GSA official skipped training to lounge at posh resort

The Chateau on the Lake in Branson, Mo., bills itself as a resort getaway with poolside attendants, a luxury spa and mountaintop tennis courts overlooking the clear waters of Table Rock Lake. For one General Services Administration official, the luxury apparently proved such a delight that the official stayed at the hotel, but failed to attend any of the government training sessions that were the purpose of the 2009 trip. Read more...

Lawmakers press State Dept. on Iranian dissidents

Lawmakers have pressed a top State Department official on whether the Obama administration believes that a group of Iranian dissidents in an Iraqi camp has given up their weapons. Read more...

Impact of super PACs felt in GOP Senate primary races

Super PACs — the outside fundraising groups expected to play a big role in the November elections — already have been involved heavily in GOP Senate primary races, in which they have boosted the campaigns of underfunded insurgents. Read more...

Democrat-led Senate votes down 4 GOP budgets

The Senate on Wednesday rejected every single budget being offered this year, leaving the chamber — and therefore the federal government — without a plan to address Medicare, Social Security and the other major entitlement programs that are driving deficits and debt. Read more...

Inside the Ring: Terrorists' antics

The Washington-based legal group Judicial Watch earlier this month sent an investigator to Guantanamo Bay Naval Air Station, Cuba, to watch the May 5 arraignment of Khalid Shaikh Mohammadand four others accused of plotting and executing the Sept. 11, 2001, airline attacks. Judicial Watch outlined the disruptive tactics of the five terrorism suspects, who stretched out the proceedings for 13 hours through a series of deliberate delaying actions. Read more...

Obama sidelined as player in summits

As President Obama prepares to play host to a doubleheader of global diplomacy at the Group of Eight and NATO summits this weekend, there are increasing signs that the world is tuning out his message. Read more...

Sparks fly in debt brawl redux at White House meeting

President Obama’s meeting with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders Wednesday, during which he planned to lecture them on his five-point to-do list of economic priorities, quickly devolved into a redux of last year’s showdown over the federal budget. Read more...

Fitch Ratings has downgraded Greek sovereign debt, reflecting "heightened risk that Greece may not be able to sustain its membership of Economic and Monetary Union."  Read more...

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has a status update for Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin: Stop attempting to dodge your taxes by renouncing your U.S. citizenship or never come to back to the U.S. again. Read more...

Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco, died this morning after a battle with cancer. TMZ reports Summer was in Florida at the time of her death. She was 63 years old. Read more...

A Baltimore County delegate said Wednesday that the governor should send in the Maryland State Police to control "roving mobs of black youths" at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, prompting a colleague to label the message "race-baiting."  Read more...

Elizabeth Warren was touting her claim of Cherokee heritage as early as 1984, according to a cookbook titled “Pow Wow Chow” edited by her cousin that includes Warren’s recipes for a savory crab omelet and spicy barbecued beans. Read more...

Greeks withdrew more than $900 million Monday and another $600 million Tuesday, according to the Greek Central Bank. While deposits have been steadily leaving banks since the start of the country's debt problems in 2009, this week's outpouring of cash reflects a new level of panic, analysts say. Read more...

Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng called into a congressional hearing again on Tuesday, detailing reported abuse of his relatives and friends in the wake of his escape. “I am not a hero," he said through a translator. "I’m just doing what my conscience asks me to do. I cannot be silent when facing these evils against women and children.” Read more...

An upcoming NATO summit in Chicago has put city officials, security forces and even residents on high alert, bracing for the arrival of thousands of international dignitaries, reporters and protesters.  Read more...

Many of us have taken it for granted that all Republicans would work for full repeal of Obamacare. After all, not a single Republican voted for it. Unfortunately, top GOP leaders have expressed their desire to keep the slacker and pre-existing mandates in place on numerous occasions.  Read more...

White House allies are already preparing a sweeping public relations campaign in response to next month's Supreme Court ruling on President Obama's health care law, one aimed at building political support for the law whichever way the court rules. The strategy focuses on "real people' stories" and requires "people with stories ... to be recruited, trained and prepared to respond within 24 hours by the end of May."  Read more...

Three years ago, President Obama cut a secret deal with pharmaceutical company lobbyists to secure the industry’s support for his national health care law.  Read more...

The feds predict that they will dispatch or authorize about 30,000 unmanned aerial vehicles across America in the next 10 years. Meanwhile, more than 300 local and state police departments are awaiting federal permission to use the drones they already have purchased — usually with federal stimulus funds. The government is out of control.  Read more...

The Spanish government rejected reports Thursday that the country's troubled lender Bankia was facing a massive deposit drain, aiming to offset investor fears as the bank's stock price continued to tumble. Shares in Bankia plunged more than 25 percent in early trading. Read more...

The Obama administration is playing down reports that it is seeking support among Group of Eight countries for a coordinated drawdown of strategic oil reserves when G-8 leaders meet this week. Read more...

U.S. plans for a possible military strike on Iran are ready and the option is "fully available", the U.S. ambassador to Israel said, days before Tehran resumes talks with world powers which suspect it of seeking to develop nuclear arms. Read more...

An 844-foot-long U.S. Navy assault ship collided with a refueling tanker Wednesday about 120 miles off the coast of California.  Read more...

The United States is helping bring more and better weapons to Syria's rebels, including anti-tank weaponry, for their fight against President Bashar al-Assad regime, a report said Wednesday.  Read more...

A new in-depth database of federal worker salaries shows the government paid out a whopping $105 billion in salaries last year for most of its civilian workforce — to boot, the workers got $439 million in bonuses.  Read more...

Justice for the accused Butcher of Bosnia is once again on hold: Ratko Mladic's war crimes trial was suspended Thursday in only its second day, after it came to light that the prosecution had failed to disclose some evidence against Mladic to the defense as required.  Read more...

Officials in Afghanistan say a group of suicide bombers have attacked a governor's compound in western Afghanistan, and at least 11 people are dead, including the assailants. Read more...

Georgetown University seems to be in serious danger of losing what makes it truly special: its historical commitment to a quality Catholic education.  Read more...

It’s tricky business invoking the framers, especially for liberals, who have to face a mass of contradictions. After all, they usually argue the Constitution is infinitely flexible and never intended to be a captive of the “dead hand of history.” Suddenly discussing original intent when it is convenient comes across as hypocritical. Read more...

President Obama on Wednesday found out what congressional leaders thought of his gimmicky “to-do” list. The country is headed over a fiscal cliff, and House Speaker John A. Boehner said the only list worth discussing would address the troubles that are going to hit by year’s end. Read more...

Though protesters scream about draconian cuts and enforced austerity, actual government spending in Greece has declined by a mere 3 percent. Such a small slice only counts as “draconian” in profligate places like Brussels, Athens and Washington. The Greek economy, on the other hand, has shrunk by 20 percent over the last four years. Read more...

Maintaining our freedom and way of life requires that we retain our global leadership with a national strategy for military superiority that determines our military budget. What’s happening today is the reverse, and it will fail. Read more...

It started when Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren was said to have used tenuous claims of Native American heritage to further her career. The defense for listing herself as a minority in a directory of law professors for almost a decade rested on the roots of Warren's great-great-great-grandmother. If true, that would make Warren 1/32 Cherokee. It was not. Now, Warren relies on tales of "high cheekbones" and media outlets like the Boston Globe, which buried the news that she was 0.00 percent Cherokee. It's hard to see how Harvard's first blond-haired, blue-eyed "woman of color" will get her campaign back on track.  Read more...