WASHINGTON — Efforts to prevent the U.S. economy from going over a “fiscal cliff” stirred back to life on Wednesday with less than a week to go before potentially disastrous tax hikes and spending cuts kick in at the New Year. In a sign that there may be a way through deadlock in Congress, Republican […]
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Posted inNation / World
Obama backs assault weapons ban as he calls for quick action
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Wednesday his administration will come up with “concrete proposals” by next month to help stem gun violence in the United States and endorsed restrictions on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. “Words need to lead to action,” Obama said at the White House, where he announced that he’s putting […]
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Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Pot proponents wary but hopeful after Obama comments
SEATTLE — Officials and pot advocates looking for any sign of whether the Obama administration will sue to block legal pot laws in Washington state and Colorado or stand idly by as they are implemented got one from the president himself. But it did little to clear the air. While they welcomed President Barack Obama’s […]
Posted inBusiness, Nation / World, sj-web
Obama, Boehner meet in private to discuss “fiscal cliff”
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner met Sunday at the White House to discuss the ongoing negotiations over the impending “fiscal cliff,” the first meeting between just the two leaders since they both won re-election. Spokesmen for both Obama and Boehner said they agreed to not release details of the conversation, […]
Posted inMaine, Nation / World, sj-web
11 GOP governors, including LePage, fight Medicaid expansion
WASHINGTON — Republican governors, including Maine Gov. Paul LePage, are ratcheting up pressure on President Barack Obama to scale back a key provision of his health-care law. In a letter to Obama last week, 11 governors asked for a meeting “as soon as possible” to negotiate for greater control over their Medicaid programs. Among other […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Obama seeks to put personal touch on cliff talks
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — President Barack Obama, trying to put a personal touch on “fiscal cliff” negotiations, visited a northern Virginia family’s basement apartment Thursday to press his hard line on tax rate increases for the wealthy. “We’re in the midst of the Christmas season,” Obama said, sitting at a table in the Santana family’s […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Early December pick expected for Defense Secretary
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama could name his next defense secretary in December, far sooner than expected and perhaps in a high-powered package announcement with his choice for secretary of state, several senior administration officials tell The Associated Press. The personnel moves, coupled with Obama’s coming choice for a new leader of the Central Intelligence […]
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
Obama presses GOP on ‘Scrooge Christmas’
HATFIELD, Pa. — President Barack Obama argued Friday that allowing taxes to rise for the middle class would amount to a “lump of coal” for Christmas, while Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared that negotiations to surmount a looming fiscal cliff are going “almost nowhere.” Obama took his case to an audience in a Philadelphia […]
Posted inLetters
M. Newell: What to tell the grandchildren?
Americans have re-elected a president who has sunk this country into the worst debt in history. This country’s credit rating has been downgraded three times in four years and debt stands at $16 trillion. Obama refuses to work with a Republican Congress and has not submitted a required budget in four years. He is a […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Obama defends Myanmar trip
BANGKOK — President Barack Obama on Sunday defended his trip to Myanmar, also known as Burma, insisting that the visit Monday is “not an endorsement” of the nation’s long-repressive leadership but rather an acknowledgment that the country is making progress toward reform. “I don’t think anybody is under any illusion that Burma has arrived, that […]