Barnini Chakraborty Archive

North Dakota passes most restrictive abortion bills in nation

Published March 15, 2013

North Dakota’s Senate passed a pair of anti-abortion measures Friday that are considered to be the most restrictive in the nation, including one that would prevent women from having an abortion based on a genetic defect. 

Do conservatives stand with Rand? CPAC opening highlights divisions in party

Published March 14, 2013

The Conservative Political Action Conference -- CPAC for short -- kicked off its three-day conservative conclave with some GOP headliners. But the gathering also shined a spotlight on some of the divides within the Republican Party. 

Feds offering high-paid internships despite sequester

Published March 14, 2013

Despite this new season of sequestration, a host of federal agencies continue to offer high-paying internships, often requiring applicants have little more than a mediocre GPA and a year of college under their belt.

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.