Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–July 25, 2015 Hi, everybody.  It’s been seven years since the worst financial crisis in generations spread from Wall Street to Main Street – a crisis that cost millions of Americans their jobs, their homes, their life savings.  It was a crisis that cost all of us.  It was[Read More…]

NEW YORK–(ENEWSPF)–July 24, 2015 MR HAASS: Well, good morning, and welcome to this special meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations. I’m Richard Haass, CFR’s president, and want to make clear that my welcome includes not just the many of you in this room but to even more of you[Read More…]

WASHINGTON—(ENEWSPF)–July 24, 2015 – Today, the Federal Communications Commission grants – with conditions – approval of the transfer of control of licenses and authorizations from DIRECTV to AT&T Inc. (AT&T). The approval will allow AT&T to acquire DIRECTV and merge the two companies into one combined entity. An Order detailing[Read More…]

WASHINGTON—(ENEWSPF)—July 24, 2015. U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and U.S. Representatives Keith Ellison (D-MN) and David Cicilline (D-RI) today introduced legislation to enhance protections for refugees and asylum seekers fleeing religious persecution, hold accountable the perpetrators of religious freedom violations, and reauthorize and reform the U.S.[Read More…]

Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—July 23, 2015 – 12:52 P.M. EDT MR. EARNEST:  Good afternoon, everybody.  Nice to see you all.  I do not have announcements at the top, so we can go straight to questions.  Josh, do you want to start? Q    Sure.  Thanks, Josh.  Secretaries Kerry and Moniz are on[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–July 23, 2015. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Cardin, members of the committee and friends and former colleagues. We really do the appreciate the chance to discuss with you the comprehensive plan that we and our P5+1 partners have developed with Iran regarding the future of[Read More…]

WASHINGTON, D.C. –(ENEWSPF)–July 23, 2015.  Today, 40 Senators, led by Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), introduced historic, comprehensive federal legislation to ban discrimination against LGBT Americans. The legislation was filed simultaneously in the U.S. House of Representatives by 158 Representatives, led[Read More…]

Also Votes to Allow Banks to Provide Services to State-Legalized Marijuana Stores; Drug Policy Reform Moving Forward Nationally and in the States Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—July 23, 2015. A key Senate committee passed a bill today allowing the nation’s capital to establish regulated marijuana stores and let banks provide financial services to[Read More…]

Madrid/ Berlin/ New York–(ENEWSPF)–July 23, 2015 – The Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York, together with their cooperating lawyer in Madrid, Gonzalo Boye, have lodged an appeal against the Spanish National Court’s decision to halt the long-running[Read More…]

Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—July 23, 2015 SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending July 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 255,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 281,000. This is the lowest level for initial claims since November 24, 1973 when it was[Read More…]