Washington has once again managed to turn a criminal investigation into a political firestorm, and this time, the center of attention is Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Yesterday, federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations searched Omar's Washington, D.C., home under a warrant obtained by the Department of Justice. The search was part of an…
Presidential Families, Foreign Gifts, & the Senate’s Next Move
Washington has discovered a political dilemma old enough to qualify for Social Security: What happens when the standards politicians enthusiastically applied to the other party suddenly wander across the aisle and sit down in their own living room? Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, is asking the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate whether presidential family…
When the Press Pool Becomes the Story
There’s something almost impressively Washington about a fight over news coverage becoming bigger news than whatever the reporters were supposed to be covering. President Trump’s decision to ban CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House has now escalated well beyond another round of complaints about “fake news.” Reporters from the three organizations lost…
Al Green’s Impeachment Effort and the Debate Over Immigration Enforcement
The dispute over President Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda has reached the impeachment debate. Representative Al Green’s effort raises a question that goes beyond whether Americans favor more deportations: When does the way an administration enforces immigration law become grounds for removing a president? House lawmakers rejected the effort. That establishes its immediate legislative outcome, but…
Oil, Power, and the New U.S.–Venezuela Agreement
President Trump announced what he calls the biggest oil deal in history: an agreement that could give the United States a controlling interest in the output from 17 Venezuelan oil fields containing a reported 65 billion barrels. The arrangement could reshape American energy security, revive Venezuela’s battered petroleum industry, and shift influence in the Western…
Ghislaine Maxwell’s Latest Challenge: Finality, Fairness, and the Epstein Files
The Jeffrey Epstein saga has produced an almost endless supply of sealed files, suspicious timing, institutional embarrassment, political opportunism, and questions that refuse to die. This week, however, a federal judge answered one question quite firmly: Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction is staying put. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer rejected Maxwell’s attempt to overturn her five…
The $103,265 H-1B Fee Proposal and the Future of Skilled Immigration
Washington has discovered a way to make immigration paperwork cost more than some houses. As The Hill reports, the Department of Homeland Security formally published a proposed rule yesterday that would add a $103,265 fee to every cap-subject H-1B petition, including petitions under the advanced-degree exemption. The charge would come on top of the filing…
The U.S.-Canada Tariff Dispute and Its Economic Stakes
For two countries that share the world’s longest international border, the United States and Canada are doing a remarkable impression of neighbors arguing over whose tree dropped leaves into whose yard. Unfortunately, this disagreement involves 50 percent tariffs, billions of dollars in trade, and enough economic collateral damage to make an ordinary property-line dispute look…
Hoekstra & the Strains in U.S.–Canada Relations
The diplomatic temperature between the United States and Canada was already running warm before a growing number of Canadians decided that Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa, should be shown the door. An official House of Commons petition, opened July 21 and sponsored by Green Party MP Elizabeth May, has collected more than 105,000…
Reconsidering America’s Childhood Vaccine Recommendations
Childhood vaccines have somehow become one more subject that Americans are expected to discuss while wearing political jerseys. Question the government too aggressively, and one side calls you an anti-science crank. Defend established vaccines too confidently, and the other side assumes you receive handwritten Christmas cards from pharmaceutical executives. Such is the calm, reasonable state…
