Tag - us-congress

 
 

US CONGRESS

Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 19, 2013
Senate passes deal to avoid new shutdown
Congress declared a holiday truce in the budget wars Wednesday, sending President Barack Obama a blueprint for funding the government through 2015. But the next skirmish was already on the horizon: an election-year fight over the national debt.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2013
Two U.S. senators vow support in Ukraine
A showdown between Russia on one side and the United States and the European Union on the other drew closer Sunday, as two American senators told a crowd of hundreds of thousands of protesters that Ukraine's future lies to the west, not east.
Japan Times
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 13, 2013
Child porn found on computer of senator's fired chief of staff
Federal investigators found hundreds of videos depicting underage boys engaging in sexually explicit conduct on a computer hard drive recovered from the home of the former chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, according to court documents filed Thursday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 9, 2013
India's Congress party trounced in state elections
India's governing Congress party suffered a bruising blow Sunday, losing four keenly watched state elections in what is seen as a semifinal for the national vote next spring.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 5, 2013
Congressional committee ponders aliens — the space kind
Lawmakers held a free-ranging and sometimes bewildering hearing Wednesday on the search for extraterrestrial life, gradually working around to the question of whether humans are alone in the universe. At the end of the 90-minute session, that issue remained unresolved.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 2, 2013
Obama may be rare ex-leader who stays in Washington after presidency
Throughout his time in office, President Barack Obama has opened many outside-the-Beltway speeches with a suggestion that he, too, feels like an outsider in the nation's baffling, frustrating capital city. He shouts to the audience about how good it is to be wherever he is that day — Cleveland, Miami,...
BUSINESS
Nov 29, 2013
IRS rules on nonprofits foster debate on advocacy groups in politics
For the first time since 1959, American nonprofit advocacy groups face new Internal Revenue Service rules governing their political activities, an area of the tax code that has been crying out for greater clarity.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 25, 2013
Israel, Gulf states and many U.S. lawmakers share deep unease about Iran nuclear deal
The signing of a short-term nuclear accord between Iran and six world powers Sunday left ardent critics of the Islamic republic — most vocally the Israeli government and many U.S. lawmakers — deeply worried that the Obama administration and its partners were making a historic mistake.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 22, 2013
Senate's filibuster change will boost Obama's agenda
The U.S. Senate vote Thursday to lower the barriers for presidential nominations will make it easier for President Barack Obama to accomplish key second-term priorities, including tougher measures on climate change and financial regulation, that have faced intense opposition from Republicans in Congress....
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 15, 2013
U.S. bills would curb tracking of kids on Net
What if children used a more private Internet, where it would be harder to collect information about them and where they could erase embarrassing photos, comments and videos that could one day come back to haunt them?
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 11, 2013
U.S. initiative spending booms past $1 billion over past 18 months
Corporations and some of the wealthiest Americans spent more than $1 billion over the past 18 months on ballot initiatives in just 11 states, according to campaign finance data, an explosion of money used to pass new laws and influence the public debate.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Nov 9, 2013
U.S. insurers directed to treat mental health issues the same as physical ailments
The Obama administration issued a final rule Friday requiring insurers to treat mental health and substance-abuse problems the same way they do physical illnesses.
WORLD
Nov 6, 2013
U.S. spy agencies out of sync, panel finds
The scientific research efforts of the U.S. intelligence community are poorly coordinated, and agencies have struggled to develop adequate defenses against emerging threats including cyber-attacks, according to a national commission that released its findings Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 4, 2013
Foley tribute has important lessons for Congress
The U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall last week became a lecture room for some lawmakers to learn about the secret of 'old school' success in bipartisan House leadership.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Oct 30, 2013
'The Suit' squares a love triangle
In his seminal 1968 work "The Empty Space," Peter Brook wrote: "Certainly, we still wish to capture in our arts the invisible currents that rule our lives, but our vision is now locked to the dark end of the spectrum. Today the theatre of doubting, of unease, of trouble, of alarm, seems truer than the...
Japan Times
WORLD
Oct 29, 2013
NSA bills let Congress choose: End amassing of phone records or OK it
After nearly five months of controversy and debate, the U.S. Congress may face a clear choice over the National Security Agency's program to collect the phone records of nearly every American: endorse it or shut it down.
Japan Times
WORLD / FOCUS
Oct 27, 2013
Atomic waste piles higher at U.S. plants
U.S. lawmakers have debated for decades where to put all the spent fuel generated by the nation's nuclear power plants. The dithering means that an unintended site has emerged: Illinois.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2013
Tea party darling Cruz burnishes conservative credentials in Iowa
Sen. Ted Cruz used a series of long-scheduled appearances in Iowa over the weekend to cast himself as the natural leader of a burgeoning conservative movement that nearly derailed the new health care law.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 27, 2013
White House rallies Democrats in effort to shore up health site push
By the time President Barack Obama acknowledged on Monday that his signature health care program had serious problems, it was clear the political stakes had escalated for the White House.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Oct 25, 2013
U.S. health site tests 'began too late'
Private contractors in charge of building the federal online health insurance marketplace testified Thursday that the administration went ahead with the Oct. 1 launch of HealthCare.gov despite insufficient testing.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan