USA

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan president, breaks silence on Trump call, says no major policy shift

TAIPEI, Taiwan – President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday downplayed her historic recent phone call with President-elect Donald Trump, stressing that “one phone call does not mean a policy shift” between Washington and the island nation that China regards as its territory. “The phone call was a way for us to express our respect for the […]

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International, USA

Mavis Staples, James Taylor, The Eagles, Al Pacino at a bittersweet Kennedy Center Honors 2016

WASHINGTON — Rocker Glenn Frey died before he could accept a Kennedy Center Honors award last year, but his Eagles bandmates and four other artists were feted Sunday at a bittersweet edition of the glitzy annual gala, the last of the Obama administration. Actor-director Al Pacino, singer-songwriter James Taylor, singer Mavis Staples and pianist Martha

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Will Trump Flout the Constitution’s Gifts Clause?

Donald Trump has a problem—and it dates back to 1787. At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, the delegates were divided on many issues, especially slavery. But they agreed the new republic they were creating was vulnerable to subversion from European countries that wanted to once again rule the North American continent. “Foreign powers will not

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International, USA

Florida Voters File Lawsuit Demanding Official Recount

Everything may not be golden for President-elect Donald Trump in the Sunshine State. A group of Florida voters filed a lawsuit Monday demanding a statewide hand recount of the ballots, noting a “deluge” of voting problems, including alleged hackings on electronic voting machines and polling places illegally turning away people from voting. Trump won Florida

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USA

Menorah to be displayed at University of Alabama

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)– For the first time in its almost 200-year history, the University of Alabama will allow a Jewish student group to display a menorah on campus during the Chanukah season, December 24 through January 1. This new seasonal display demonstrates the University’s desire to create a campus life that embodies collaboration, collegiality,

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Jewish Religion, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Netanyahu’s real rival

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Is it an extraordinarily thick skin, an incurable addiction to power, or the conviction of being the one and only leader of the State of Israel in our time – or perhaps all this and much else – that keeps Binyamin Netanyahu in power as the longest consecutively serving

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Middle East, USA

$5.5 million: Wilmington college president best-paid in US

PHILADELPHIA — The highest-paid college president in the U.S. in 2014-15 was Jack P. Varsalona, who collected $5.4 million for 2014-15, his last full year at the helm of Wilmington University, a private, non-profit Delaware-based institution, with more than 21,000 mostly part-time students and no tenured faculty. That’s according to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s

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Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Stein lawyers take Pa. recount battle to federal court

PHILADELPHIA — Green Party-backed lawyers moved their fight for a recount of Pennsylvania’s Nov. 8 presidential election results to a new venue Monday, hoping a federal judge would be receptive to their claims of potential irregularities with electronic voting machines across the state. In a complaint filed in federal court in Philadelphia, the lawyers asked

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USA

Criminal probe of Oakland fire launched as death toll hits 36

Updates previous stories OAKLAND, Calif. — As criminal investigators begin to examine who is to blame for one of the worst fires in modern California history, Oakland authorities halted their grim search for bodies in the ruins of a warehouse blaze on Monday due to structural weaknesses in the fire-gutted building. “For us as firefighters,

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USA

‘Tag you’re it’ becomes a game for kindness

SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — With a mission to share the holiday joy with San Diego’s homeless community, Teens About Goodness (TAG), a community-based humanitarian teen initiative, coordinated a Thanksgiving food drive, distributing hundreds of warm food packages to San Diego’s homeless population. Teen volunteers gathered on Thanksgiving eve to pack 500 gift bags, each

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San Diego County, USA