Stephen Dinan
Articles by Stephen Dinan
Deferring on budget no longer an option, CBO says
Congress' chief scorekeeper warned Wednesday that the country's top lawmakers can't continue to put off big decisions on the budget and the economy much longer, and said either path — belt-tightening now or even deeper cuts later — will be painful. Published August 22, 2012
Obama’s immigration move gives states spending and ID headaches
President Obama's new non-deportation policy has thrown many of the thorniest immigration questions back into states' laps, as governors and legislators now must decide whether to issue driver's licenses or allow in-state tuition at public colleges to the illegal immigrants who will be given an iffy legal status. Published August 16, 2012
Activists to take on Capitol Hill: Lay off our milk, lemonade
Milk and lemonade may seem like the staples of youthful innocence, but on Saturday a group of activists hope to turn them into the tools of protests when they take to the Capitol to demand the government stop interfering in sales of fresh milk and stop shutting down kids' lemonade stands. Published August 16, 2012
Police chiefs adopt drone code of conduct
The nation's police chiefs have adopted a code of conduct for their use of drones, including letting any images captured by unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, be open to inspection by the public, and that the images not be stored unless they are evidence of a crime or part of an ongoing investigation. Published August 16, 2012
Romney seeks to elevate tone of debate
Flashing anger at the direction the presidential campaign has taken, Mitt Romney on Wednesday challenged President Obama to elevate the debate after a month in which Democratic operatives and the Obama campaign charged Mr. Romney was a felon and connected him to a woman's cancer death. Published August 15, 2012
Obama is ready to sign up immigrants
More than 1.7 million illegal immigrants could become eligible for tentative legal status Wednesday when President Obama's non-deportation policy goes into effect, and after initial fears that the program would backfire, immigrant advocates are urging young immigrants to sign up. Published August 14, 2012
Main Street’s financial advisers overwhelmingly back Romney, but almost half fear he’ll lose
The people who manage money, Main Street's financial advisers, are overwhelmingly voting for Mitt Romney in this year's election — but are far less certain he will win, according to an online poll by the Financial Services Institute. Published August 13, 2012
Ryan sparks split on immigration
Rep. Paul Ryan could be Mitt Romney's olive branch to voters who want to see illegal immigrants gain legal status, with the Wisconsin Republican having repeatedly backed legalization efforts and cast himself in the mold of former President George W. Bush, who fought a battle with his own party on the issue. Published August 13, 2012
Congressman: Medal of Honor system broken
A Marine combat veteran who now serves on the House Armed Services Committee said Monday that in at least two recent cases, the system for evaluating Medal of Honor nominations has gone awry, and he blamed bureaucratic infighting for keeping one of the men from a fair appraisal. Published August 13, 2012
GOP sues to force Obama, Holder compliance on Fast and Furious
A civil lawsuit filed Monday by House Republicans asks a federal court to enforce a congressional subpoena of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in his refusal to turn over documents sought in an investigation by a House committee into the failed Fast and Furious gunrunning operation. Published August 13, 2012
Ryan’s voting record shows conservatism tinged with maverick streak
Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republicans’ presumptive vice presidential nominee, has amassed a very conservative voting record during his seven terms in Congress, including repeated votes against spending bills, unemployment benefit extensions and most of President Obama’s agenda. Published August 11, 2012
Obama and Ryan have tangled repeatedly
When Mitt Romney taps Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate on Saturday, he is picking someone who has already tangled toe-to-toe with President Obama on several occasions, and is prepared for the bruising battle ahead. Published August 11, 2012
Conservative ads in Spanish tell a different story to Hispanics
Polls show President Obama holds a clear advantage among Hispanic voters this year, but a new Spanish-language television ad, running in Nevada and sponsored by a conservative group, aims to peel away those supporters by arguing that his administration set records for deporting illegal immigrants. Published August 9, 2012
Homeland Security asks public for help to rescue child porn victims
In an unusual move, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are distributing photos and asking for the public's help in identifying a woman the agency says was involved in child pornography with at least two young girls. Published August 9, 2012
IRS told employees to ignore potential fraud in program used by immigrants
IRS supervisors ignored employees who tried to warn agency higher-ups of fraud in a program designed to collect taxes from immigrants, resulting in the agency paying out potentially bogus refunds, according to an official audit released Wednesday. Published August 8, 2012
Judges admit they goofed on taxpayer-funded Hawaii conference
Under fire from prominent Senate Republicans, the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says that, looking back, they probably made a bad decision when they scheduled a judges' meeting, at taxpayers' expense, in famously expensive Hawaii. Published August 8, 2012
Slow path to progress for U.S. immigrants
Immigrants lag behind native-born Americans on most measures of economic well-being — even those who have been in the U.S. the longest, according to a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, which argues that full assimilation is a more complex task than overcoming language or cultural differences. Published August 8, 2012
Work getting done on Senate floor — literally
Finally some work is happening on the Senate floor, only in this case it's literal work, not the legislative kind that's been sorely missing recently. Published August 7, 2012
Dream-Act students will pay $465 fee for legal status document
The Homeland Security Department said Friday that illegal immigrants will have to pay $465 to apply for legal status in the U.S. under President Obama's administration Dream Act, with the fees going to make sure no taxpayer funds are used. Published August 3, 2012
Slaying the monstrous tax code is no easy task
From President Obama to House Speaker John A. Boehner, there's broad consensus that Congress needs to unclutter the federal tax code and remove the special breaks that litter its 70,000 pages -- but Thursday's dry run in a Senate committee showed just how tough it will be to slash. Published August 2, 2012
