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White House calls on financial regulators to bring back safeguards for regional banks
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration, placing blame on Trump-era rollbacks, Thursday called on federal banking regulators to reinstate safeguards for regional banks after the record-setting collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank of New York earlier this month. The White House wants the agencies to revive regular stress testing at banks in the $100- […]
U.S. judge rules insurers don’t have to cover many free preventive health services
WASHINGTON – Health insurance companies may no longer need to cover a wide swath of preventive health care services that were required by the 2010 Affordable Care Act, under a federal judge’s ruling issued Thursday in Texas. The decision could affect millions of Americans’ access to no-cost preventive health care – including pregnancy-related care, cancer […]
Members of U.S. Senate panel press financial regulators on massive bank failures
WASHINGTON – Financial regulators promised a full review of Silicon Valley Bank’s massive failure as members of a key U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday interrogated the officials about what led to the second-largest bank collapse in U.S. history. Members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs asked if the Federal Reserve could […]
Pentagon to halt use of firefighting foam that contains PFAS as cleanup costs mount
WASHINGTON – Battered by years of criticism from U.S. lawmakers and environmental advocates, the Department of Defense will stop purchasing PFAS-containing firefighting foam later this year and phase it out entirely in 2024. The replacement for Aqueous Film Forming Foam has yet to be determined, and advocates are frustrated it’s taken so long to halt […]
Biden says U.S. bank deposits are safe despite tumult over California bank collapse
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden reassured Americans early Monday that their money is safe in U.S. banks, after a tumultuous weekend following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and a move by regulators to shut down a second lender. Americans “should feel confident that their deposits will be there, if and when they need them,” […]
Biden pick for U.S. archivist caught up in controversy over missing presidential documents
WASHINGTON – The nominee for archivist of the United States made her second appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee Tuesday, after the panel blocked her last Congress following a high-profile probe into records at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Colleen Shogan, an executive for the nonprofit White House Historical Association […]
Biden says no evidence yet that unidentified flying objects were tied to China spying
WASHINGTON – In his first address since the U.S. military shot down three unidentified flying objects last weekend, just days after taking down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the actions and said the skies above the U.S. will now be more closely scrutinized. Biden, who was under increasing pressure […]
One missile fired at mystery flying object wound up in Lake Huron, officials say
WASHINGTON – The American public may know by week’s end the administration’s strategy on unidentified flying objects going forward, but some questions about three recent ones shot down by the U.S. military may not be answered for a long time, if ever. Debris from the three low-altitude objects downed by U.S. Air Force air-to-air missiles […]
Midwestern, Western states in spotlight after mystery flying objects shot down by military
WASHINGTON – Military posts in Midwestern and Western states played key roles in the unprecedented downings of multiple unmanned aerial objects over the North American continent this weekend. Members of Congress and governors from the states involved and from both parties have shared information about the downings on Twitter and in statements, in some cases […]
China balloon’s voyage across Alaska, Montana, and U.S. enrages members of U.S. Senate panel
WASHINGTON – A bipartisan group of U.S. senators grilled Pentagon officials Thursday on why a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon was permitted to fly over Alaska and across the lower 48 states before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina. The Senate Committee on Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, led by Montana Democrat Jon Tester, featured questions […]
Biden in State of the Union address draws boos and shouts from a combative GOP
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden began his State of the Union address Tuesday – his first to a divided Congress – with an appeal to bipartisan priorities, but later criticized parts of the GOP agenda and got a sense of Republicans’ appetite for conflict during one combative stretch. Biden opened the 72-minute speech with an […]
Chinese surveillance balloon now drifting across the middle of the U.S., Pentagon confirms
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will postpone his planned trip to Beijing after the U.S. detected a Chinese surveillance balloon hovering over Montana. A senior State Department official said Friday that despite the Chinese government claiming the balloon had entered U.S. airspace accidentally, its presence was a “clear violation of sovereignty.” The […]