WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats pressed Republican leaders Thursday to schedule a vote on the president’s pick for attorney general. President Barack Obama nominated Loretta Lynch in November. She now serves as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. ...

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WASHINGTON — Shaking up his Pentagon leadership, President Barack Obama tapped policy wonk Ashton Carter to oversee the sprawling Defense Department on Friday, heralding his new nominee as one the nation’s “foremost national security leaders.” Obama announced Carter’s nomination during a ...

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s pick to be the Homeland Security secretary said Wednesday that filling key leadership vacancies and improving morale is more critical currently than the department’s core counterterrorism mission. In answers to questions leading up to his ...

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WASHINGTON — Lawrence Summers is the White House insider with a direct line to President Barack Obama. Janet Yellen is the Federal Reserve veteran with a long list of congressional patrons. The two Ivy League-trained economists have emerged as leading ...

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has chosen a retired corporate and government official with experience managing numerous organizations in crisis to take over an Internal Revenue Service under fire for targeting political groups. Obama said his nominee for commissioner of ...

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s choice to be the No. 2 official at the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday strongly denied allegations that he had helped a politically connected company obtain a foreign investor visa, as his nomination got ...

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President Barack Obama on Thursday nominated two people for federal judgeships: Gregory Howard Woods for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; and Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. ...

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ALBANY — The New York Senate has confirmed Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s second nominee to the state’s highest court. The Senate approved Justice Sheila Abdus-Salaam to the seven-member Court of Appeals after several legislators praised her experience and qualifications. The 60-year-old ...

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There is nothing unusual about the 112th Congress holding over judicial nominations the first time they are brought up in an executive business meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. They have done so with every one so far this year ...

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There was a time when Supreme Court nominees overwhelmingly were supported by the Senate. But the last three Supreme Court justices were confirmed with votes that largely fell long partisan lines, save a few exceptions.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — She cracked wise. She waxed sentimental. And she employed the artful dodge liberally. U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan let some of her personality ...

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WASHINGTON, D.C.— Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's arguments as solicitor general in several cases on government secrecy were at odds with a promise of transparency made by her boss and top client, President Barack Obama.

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