Over the weekend there was a major scandal over human rights abuses on the island of Cuba. No, not the hunger strike at Gitmo over the horrendous conditions and loss of legal rights. Some celebrities traveled to Cuba for their vacation and the establishment lost their minds. Jay-Z and Beyoncé may have celebrated five years [...]

Now that we know the state of play on the one year-end bill left outstanding, let’s redirect to the one that’s moving through the system currently. The House just passed the omnibus appropriations bill, funding all government agencies through the rest of the fiscal year, until September 30, 2012. It’s on to the Senate, where [...]

Lawmakers agreed last night to a $1 trillion omnibus spending package, which will fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, until September 30, 2012. The agreement eliminates some but not all of the policy riders that Republicans coveted in the deal. A deal on a $1 trillion spending bill was reached after [...]

It’s Thursday. The government runs out of money on Friday. And there doesn’t appear to even be negotiations on resolving the impasse, which is tied up in the year-end extensions of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance. So the odds of a government shutdown are quite high. Last night, the White House released an [...]

The White House announced last night a series of changes to travel and remittance policies with Cuba, that will allow more visitation and transfer of funds to the island 90 miles off the coast of Florida. The changes fall under three basic categories: 1) Purposeful travel: This enables more travel for religious, educational, cultural and [...]