McClatchy DC

Secrets piling up faster than government can declassify some

Boxes of unclassified documents sit on a cart at the National Declassification Center in College Park, Maryland

In the darkened stacks of a nondescript building in the suburbs outside Washington, dozens of federal employees wearing protective gloves spend day after day sifting through millions of pages of secret documents, some of them nearly a century old... 2 hours ago

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Archive by category ''McClatchy DC

MCCLATCHY DC

Idaho GOP seeks to halt cities' anti-discrimination ordinances

Maryanne Jordan said she's not worried - yet - that state lawmakers will undo city laws that protect homosexuals from discrimination. On the other hand, Boise's City Council president left no doubt how she felt about Idaho Republicans' resolution encouraging legislators to do just that.

3 hours ago
MCCLATCHY DC

NSA chief: Spying stopped 50 terrorist ‘events’

The director of the National Security Agency testified Tuesday that the government’s massive surveillance program helped thwart more than 50 terrorist “events” worldwide since Sept. 11, 2001, including a planned bombing of the New York Stock Exchange that involved a Kansas City...
MCCLATCHY DC

Farm bill is fertile ground for complaints

California dairy processors are still trying to squeeze a better deal from a big farm bill up for House debate this week.
MCCLATCHY DC

IRS cases were referred to ‘Group 7822’

The Internal Revenue Service diverted applications for tax-exempt status from tea party and like-minded organizations to a special track known as Group 7822 for special scrutiny, according to transcripts of an interview by congressional interrogators with a key IRS official.
MCCLATCHY DC

IRS scandal brings out more charges of political audits

If reports of political targeting of conservatives by the Internal Revenue Service shocked the nation, they didn’t seem that surprising to many other groups who experienced problems with the tax agency in the past.
MCCLATCHY DC

Dispute over Obama’s choices for D.C. court centers on need – and politics

A fight is brewing over President Barack Obama's efforts to fill three vacancies on a single federal court that Republicans claim doesn't do enough work to merit them.
MCCLATCHY DC

As public concerns grow, Congress spooked over spying

The American people are growing increasingly concerned about reports of domestic spying. And Congress isn’t sure how to respond.
MCCLATCHY DC

U.S. says Syria used chemical weapons, will send military support to rebels

The U.S. will sendmilitary support to Syrian rebels after finding the Syrian regime used chemical weapons on the opposition “multiple times,” the White House said Thursday, escalating involvement in a civil war in which President Barack Obama has resisted military involvement.
MCCLATCHY DC

Alaska delegation suspicious of NSA data collection

Sen. Mark Begich of Alaska is cosponsoring a bill that would end secret interpretations of the Patriot Act, which enabled the National Security Agency to collect billions of phone records from Americans.
MCCLATCHY DC

With student loan rates about to double, lawmakers squabble

Student loan rates will double to 6.8 percent on July 1 if Congress doesn’t settle on a new plan soon, but disagreements flared Thursday, not only between the two parties, but between a veteran Democrat and President Barack Obama.