TheRepublic.com - George W. Bush News

Best-selling author Vince Flynn dies at age 47

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:16:16 -0400

MINNEAPOLIS - Best-selling author Vince Flynn, who wrote the Mitch Rapp counterterrorism thriller series and sold more than 15 million books in the U.S. alone, died Wednesday in Minnesota after a more than two-year battle with prostate cancer, according to friends and his publisher. He was 47.

House panel starts rewrite of No Child Left Behind

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:50:23 -0400

WASHINGTON - House Republicans on Wednesday finished their rewrite of GOP President George W. Bush's prized No Child Left Behind Act, sending to their colleagues a bill that would strip Education Secretary Arne Duncan and his successors of power and give more authority to the states.

Mixed results for Ga. in teacher training report

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:31:39 -0400

ATLANTA - Just four teacher-training programs at Georgia's college and universities earned high marks on a national survey released Tuesday looking at more than 1,000 programs across the country.

Report: Too many teachers, too little quality

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:18:30 -0400

WASHINGTON - The nation's teacher-training programs do not adequately prepare would-be educators for the classroom, even as they produce almost triple the number of graduates needed, according to a survey of more than 1,000 programs released Tuesday.

Oregon Editorial Rdp

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:25:51 -0400

Editorials from Oregon newspapers

Judge urges new approach for Gitmo detainee cases

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:19:28 -0400

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court judge Tuesday called on the president and Congress to consider a different approach to the handling of legal cases of Guantanamo Bay prisoners.

Hillary Clinton addresses Michigan business group

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:15:18 -0400

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan - Former secretary of state and possible 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has addressed business leaders in western Michigan.

US names prisoners slated for indefinite detention

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 20:31:07 -0400

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A list released by the U.S. government Monday identifies several dozen Guantanamo Bay prisoners who have been designated as too dangerous to release but who can't be prosecuted.

Crisp: Immigration reform imperiled by politics

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:51:01 -0400

The United States Senate is in the early stages of debate on an immigration reform bill; passage is far from guaranteed. As many as 300 amendments to the bill are on offer, and some of them might be deal-breakers. - In fact, some of the amendments are probably meant to be deal-breakers. My own senator, Texas' John Cornyn, hopes to tie any change in the status of the 11 million undocumented workers currently residing in the U.S. to a 90 percent apprehension rate of attempted illegal border crossings.

Obama trade dilemma: Scant support from Democrats

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 12:29:46 -0400

WASHINGTON - As President Barack Obama pushes an ambitious agenda to liberalize global trading, political trade wars already are forming, and they're with fellow Democrats rather than with Republicans, his usual antagonists.

Cellucci remembered at funeral Mass in hometown

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:01:25 -0400

HUDSON, Massachusetts - Former Gov. Argeo Paul Cellucci was remembered Friday for his kindness and the courage he showed facing the disease that ultimately took his life.

RI lawmakers endorse popular vote compact

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:27:02 -0400

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island - State lawmakers have voted once again to add Rhode Island to a list of states that agree to award their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the overall national popular vote.

Government has history of secrecy, spying, leaks

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 03:48:41 -0400

WASHINGTON - It isn't the first time that the federal government has been caught spying on Americans or that classified government information has been leaked to the news media or otherwise widely distributed. The Vietnam War and civil-rights protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s generated plenty of surveillance and secrecy. And leaks.

Federal oversight board OKs Calif. high-speed rail

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:03:16 -0400

SACRAMENTO, California - The California High-Speed Rail Authority won approval Thursday from a federal railroad oversight board to start construction this summer on the first leg of what would be the nation's first bullet train.

Political colleagues recall ex-Mass. Gov. Cellucci

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:22:09 -0400

BOSTON - Massachusetts political figures of both parties paid glowing tribute Thursday to former Gov. Argeo Paul Cellucci - a Republican who never lost an election in a Democratic-leaning state - in the building where he spent nearly a quarter of a century in public life.

White House lawyer replacing retiring CIA deputy

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 03:43:45 -0400

WASHINGTON - CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell is stepping down and being replaced by White House lawyer Avril Haines, who will be the first woman to hold the post.

Panel backs introduction of digital learning in US

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:29:29 -0400

WASHINGTON - A week after President Barack Obama's call for U.S. schools to be outfitted with high-speed Internet within five years, an independent panel that studied the lack of technology at school says digital learning, including the super-fast Internet connections, can be introduced even sooner.

US budget deficit widens $139 billion in May

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:12:46 -0400

WASHINGTON - The government reported Wednesday that the U.S. budget deficit widened in May by $139 billion. But the annual deficit stayed on track to finish below $1 trillion for the first time since 2008.

May: Iran's election winner won't actually wield power

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:16:29 -0400

The Islamic Republic of Iran will hold its 11th presidential elections . It's all very exciting -- just as it was in 1979 when, right after the Iranian Revolution that brought down the Shah, Iranians first cast ballots. I was there -- a reporter in Iran, working on a documentary film for Bill Moyers at . Then, as now, the elections were the focus of considerable international attention. Then, as now, the elections were a total fiction<.> - Some people understood that; others never seem to get it. For example, 10 years ago, Richard Armitage, then deputy secretary of state under President George W. Bush, called Iran a democracy. In recent months, both Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have said that Iran has an "elected" government. Hagel even added that it was "legitimate."

Henry: 2 common men took uncommon measures

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 08:46:12 -0400

By REG HENRY - A Man for All Seasons" -- the great play by Robert Bolt concerning Sir Thomas More's doomed battle to reconcile his conscience with service to his king -- is narrated by a multirole character called the Common Man. He starts with an observation: "The 16th century is the Century of the Common Man. Like all the other centuries. And that's my proposition."

Obama's ATF nominee gets Senate hearing

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:41:51 -0400

WASHINGTON - It was remarkable enough that President Barack Obama's choice to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives got a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Only one other nominee to lead the ATF has had a hearing, and none has been confirmed.

NYC bomb plot details settle little in NSA debate

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:04:21 -0400

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration declassified a handful of details Tuesday that credited its PRISM Internet spying program with intercepting a key email that unraveled a 2009 terrorist plot in New York.

Media: No mistaking how NSA story reporter feels

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:25:05 -0400

NEW YORK - The man who claimed to leak state secrets on U.S. government eavesdropping sought to break the story through a columnist for a U.K.-based publication who has made no secret of his distaste for intrusions on privacy.

Bush's 89th birthday a socks celebration in Texas

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 09:35:34 -0400

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - A socks celebration has been planned in Texas for the 89th birthday of former President George H.W. Bush of Houston.

Private contractors' key role at issue in NSA leak

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:19:37 -0400

NEW YORK - People like Edward Snowden - nearly 500,000 employees of private firms with access to the government's most sensitive secrets - play a crucial role: They help monitor threats to national security.