Nonfarm employers added a seasonally adjusted 235,000 jobs in February, above economistsā expectations for a 197,000 gain. Employers added a revised 238,000 in January for the best back-to-back performance since June and July 2016. One area of strength those two months: construction jobs. Over the past three months, total job growth has averaged 209,000. That…
Former President Barack Obama was “livid over [President Trump’s] accusation that he bugged the Republican campaign offices, believing that Mr. Trump was questioning both the integrity of the office of the president and Mr. Obama himself,” people close to Obama told The Wall Street Journal. Things have been souring between Trump and his predecessor for…
The Statue of Liberty experienced an āunplanned outageā late Tuesday night, leaving only the flame and crown lit just hours before the nationwide āA Day Without Womenā protest. The blackout began around 10 p.m. ET. National Park Service spokesman Jerry Willis attributed the blackout to a project for a new emergency backup generator as part…
President Trump on Monday signed a new version of his immigration executive order, following a federal court’s block last month of the original order he issued Jan. 27. No cameras were present as Trump signed the revised order, which newly excludes Iraq ā an ally in the fight against the Islamic State ā from the…
The White House has said construction could begin quickly on President Trump’s border wall using “existing funds and resources” from the Department of Homeland Security, but a DHS document says the agency so far has identified just $20 million that could be redirected to the project, Reuters reported Wednesday. The document, which was given to…
Following pressure from the Pentagon and State Department, President Trump’s next executive order on immigration will take Iraq off the list of countries whose citizens are temporarily barred from entering the United States, several U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The officials said that Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen will stay on the…
President Trump on Tuesday morning blamed former President Obama for leaks of classified information from the White House and for protests in the wake of a controversial executive order halting immigration from seven predominantly-Muslim countries to the U.S. Trump made the comments in an interview with Fox and Friends, during which he gave no evidence…
President Trump will address a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern time, looking to refocus his presidency and rally support for his policies from Republicans in Congress and the public at large, amid historically low approval ratings. Trump advisers say the president will tout what he has described as early…
Border agents detained and questioned the son of the boxing legend Muhammad Ali about his religion when he flew back to the US this month, a family lawyer said. āWhere did you get your name from? Are you a Muslim?ā they asked the 44-year-old Muhammad Ali Jr, who was born in Philadelphia and is a…
Former President George W. Bush ripped President Donald Trump on his views about the media and immigration on an interview with Matt Lauer on NBCās TODAY show, Bush said the news media are āindispensable to democracyā and said he is in favor of an immigration policy that is āwelcoming and upholds the law.ā Trump has…
President Trump tweeted Saturday evening that he will break with decades of tradition to skip the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which is scheduled for April 29. “I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year,” he wrote. “Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” The White House Correspondents’ Association…
Several major news outlets found themselves blocked from attending a Friday White House press briefing with Sean Spicer, the Press Secretary, the latest sign of worsening relations between the Trump administration and the media attempting to cover it. The New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Politico were among the…
The Trump administration on Wednesday rescinded Obama-era anti-discrimination protections for transgender students. President Trump overruled Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ concerns about the move. The Obama administration had ordered schools to let transgender students use public school restrooms corresponding to their gender identity, and Democrats immediately criticized Trump for rolling back the policy. “No student should…
The Trump administration is considering a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press. The 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland,…
U.S. national security officials are reportedly ready to āgo nuclearā after President Donald Trumpās latest attack on the intelligence community. In a series of tweets on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump insisted that the āreal scandalā was not that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lied about his contact with Russia. Instead, the president blasted what…
President Donald Trump on Thursday announced attorney Alexander Acosta as his next labor secretary pick, just one day after fast-food executive Andrew Puzder withdrew his bid over controversies seen as likely to upend his confirmation. Acosta, who is Latino, is an attorney who has served in the Justice Departmentās civil rights division, and is the…
President Donald Trump on Thursday said former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was ājust doing his jobā when he reportedly spoke numerous times with Russiaās ambassador about the sanctions levied on the country by the Obama administration, and then misled Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations. The president gave contradictory messages about Flynn, saying…
Restaurants, stores, and other businesses across the U.S. will close Thursday in a show of support as immigrants boycott their jobs for A Day Without Immigrants. The strike will take place in cities including Philadelphia, Austin, and Washington, D.C., and is aimed at protesting the detention of undocumented immigrants throughout the nation. The demonstration will…
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least six states this week in a surge of what federal officials labeled “routine enforcement actions.” The raids targeted illegal immigrants known to have criminal records beyond their immigration status, though some immigrants without a history of crime were arrested as…
On Monday the Senate voted 52 to 47 to confirm Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to lead the Health and Human Services Department. The party-line vote was the fourth contested Cabinet vote in a row. Democrats argued before the vote that Price, a seven-term congressman and former orthopedic surgeon, had failed to come clean about some…
A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled against reinstating President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations. READ THE COURT’S RULING (PDF) CLICK HERE Citing a failure by the government to show that a stay of a lower-court ruling that suspended the ban would “cause irreparable damage,” a panel of three…
Donald Trump attempted to whitewash critical remarks made about him by his own SCOTUS pick Thursday morning. Even though a representative for Neil Gorsuch confirmed that he had expressed dismay at the presidentās attack on a federal judge, Trump claimed his words had been twisted. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, told the media that the…
President Trumpās pick for the Supreme Court expressed to lawmakers on Wednesday that he was upset to see the president attacking the federal judge who temporarily suspended his ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. In a private meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), SCOTUS pick Neil Gorsuch said it was ādishearteningā and ādemoralizingā to…
Senator Jeff Sessions was confirmed as the next attorney general in President Trump’s administration on Wednesday night, earning a simply majority by around 7:20 p.m. with the vote total at 52 yes to 47 no. The night before Senator Elizabeth Warren made headlines for attempting to read a letter written by Coretta Scott King criticizing…
President Trump on Wednesday spoke on behalf of his own executive order in front of law-enforcement officers. Reading from U.S. law, he declared that even a ābad high-school studentā would side with him in his legal battle to keep citizens from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S. āThis was done, very importantly, for…
Regardless the attemps by Democrats in the final hours, the U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Betsy DeVos as the next secretary of education. DeVosā nomination faced fierce opposition from Democrats, and two Republican senatorsāLisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maineāhad previously said they would vote against DeVos. After those GOP defections,…
On Monday evening, the Department of Justice filed a 15-page brief defending President Trump’s executive order on immigration, and moments later, it was announced the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear a challenge to his travel ban on Tuesday. Last week, a federal judge temporarily suspended parts of the travel ban against people from…
The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on President Trump’s education secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos. Democrats made a last-ditch effort to hold the floor for 24 hours as they tried to persuade a third Republican to join them in opposition to DeVos to break what appeared to be a 50-50 tie. Barring another defection, Vice…
On her visit to Chris Matthewsā āHardballā show on Thursday night, Kellyanne Conway make up a fictional āmassacreā when justifying the Presidentās ban on refugees and immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries. āI bet itās brand new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came…
After asking prayer for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Apprentice ratings this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast Trump declared that religious freedom is “under threat,” He vowed to repeal an IRS rule that says pastors who endorse candidates from the pulpit risk losing their tax-exempt status. “I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment…
