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The White House’s new rules exempting an administrative office from being subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) have raised eyebrows among transparency advocates. The FOIA allows citizens to obtain government documents from federal agencies. In a Federal Register notice scheduled to publish on Tuesday morning, the action to exempt the Office of Administration is listed as a final rule, implying there will be no opportunity for public comment. The notice highlights that the Executive Office of the President, Office of Administration, is removing regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations related to the status of records created and...

WASHINGTON — The White House is stepping up its antagonism toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite his victory in this week’s elections, signaling that it is in no rush to repair a historic rift between the United States and Israel. The sharpened tone indicates that the Obama administration may be re-evaluating its relationship with its closest ally in the Middle East, having lost patience with Mr. Netanyahu in the closing days of an election campaign in which he spotlighted deep disagreements with President Obama over a Palestinian state and a nuclear deal with Iran. “You reach a tipping point,” said...

A grand jury subpoena released late Friday by the state Auditor’s Office shows that the U.S. Department of Justice sought documents about a part-time technical writer who used to work with state Auditor Troy Kelley in a business that tracked loan and real estate documents. The federal subpoena requested email conversations between Jason Jerue and other auditor’s office employees relating to Jerue’s past employment at Post Closing Department, Kelley’s company that became embroiled in a lawsuit with a former client, Old Republic Title. The subpoena, which was served on the Auditor’s Office March 6, also requested emails between Jerue and...

The committee investigating Benghazi formally requested Friday that Hillary Rodham Clinton turn her email server over to an independent third party so it can be scrutinized to determine whether she and the Obama administration complied with open-records laws. Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy sent a letter to the former secretary of state’s personal lawyer making the request, which he said only comes after “exhaustive efforts” to get a look at her communications during the time of the 2012 terrorist attack on the diplomatic post in Libya’s second-largest city.

UPDATED: B. Todd Jones, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed this morning that he is leaving that post, nine days after a leading national gun rights organization called on him to step down or be fired primarily because of the controversy over the agency’s recent proposal to ban a popular type of ammunition for modern sport-utility rifles. Jones, who is departing March 31, was appointed director of the scandal-plagued agency in 2013. Last week, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms called for his resignation or dismissal in the wake of...

House Speaker John Boehner showed up President Barack Obama earlier this month by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge Congress against a nuclear deal with Iran. Now, with negotiations stalling over the timing of sanctions relief and centrifuge development, the GOP leader is setting the stage to do it again. Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected lead a group of lawmakers to Israel at the end of March, a trip that could coincide with the March 31 deadline to get a framework agreement in place, according to reports. Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith confirmed the visit and said it was planned...

Options to stop a nuclear Iran are not yet limited to President Obama’s bad deal or war WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ-8, today reintroduced the Sanction Iran, Safeguard America Act to impose sanctions against Iran and help safeguard America in the face of the Obama Administration’s disastrous proposed nuclear deal with Iran.“As the self-perpetuating negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program drag on, it is time for a moment of clarity,” said Sen. Cruz. “It is time to tell the American people the truth. These talks are not going to prevent the Islamic Republic...

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The talks between Iran and the P5+1 group over Tehran’s attempts to create nuclear weapons have stalled again as the Iranian negotiators escalated their demands for sanctions relief. Instead of phasing out sanctions — after several large concessions on economic pressure just to get Iran to the table — the Iranians now demand an end to sanctions at the front end of the deal.The West has balked at the demand. For now, at least: The U.S. and its European allies are demanding the U.N.’s sanctions be suspended or terminated in a phased...

A body found in a New Jersey river is that of missing Wall Street Journal reporter David Bird, who disappeared more than a year ago, authorities announced Thursday. Bird's remains were pulled from the Passaic River by dive teams Wednesday about a mile from where he vanished -- on the border of Morris and Somerset counties. Bird, an avid hiker and father of two, was last seen by his family on Jan. 11, 2014, as he was leaving his Long Hill Township, N.J., home to go on a walk.

A senior Israeli official said Friday that defense ties with the United States would remain "intensive" despite a deepening rift between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. "Defense relations continue full strength. Everything concerning the security dialogue is deep, broad and intensive," Gilad said. "These ties will continue and are continuing." The White House threatened on Thursday that it might withdraw crucial diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, where the Palestinian Authority (PA) has pledged to step up a campaign pushing for international recognition as a state, a unilateral move that breaches the 1993 Oslo...

