Barnini Chakraborty Archive

Lawmakers question 'risky' $5.5B loan for high-speed Vegas train amid sequester cutbacks

Published March 13, 2013

While the Transportation Department warns that the sequester will lead to cutbacks causing snarled lines at airports across America, the agency is still considering a massive $5.5 billion government gamble on a high-speed train from suburban California to Vegas.

Cattle (Industry) Prod: USDA meat-labeling rules stir backlash

Published March 12, 2013

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is facing a backlash from small livestock producers and others over its move to tighten meat-labeling regulations, which would force them to separate animals based on where they were born, raised and slaughtered. 

Lawmaker looks to rein in program after free cell phones sent to dead people

Published March 11, 2013

Dead people don’t need cell phones. That’s the message Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas wants to send Congress, after he says a controversial government-backed program that helps provide phones to low-income Americans ended up sending mobiles to the dead relatives of his constituents.

Lawmakers urge administration to take tougher stance against NK threats

Published March 08, 2013

Republican lawmakers called on President Obama Friday to take stronger stance against a nuclear-armed North Korea and its leader’s increasingly hostile threats against the United States.

White House suspends public tours, but first family trips in full swing

Published March 08, 2013

Visitors to the nation's capital looking for a White House public tour are out of luck starting this weekend, courtesy of what the Secret Service says is its own decision to deal with the sequester cuts. But while the agency said it needed to pull officers off the tours for more pressing assignments, the budget ax didn't swing early or deep enough to curtail a host of recent Secret Service-chaperoned trips. 

US faces tightrope walk in post-Chavez Venezuela

Published March 06, 2013

Now begins the delicate work of diplomacy. After Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez died Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry and the rest of the Obama administration are faced with a tightrope-walk challenge. How to repair badly damaged relations with a key Latin American country without scuttling those chances by giving the impression of meddling in their internal affairs?

The next carefully crafted steps could finally begin to thaw the decades-old deep-freeze between the two nations.

Border towns brace for sequester's budget squeeze

Published February 28, 2013

In the tiny border town of Nogales, Ariz., it's the small shop owners, restaurant workers and independent businessmen and women who are bracing for the sting of sequester. They know the government spending cuts will start Friday. And they know their livelihoods will be affected.

High-flying Holder: Report shows AG, FBI director used luxury jets for personal travel

Published February 28, 2013

Two high-tech luxury jets that the FBI convinced Congress were needed for the fight against global terrorism have instead been used to ferry around Attorney General Eric Holder and his predecessors, as well as FBI Director Robert Mueller, according to a government report released Thursday.

Colorado Republicans bristle as White House meddles in state's gun control debate

Published February 27, 2013

Republican lawmakers in Colorado say they want the White House to stay out of their state battle over gun control, accusing Vice President Biden of personally leaning on Democratic legislators for their votes in a tight campaign that could change the national conversation on gun rights.

Red-light reversal? Lawmakers push to rein in traffic cameras

Published February 22, 2013

Red-light cameras have steadily popped up across the country, snagging supposed scofflaws and generating untold numbers of traffic tickets. But despite the revenue boost, some state and local lawmakers are beginning to fall out of love with these electronic tattle-tales.