WASHINGTON (AP) — A $1.1 trillion spending bill for operating the government until just before next fall’s election steamed through the battle-weary House on Wednesday over tepid protests from tea party conservatives, driven by a bipartisan desire to restore painful cuts in domestic and defense programs and show disaffected voters that Congress can do its […]
Obama
Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Auburn man pardoned
AUBURN — A story that ran on Page B5 Friday should have named Derek Laliberte as the Auburn man who was pardoned by Barack Obama. It was a reporting error.
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Auburn man pardoned by Obama
AUBURN — What a difference a couple of decades make. Twenty years ago, Derek Laliberte was convicted by the federal government of money laundering. Prison loomed. The future looked bleak. On Thursday, the 48-year-old received a pardon, one of several pardons and commutations granted by President Barack Obama. The pardon doesn’t mean a lot in […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Carrots, sticks and sanctions: The Iranian nuclear deal examined
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a potentially history-shaping choice of diplomacy over confrontation, the U.S. and other world powers agreed Sunday to give Iran six months to open its nuclear sites to possible daily inspections in exchange for allowing Tehran to maintain the central elements of its uranium program, in a multi-layered deal to test Iran’s […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Iran nuclear deal reached in 5th day of talks
GENEVA (AP) — Iran struck a historic nuclear deal Sunday with the United States and five other world powers, in the most significant development between Washington and Tehran in more than three decades of estrangement between the two nations. The agreement commits Iran to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for limited and gradual sanctions […]
Posted inOur View
The disaster that is HealthCare.gov
President Barack Obama is having a President George W. Bush moment. Or is Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius having a FEMA Director Michael Brown moment? Actually, it’s both. Days after Hurricane Katrina hit the southern United States in 2005, and well after the world was aware of the scope of the storm’s destruction […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Iraq seeking new U.S. aid after pushing out troops
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two years after pushing out the U.S. military, Iraq is asking for more American weapons, training and manpower to help fight a bloody resurgence of al-Qaida that has unleashed a level of violence comparable to the darkest days of the nation’s sectarian conflict. The request will be discussed during a White […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Obama blames ‘bad apple’ insurers for canceled coverage
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that “bad apple” insurance companies, not his signature healthcare law, are to blame for hundreds of thousands of people losing their coverage in the past few weeks. As administration officials scrambled to fix technical problems on an online insurance marketplace that is central to the success of the Affordable […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Website contractors point fingers at Obama admin.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Contractors who built the web portal for the Obama administration’s health insurance marketplace said Thursday the site’s crippling problems trace back to insufficient testing and changes that government officials made just prior to going live. Who’s to blame? The first congressional hearing into what went wrong dug into issues of website architecture […]
Posted inNation / World, sj-web
Government reopens after 16-day shutdown; Obama accuses Republicans of damaging U.S. economy
WASHINGTON (AP) — In withering day-after criticism, President Barack Obama declared Thursday that the 16-day partial government shutdown was a Republican-provoked spectacle that “encouraged our enemies” around the world. Elsewhere in Washington, and around the country, federal employees simply streamed back to their jobs. National parks reopened. The popular panda cam at the National Zoo […]