Today, the congressional subcommittee on Energy and Power is scheduled to hold a hearing on Rep. Cory Gardner’s (R-CO) bill to force the Obama administration to approve all application for new liquefied natural gas terminals used to export natural gas. A close look at the staffers involved with this particular subcommittee reveals that several have
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  I thought it was a matter of time before defenders of America’s predatory for-profit colleges tried to equate President Obama’s effort to regulate those schools with Obamacare. In seeking to block Obama’s “gainful employment” rule, which would penalize career colleges that consistently leave their students worse off than they started, the industry’s arguments have
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A small group of pundits and politicians with close ties to the fossil fuel industry are using the crisis in Crimea to demand that the United States promote natural gas exports as a quick fix for the volatile situation. But such a solution, experts say, would cost billions of dollars, require years of development, and
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Rachel Maddow covered this subject pretty well last night in a piece titled “Oil mega-corporations key to leverage over Russia” but really scratched the surface on the pressure Exxon may be exerting on the State Department right now over sanctions against Russia. Her interview with Former Russian Ambassador Michael McFaul, who quit the post a month
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This morning, the Obama Administration released its new proposed “gainful employment” rule, aimed at ending taxpayer support for college programs that claim to train people for careers as medical assistants, air conditioner repair technicians, or software coders, but instead consistently leave their former  students with shaky job prospects and insurmountable debt. Most of the big
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  In recent months, a broad, cross-ideological coalition has pressed forward to reform mandatory minimum prison sentencing. In some cases mandatory minimum sentencing can lead to a lifetime in jail for nonviolent offenders. But a strange group has appeared on lobby disclosure forms reviewed by Republic Report. Prison labor companies are attempting to influence the bill,
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is in the political fight of his life, as he faces a capable Democratic challenger in Allison Grimes and a primary opponent in Matt Bevin. In defending his incumbency, McConnell has gone outright elitist, telling the media that the establishment is going to “crush” tea party challengers across the
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Graham Holdings Co., the renamed corporation that owned the Washington Post newspaper before selling it to Jeff Bezos last year, retains a major stake in Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit education company that is under investigation by a range of federal and state law enforcement agencies. According to an SEC filing today, Graham Holdings has sold about
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