ban and defending lawsuits filed against the administration, the newspaper…

A U.S. House Intelligence Committee Monday will further investigate the extent of Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election and President Donald Trump’s claim that President Barack Obama had his phones tapped during the campaign. During a public hearing, committee members will question FBI Director James Comey and Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of…

On Monday, the House Intelligence Committee will give FBI Director James Comey his first opportunity to publicly address President Donald Trump’s claims that former President Barack Obama secretly wiretapped his phones in New York’s Trump Tower. Comey will address his agency’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. VOA’s congressional reporter Katherine Gypson has…

Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she is ready to participate in the public discussion about the change in the country’s political climate since the November presidential election. “I’m like a lot of my friends right now, I have a hard time watching the news,” she said Friday at the Society of Irish Women’s…

The Florida prosecutor who thrust herself into the forefront of the anti-death penalty movement is a political novice who was elected just seven months ago.   Aramis Ayala, a Democrat and former public defender and assistant state attorney, surprised many of her supporters when she announced this week that her office would no longer seek…

The top U.S. diplomat is in China on the third and final leg of his first Asia tour, focusing on North Korea and its controversial nuclear and missile programs. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Saturday after meeting in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, tensions on the Korean Peninsula were at a…