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National Politics

NSA chief: Spying stopped 50 terrorist ‘events’

General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, appears before the House Select Intelligence Committee in Washington D.C.

The director of the National Security Agency testified Tuesday that the government’s massive surveillance program helped thwart more than 50 terrorist “events” worldwide since Sept. 11, 2001, including a planned bombing of the New York Stock Exchange... 2 hours ago

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NATIONAL POLITICS

Corps of Engineers won’t review climate change impacts of Northwest coal exports

The U.S Army Corps of Engineers will not review the broader climate-change impacts of proposed coal export terminals in the Pacific Northwest, an agency official told Congress on Tuesday.
NATIONAL POLITICS

Farm bill is fertile ground for complaints

California dairy processors are still trying to squeeze a better deal from a big farm bill up for House debate this week.
NATIONAL POLITICS

Senator: IRS to pay $70M in employee bonuses

The Internal Revenue Service is about to pay $70 million in employee bonuses despite an Obama administration directive to cancel discretionary bonuses because of automatic spending cuts enacted this year, according to a GOP senator.
NATIONAL POLITICS

House to consider cuts to food stamps

A wide-ranging farm bill the House is considering would cut food stamps by $2 billion a year and make it more difficult for some people to qualify for the domestic food aid program.
NATIONAL POLITICS

Capitol's Frederick Douglass statue to be unveiled

The 19th-century orator and writer Frederick Douglass will once again stand tall in the U.S. Capitol.
NATIONAL POLITICS

Obama relying on untested oversight board on NSA

The obscure oversight board that President Barack Obama wants to scrutinize the National Security Agency's secret surveillance system is little known for good reason. The U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board has operated fitfully during its eight years of low-profile existence, stymied...
NATIONAL POLITICS

Budget office view boosts Senate immigration bill

Supporters of a far-reaching immigration bill in the Senate see fresh momentum from a report by the Congressional Budget Office that says the measure would boost the economy and reduce federal deficits by billions of dollars.
NATIONAL POLITICS

Social issues still fire up GOP despite 2012 loss

Republican lawmakers have a message for those who want the party to soften its emphasis on social conservatism in hopes of reaching a wider national audience: Not so fast.
NATIONAL POLITICS

Obama's Berlin speech: History raises the stakes

Five years and 50 years. As President Barack Obama revisits Berlin, he can't escape those anniversaries and the inevitable comparisons to history and personal achievement.
NATIONAL POLITICS

NSA director says plot against Wall Street foiled

The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence led by lawmakers sympathetic to the spying.