Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
Pope Francis’ call for immigration leniency unlikely to change debate
Pope Francis is more than head of the Catholic Church -- he's also the head of state of the Vatican, which as a government has possibly the most restrictive immigration and citizenship policies of any nation in the world. Published September 24, 2015
Pope Francis proposes ‘golden rule’ of politics, demands end to death penalty
Pope Francis called on Americans to fully embrace the Golden Rule in politics as the head of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics delivered a sermon on Capitol Hill on Thursday, challenging Congress and voters alike to serve the needy and to see the world in nuance rather than the "simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil." Published September 24, 2015
Carly Fiorina tops Hillary Clinton in head-to-head matchup: poll
Carly Fiorina tops Hillary Rodham Clinton in a head-to-head general election matchup, according to the latest Quinnipiac University Poll released Thursday morning that also found the former Hewlett-Packard CEO easily outperformed GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump in last week's debate. Published September 24, 2015
Junipero Serra, saint canonized by Pope Francis, leaves divided Western legacy
A year before Junipero Serra was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988, the California missions the Franciscan priest had founded in the 18th century exhumed his body and collected his left ulna. Published September 23, 2015
Pope Francis should win Nobel Peace Prize: Adam Schiff
One congressman is circulating a letter to colleagues trying to get them to help him nominate Pope Francis for the Nobel Peace Prize. Published September 23, 2015
Feds lost 5.6 million Americans’ fingerprint files in cyber hack
More than 5 million Americans' fingerprint files were stolen from the federal government, the chief human resources agency said Wednesday, acknowledging the massive data breach was five times larger than they'd previously admitted. Published September 23, 2015
Pope Francis brings brief political truce to Washington
Raucous cheers erupted Tuesday as Pope Francis set foot in the U.S. for the first time, kicking off a six-day, three-city American tour that promises to dominate the headlines and present politicians with the chance to bask in the "glow" of association with the popular pontiff. Published September 22, 2015
Judge tells State Dept. to find more staffers to process Hillary Clinton emails
A federal judge urged the State Department to get more people on the case reviewing and releasing the emails of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her top aides, saying Tuesday that all sides should be eager to get the matter behind them. Published September 22, 2015
Mexican, Central American immigrants slower to assimilate in U.S.
Immigrants overall do rather well at assimilating into the U.S., but there are major differences — particularly for poor Mexican and Central American immigrants, whose families lag behind the kind of integration the U.S. has prided itself on for decades, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said in a report Monday. Published September 21, 2015
Hillary Clinton emails: FBI refuses to cooperate in server probe
The FBI refused to cooperate Monday with a court-ordered inquiry into former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's email server, telling the State Department that they won't even confirm they are investigating the matter themselves, much less willing to tell the rest of the government what's going on. Published September 21, 2015
Hillary Clinton aides relinquish more than 100,000 pages of emails
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's top aides have belatedly turned over more than 100,000 pages of emails they had kept on personal email accounts, or accounts tied to Mrs. Clinton's server, the government told a federal judge late Friday. Published September 19, 2015
Illegal immigrant detention centers rife with abuses, U.S. Civil Rights Commission report finds
The way the government detains illegal immigrants often breaks fundamental constitutional guarantees, and holding whole families in detention is a particularly harsh abuse of human rights, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said in a controversial new report Thursday, wading deeply into the immigration debate. Published September 17, 2015
Investigation finds sex, fraud and retaliation at Census office
Forty employees in the Census Bureau's hiring office bilked the government out of $1.1 million in pay they never earned, broke government rules by hiring friends, and tried to intimidate whistleblowers who ratted them out, according to a new inspector general's report Thursday that said supervisors even "led" the misconduct. Published September 17, 2015
Donald Trump defends place at head of Republican field
The Republican field sparred for the title of anti-establishment champion Wednesday in the second debate of the presidential campaign, with front-runner Donald Trump defending his temperament amid attacks from fellow candidates, but struggling to lay out plans on how to deal with Syria or Russia. Published September 16, 2015
Second Republican debate kicks off with candidates sparring over Donald Trump
Sen. Lindsey Graham implied fellow GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum was being anti-Hispanic by saying immigrants are taking jobs from Americans, as the second Republican presidential debate delved into the issue. Published September 16, 2015
Only ‘four or five’ U.S.-trained fighters in Syria
Only "four or five" U.S.-trained rebels are currently fighting in Syria, or thousands less than the Pentagon expected, the chief of the military campaign against the Islamic State told Congress on Wednesday as President Obama's war plans came under withering criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. Published September 16, 2015
Jack Burkman, D.C. lobbyist, calls Trump ‘a joke,’ demands GOP field stiffen spines on gay marriage
A top D.C. lobbyist has taken out a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Daily News Wednesday calling GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump "a joke" and challenging all Republican candidates to take a stiffer stand in the second presidential debate opposing same-sex marriage and other indications he sees of moral decline. Published September 16, 2015
Mitch McConnell to force tough votes on Iran, 4 U.S. prisoners
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that he'll force tough votes this week on whether senators back Iran over Israel and over four American prisoners still being held by the regime in Tehran as all sides scrambled for ways to stiffen the nuclear deal President Obama reached with the Islamic republic. Published September 15, 2015
Democrats shift radically on illegal immigration as Republicans remain adamantly opposed
Democrats have become far more open to legalizing illegal immigrants over the last decade, while Republicans remain adamantly opposed, according to extensive new polling by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs that helps explain the rise of businessman Donald Trump within the GOP presidential field and the dim hopes for getting anything done in Congress. Published September 15, 2015
John Cornyn calls for special counsel to investigate Clinton emails
A top Republican called Tuesday for Attorney General Loretta Lynch to name a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's emails, saying Americans need greater assurance that any wrongdoing will be investigated without fear of political influence from President Obama and his team. Published September 15, 2015
