Ben Wolfgang
Articles by Ben Wolfgang
Top Democrats reject court ruling over NSA spying on Americans
Top Democrats pushed back Tuesday against a federal judge's ruling that the NSA's phone-records collection program violates privacy rights, asking for higher courts to quickly get involved and bring legal certainty to the murky world of intelligence gathering. Published December 17, 2013
White House announces delegation for winter Olympics
With less than two months before the games begin, the Obama administration on Tuesday revealed the roster of the American delegation to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Published December 17, 2013
Apple, Google, Facebook tell Obama: Rein in government snooping
The nation's leading technology companies took their concerns over government surveillance directly to the source Tuesday, pressing President Obama to rein in what is widely viewed as excessive and intrusive data-collection and snooping. Published December 17, 2013
Obama envious of ‘House of Cards’
President Obama, while talking to a Netflix executive, says he wishes Washington were as "ruthlessly efficient" as portrayed on network's show "House of Cards." Published December 17, 2013
Obama administration refuses to negotiate on debt ceiling increase
Despite the recent bipartisan breakthrough on the budget, the White House insisted Monday it will not negotiate with congressional Republicans on the next debt ceiling increase and will demand an unconditional increase before the government hits its borrowing limit early next year. Published December 16, 2013
White House: Once again, no negotiations on debt ceiling
With the threat of a government shutdown off the table for the next two years, attention now has turned to another looming fight over the nation's debt ceiling — and the White House has no interest in negotiating with Republicans as that limit approaches. Published December 16, 2013
A year after Newtown, answers and action remain elusive
One year after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., all sides of the debate — from President Obama and single-issue groups led by outgoing New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and others to powerful gun advocacy voices — sound much the same as they did 12 months ago in the immediate aftermath of one of the worst shootings in American history. Published December 14, 2013
Biden guarantees victory on immigration reform
Republican leaders in the House already have said they won't take up the immigration reform bill that passed the Senate earlier this year. Published December 11, 2013
High court likely to allow Obama’s clean-air rules
The fate of key clean-air regulations — central to the President Obama's larger environmental agenda — now rests with the Supreme Court, which on Tuesday hinted it may throw the administration a lifeline and allow controversial pollution rules to be reinstated. Published December 10, 2013
Funding boost of $100M for mentally ill a ‘small step’
Having failed thus far in pushing gun control legislation through Congress, the White House has turned to the much less controversial effort of improving the quality of the nation's mental health services. Published December 10, 2013
White House PR blitz hits states that rejected Medicaid expansion
The Obama administration's all-out public relations push to sell its health care reform law increasingly is targeting individual governors, who will bear much of the blame, the White House says, if millions of poor Americans remain uninsured. Published December 9, 2013
Obama tries to calm Israeli fears over Iranian nuke deal ‘not based on trust’
President Obama acknowledged Saturday that he'd prefer to see a much harsher agreement with Iran, one that not only shuts down the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear program entirely but also eliminates all of its "military capabilities." Published December 7, 2013
Obama, first lady will attend Mandela memorial services
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will travel to South Africa next week to attend memorial services for former South African President Nelson Mandela, who died Thursday at the age of 95. Published December 6, 2013
Obama: Nelson Mandela now ‘belongs to the ages’
President Obama was a junior senator from Illinois and was only beginning his meteoric political rise, which ultimately propelled him into the White House in 2008 and into the history books as America's first black president. Nelson Mandela, by contrast, was nearing the end of his incredible journey, having emerged from decades in prison during South Africa's dark apartheid era to become his own nation's first black leader. Published December 5, 2013
Obama lived with Uncle Onyango Obama in the 1980s, White House admits
President Obama spent a short period of time living with his uncle, Onyango "Omar" Obama, when he was attending Harvard Law School in the 1980s, the White House admitted Thursday for the first time. Published December 5, 2013
Obama calls on bartenders to help sell health care reform
President Obama wants young bartenders to give their customers a tip — sign up for health insurance under Obamacare. Published December 4, 2013
Obama returns to class warfare as poll numbers plunge
Turning his attention yet again to the economy, President Obama on Wednesday zeroed in on the "defining challenge" of this generation — growing income inequality between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America. Published December 4, 2013
Obama: ‘We’re not going back’ on Obamacare
He stopped short of declaring "mission accomplished," but President Obama on Tuesday offered another full-throated defense of his landmark health-care reform law, sidestepping the lingering problems and stating flatly that Obamacare has been and will continue to be a success for the American people. Published December 3, 2013
Obama to take second swing at health care reform pitch
President Obama has embraced his role as the nation's most famous salesman, pitching his namesake health care reform law to uninsured Americas and seeking to convince them that problems with Obamacare — chief among them a faulty website — will be fixed. Published December 3, 2013
Common Core education supporters want Obama administration to shut up
The Obama administration's cheerleading for the Common Core State Standards Initiative is designed to calm critics and rally supporters for the ambitious overhaul of the nation's elementary and secondary school curriculums. But that effort may be backfiring. Published December 2, 2013