WAIMANALO, Hawaii —A well-known Waimanalo home has been sold, but the big question is who is the buyer? The talk around town points to President Barack Obama, and there is a connection between the president and the buyer of this multi-million dollar estate. Waimanalo is known for its friendly atmosphere and beautiful Windward Oahu beaches. "We enjoy this. I don't know if it will be the same. If it's the same, it's all good," said Waimanalo resident Uncle Nawai. The sale of the Waimanalo property named Pahonu has people talking about potential changes to their community. "It started a couple...

A 19-year-old was banned from the discussion portion of a humanities class at Reed College after students complained that his opinions on sexual assault made them feel uncomfortable. He doesn’t want to keep quiet. Reed College, a small liberal arts school in Portland, Oregon, attracts students who want to speak their mind. But when Jeremiah True wouldn’t stop talking about his controversial opinions on sexual assault in his required freshman humanities course, his professor banned him from the discussion segment of the class for the remainder of the semester. The 19-year-old told BuzzFeed News that his professor, Pancho Savery, warned...

KALISZ, Poland — For evidence of how much President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has jangled nerves and provoked anxiety across Eastern Europe, look no farther than the drill held the other day by the Shooters Association. The paramilitary group, like more than 100 others in Poland, has experienced a sharp spike in membership since Mr. Putin’s forces began meddling in neighboring Ukraine last year. Thirty students took an oath to defend Poland at all costs, joining nearly 200 other regional members of the association — young men and women, boys and girls — marching in formation around the perimeter...

A federal judge who has blocked President Barack Obama's immigration executive action suggested on Thursday that he could order sanctions against the Justice Department if he rules it mislead him about when exactly the administration began implementing one of the measures. During a sometimes testy court hearing, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen went back and forth with the Justice Department over whether it had mislead him into believing that a key part of Obama's program would not be implemented before he made a ruling on a request for a preliminary injunction. In fact, federal officials had given more than 108,000...

US Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed on Thursday to delay until at least mid-April any vote on a closely watched bill that would require President Barack Obama to submit any nuclear agreement with Iran for Congress' approval, congressional aides said. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had said he wanted to have the committee vote next Thursday. But Senate Democrats balked, reluctant to advance legislation the Obama administration has said could have a "profoundly negative impact" on the delicate nuclear talks with Iran, just as negotiators struggled to meet a late-March deadline for a framework...

Cruz is introducing his own Iran sanctions proposal. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)Just days before a deadline for an update on a potential announcement of a nuclear agreement with Iran, one Republican senator likely to run for president is renewing a sanctions push.Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is poised to introduce an updated version of legislation Thursday that would revive all sanctions previously loosened by the Obama administration, as well as expand petrochemical sanctions. Companion legislation is expected to be filed in the House of Representatives.Among the provisions is a requirement that the Iranian government renounce state sponsorship of terrorist activities.According to...

SPITE TOWARD BIBI “HARDENED” OBAMA’S RESOLVE TO DO IRAN NUKE DEAL NYT: “[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] objections to a nuclear deal with Iran, and his decision to firmly ally himself with Mr. Obama’s Republican opponents in expressing his ire over the Iran talks, may well have hardened the president’s decision to push for an agreement, one Obama adviser said Wednesday.” [Watch Fox: Netanyahu will be interviewed by Megyn Kelly, airing on “The Kelly File” tonight at 9 p.m. ET] White House steps up attacks - Fox News: “ In its first public response to Netanyahu's election triumph, White House...

WASHINGTON — President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had a poisonous relationship long before Mr. Netanyahu swept to victory on Tuesday night in elections watched minute-by-minute at the White House. But now that Mr. Netanyahu has won after aggressively campaigning against a Palestinian state and Mr. Obama’s potential nuclear deal with Iran, the question is whether the president and prime minister can ever repair their relationship — and whether Mr. Obama will even try. On Wednesday, part of the answer seemed to be that the president would not make the effort. In strikingly strong criticism, the White...

Following the upset in Israel that saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party and its allies win a decisive victory in Tuesday’s parliamentary elections, a few postmortems have observed that Israeli voters did not merely fail to reject Bibi but they also delivered a resounding rebuke to the Obama administration. As any nigh-omnipotent being would, President Barack Obama and his administration have begun to suggest that retribution is imminent for the state of Israel, its profane government, and its idolatrous voters. The retributive justice meted out to Israel by a wounded Obama administration began well before any votes were cast...

A draft nuclear accord now being negotiated between the United States and Iran would force Iran to cut the amount of hardware it could use to make an atomic bomb by about 40 percent for at least a decade, while offering immediate relief from sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy, officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. As an added enticement, elements of a U.N. arms embargo against Iran could be rolled back. The very existence of the draft provided perhaps the clearest indication that the sides were nearing a written agreement as they raced to meet a March 31...