Articles

Senate panel set to take up nomination of Trump’s AG pick

The Senate Judiciary Committee this week is set to take up the nomination of William Barr, President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. The committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said the panel will vote on Barr on Tuesday, though it’s likely Democrats will seek to postpone it.

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Trump, Congress leaders reach deal to end shutdown

Yielding to mounting pressure and growing disruption, President Donald Trump and congressional leaders on Friday reached a short-term deal to reopen the government for three weeks while negotiations continue over the president’s demands for money to build his long-promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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Indiana federal courts work as funds dwindle amid shutdown

In the Southern and Northern Indiana district courts, no workers have been furloughed and no pay periods have been skipped, but with the federal judiciary estimating it has funding only to sustain current levels of operations through the end of January, Hoosier jurisdictions are preparing for potential changes.

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Shutdown goes on as Trump offer doesn’t budge Democrats

Thirty-one days into the partial government shutdown, Democrats and Republicans appeared no closer to ending the impasse than when it began, with President Donald Trump lashing out at his opponents after they dismissed a plan he’d billed as a compromise.

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Supreme Court inaction suggests DACA safe for another year

The Obama-era program that shields young immigrants from deportation and that President Donald Trump has sought to end seems likely to survive for at least another year. That’s because the Supreme Court took no action Friday on the Trump administration’s request to decide by early summer whether Trump’s bid to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was legal. 

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Former Rep. Messer joins Faegre Baker Daniels

Former Indiana Congressman Luke Messer has joined Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting as a principal in Washington, D.C., where he will advise businesses and other entities across the nation on federal regulatory and policy developments.

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Congress to face same question: When will shutdown end?

Congress returns to Washington for its first full week of legislative business since control of the House reverted to Democrats, but lawmakers will be confronted with the same lingering question: When will the partial government shutdown end?

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Bill on federal workers’ back pay in shutdown heads to Trump

President Donald Trump is edging closer to declaring a national emergency to pay for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall as pressure mounts to end the three-week impasse that has closed parts of the government and deprived hundreds of thousands of workers of their salaries.

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Trump to take case for border wall to prime-time audience

President Donald Trump will argue to the nation Tuesday night that a “crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he’s demanding before ending a partial government shutdown that has hundreds of thousands of federal workers fearing missed paychecks on Friday.

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Senators renew attempt to protect special counsel Mueller

Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are renewing their attempt to protect special counsel Robert Mueller’s job, sending a signal to President Donald Trump as he keeps up his criticism of Mueller’s Russia investigation.

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High court to take new look at partisan electoral districts

The Supreme Court is plunging back into the issue of whether electoral districts can be too partisan. Disputes have arisen in cases involving North Carolina’s heavily Republican congressional map and a Democratic congressional district in Maryland, and the justices said Friday they will hear arguments in March.

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Day 13: Dems pass funding plan without wall, Trump digs in

On their first day in the majority, House Democrats on Thursday night passed a plan to re-open the government without funding President Donald Trump’s promised border wall. The largely party-line votes came after Trump made a surprise appearance at the White House briefing room pledging to keep up the fight for his signature campaign promise.

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No solution to shutdown in sight before Dems take House

The partial government shutdown will almost certainly be handed off to a divided government to solve in the new year — the first big confrontation between President Donald Trump and newly empowered Democrats — as agreement eludes Washington in the waning days of the Republican monopoly on power.

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Post-holiday, partial government shutdown to gain impact

Christmas has come and gone but the partial government shutdown is just getting started. Wednesday brings the first full business day after several government departments and agencies closed over the weekend due to a budgetary stalemate between President Donald Trump and Congress. And there is no end in sight.

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New rule: Pence, lawyer Congress members exempt from CLE

Indiana lawyers who are members of Congress, senators or vice president no longer have to worry about meeting continuing legal education requirements under a rule adopted this week by the Indiana Supreme Court. The new rule also decreases CLE credits required for state lawmakers who are attorneys.

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