| With Barr a no-show, White House and Congress move further apart Posted: 02 May 2019 01:38 PM PDT ![With Barr a no-show, White House and Congress move further apart]( "With Barr a no-show, White House and Congress move further apart") Attorney General William Barr's refusal to appear at a hearing convened by House Judiciary Committee Democrats on Thursday, after tense sparring with Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, escalated an extraordinary personal dispute between a key member of President Donald Trump's Cabinet and opposition party officials. The dispute is emblematic of the administration's apparent policy of maximum resistance to Democratic-led congressional oversight of executive branch actions. The president, Mr. Barr, and other administration officials are engaging in constitutional hardball with another branch of government, the legislature.
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| Florida Panhandle asks: Should disaster relief really be political? Posted: 02 May 2019 01:37 PM PDT ![Florida Panhandle asks: Should disaster relief really be political?]( "Florida Panhandle asks: Should disaster relief really be political?") After Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle last October, residents say their world looked like a war zone: houses blown apart, trees gone, ambulances transporting hospital patients to safety. With new measurements showing that winds reached 160 miles an hour, Michael was upgraded retroactively to Category 5, only the fourth such top-level hurricane ever to hit the mainland United States. Greg Brudnicki and Mark McQueen, the mayor and city manager, respectively, of Panama City, Florida – which suffered immense damage – came to Washington this week to lobby for help.
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| A Great Firewall of Russia? Kremlin puts key bricks into place. Posted: 02 May 2019 12:57 PM PDT ![A Great Firewall of Russia? Kremlin puts key bricks into place.]( "A Great Firewall of Russia? Kremlin puts key bricks into place.") Officially, Russia's new Sovereign Internet Law is aimed at addressing problems that are vexing governments globally: the proliferation of "fake news" and illegal content, the disturbing reach of extremist voices on the internet, and the threat of cyberattack from outside the country. It's not quite a "Great Firewall of China," they say, but it represents a whole new level of surveillance of the Russian internet and clearly suggests the direction Russian authorities would like to head. "This is an attempt to give [official communications oversight committee] Roskomnadzor superpowers to control internet traffic," says Sarkis Darbinyan, senior legal officer of Roskomsvoboda, a grassroots advocate for internet freedom.
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| A leap in productivity, and perhaps in what inspires it Posted: 02 May 2019 11:47 AM PDT ![A leap in productivity, and perhaps in what inspires it]( "A leap in productivity, and perhaps in what inspires it") In a burst of political productivity, President Donald Trump and top Democrats in Congress actually agreed on something last Tuesday. Partisan disagreement over how to pay for such a federal investment could still derail this rare consensus. On Wednesday, the Labor Department announced that nonfarm business productivity has accelerated at an annualized rate of 3.6% in the first quarter, a surprise jump to many economists.
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