Political News from Yahoo

In big push for Hagel, no leading from behind from White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Pentagon, prepared to meet with senior New York Senator Chuck Schumer in mid-January, the White House stepped in and ensured that the get-together would take place quickly - and in the West Wing. Some of the loudest objections to Obama's choice of Hagel for secretary of defense stemmed from lawmakers' concerns about his past comments on Israel and Iran. ...


Fed seen maintaining bond-buying, but divisions remain

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is expected to keep monetary policy on a steady path when it concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday, though behind the scenes intensive debate continues over when the controversial bond-buying program should be curtailed. The policy statement issued by the U.S. ...


U.S. growth seen braking as inventories, government weigh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy likely grew at its slowest pace in nearly two years in the fourth quarter as businesses added less stock to their warehouses and government spending fizzled, setting it up for a difficult start in 2013. Gross domestic product probably expanded at a 1.1 percent annual rate, braking sharply from a 3.1 percent clip in the third quarter, according to a Reuters poll of economists. That would mark the weakest growth pace since the first quarter of 2011 and it would show the economy entering the new year with little momentum. ...

AP Interview: Top Justice prosecutor Breuer quits

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a final response to his critics, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division defended his record on a pair of the defining issues of his four-year tenure — the absence of prosecutions against Wall Street executives and his conduct in the controversy over a botched arms-trafficking investigation in Arizona.


Treasury needs exit plan for Ally Financial: watchdog

(Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury needs to develop a concrete plan for exiting its 74 percent stake in auto lender Ally Financial Inc, the second-largest remaining recipient of federal bailout dollars, an internal watchdog said in a report released Wednesday. The agency, however, must exercise "great care and coordination" with the U.S. Federal Reserve in planning its exit to make sure Ally maintains a viable presence as a lender to the U.S. auto industry, said the watchdog, the special inspector general for the U.S. government's bailout program. Starting in 2008, the government pumped $17. ...

Japan PM: BOJ steps aimed at beating deflation, boosting economy

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's monetary and fiscal stimulus measures are aimed at beating deflation and boosting economic growth, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday, shrugging off criticism from some overseas policymakers that Tokyo was trying to intentionally weaken the yen. "I strongly hope that the Bank of Japan pursues bold monetary easing to achieve (2 percent inflation) as soon as possible," Abe said in parliament, keeping up pressure on the bank to expand monetary stimulus to beat deflation. (Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Shinichi Saoshiro)


China parliament: no flowers, gifts and keep speeches short

BEIJING (Reuters) - No flowers, no banquets, no gifts, no welcoming ceremonies and more importantly no useless long-winded speeches -- Chinese state media on Wednesday laid out strict instructions for this year's annual meeting of parliament. Normally a bastion of sycophancy, as the hand-picked delegates seek to out-compete each other in lauding the Communist Party, the official Xinhua news agency said that would change when the largely rubber stamp parliament meets in March. ...

Nudists lose bid to block San Francisco ban on baring all

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nudists in famously tolerant San Francisco lost a bid on Tuesday to block a city ban on nakedness in public places, when a federal judge threw out a legal challenge that argued public nudity was akin to political expression. San Francisco city leaders last month approved the ban on baring it all in streets, public plazas and the transit system to curtail public nudity, which some residents and business owners complained had gotten out of control. ...

Arizona Latinos say Obama's immigration push overdue

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Student Maxima Guerrero welcomed Democratic President Barack Obama's drive to give millions of illegal immigrants like her a pathway to U.S. citizenship on Tuesday, saying it cannot come soon enough for many in the tough-on-immigration state of Arizona. "It was a good step forward," said Guerrero, 22, a student in Phoenix. But one speech will not stop deportations, which are separating some local children from their parents, who entered the country illegally, she said. ...

Obama pushes Congress on immigration, split emerges

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Just over a week into his second term, President Barack Obama took his fight for immigration reform to the West on Tuesday and pushed Congress to quickly find a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented residents. But as Obama praised a bipartisan immigration plan during a speech in Las Vegas, disagreement emerged between the White House and Republicans that underscored the difficulty of resolving an emotive issue that has long defied a legislative fix. ...


Los Angeles official seeks to shut hotels for maternity tourists

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles official moved on Tuesday to crack down on so-called maternity hotels he said have sprung up across parts of Southern California as pregnant women travel to the United States in a growing "birthing tourism" trend. Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe asked colleagues to approve a series of steps designed to ultimately close the hotels - typically single-family homes carved into bedrooms where visiting women pay to stay in anticipation of giving birth to a child who will be born a U.S. citizen. ...

Actress Ashley Judd and race car driver Dario Franchitti split

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - American actress Ashley Judd and her Scottish race car driver husband Dario Franchitti are ending their marriage after 11 years. The movie star, 44, and the Indianapolis 500 race car driver, 39, married in 2001 and have no children. "We have mutually decided to end our marriage. We'll always be family and continue to cherish our relationship based on the special love, integrity and respect we have always enjoyed," a representative for the couple told People magazine in a statement on Tuesday. No reason was given for the split. ...


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