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The US government is rushing to evacuate Americans from the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan as officials warned the deadly strain's spread is picking up speed. A charter flight is scheduled to fly from the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday. The US consulate in Wuhan began reaching out to all Americans registered as living in the city - of which there are said to be roughly 1,000 - last week to offer them a seat on the plane. The State Department warned that the single flight will have 'limited capacity' to transport private US...

Second protester rushes stage at Shakespeare in the Park.  

Some congressional Republicans were quick to agree Thursday with Democrats calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election, following leaks and media reports that Sessions met with Moscow’s ambassador twice last year. During a town hall with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on CNN Wednesday evening, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said that if Sessions had spoken with the Russian ambassador, “then for sure you need a special prosecutor.” Graham did later call demands for Sessions' resignation "crazy" in a series of Thursday tweets, but added "Sessions needs to explain his...

In August of last year, the assembled White House press corps generously acquiesced to the president’s throat-clearing demande du choix and let him “be clear” on the subject of Syria “We have been very clear to the Assad regime,” he insisted, and “also to other players on the ground.” Heretofore, Obama explained, he had not considered military action against Syria to be necessary. But he knew when he would: “A red line for us,” the president established, “is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” And what would happen should either of those...

With the budget impasse about to result in a government shutdown, the federal government has just hours to finish up its highest priorities in the discretionary-spending world. Would that be paying the troops? Staffing Social Security support centers? Prosecuting criminals in federal court? Not exactly, as the Washington Post discovered this morning. The Department of Justice will spend its remaining budget today trying to expedite approval of a deal involving one of Barack Obama’s most significant supporters and one of his informal presidential advisers: With a government shutdown looming, the Justice Department is hurrying to approve a controversial deal by...

WASHINGTON - The capital's famous cherry trees are primed to burst out in a perfect pink peak about the end of this month. Thirty years ago, the trees usually waited to bloom till around April 5. In central California, the first of the field skipper sachem, a drab little butterfly, was fluttering about on March 12. Just 25 years ago, that creature predictably emerged there anywhere from mid-April to mid-May. And sneezes are coming earlier in Philadelphia. On March 9, when allergist Dr. Donald Dvorin set up his monitor, maple pollen was already heavy in the air. Less than two...

Asia Rushes to Bury 63,000 Tsunami VictimsBANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Workers from Indonesia to India rushed to bury corpses to ward off disease Wednesday as cargo planes touched down with promised aid from lentils to water purifiers — to help the region cope with its tsunami catastrophe. The death toll soared to 63,000. Chances faded of finding more survivors of Sunday's massive, quake-driven walls of water — probably the deadliest in history. With tens of thousands of people still missing, the toll in nearly a dozen affected countries was sure to climb further. "We have little hope, except for individual...