June 19, 2013

More joel gehrke Articles


Contributions from Joel Gehrke

  • White House hosts allies for minimum wage hike ‘strategy meeting’

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/07/13 03:50 PM

    President Obama’s team is gearing up for a push to pass the minimum wage increase he proposed in this year’s State of the Union address, hosting a “strategy meeting” with ideological allies at the White House last week. “[W]e were invited yesterday to a strategy meeting at the White...

  • Obama: Surveillance programs involve ‘modest encroachments’ on privacy, help fight terror

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/07/13 12:40 PM

    President Obama defended the government’s internet surveillance as a “modest encroachment” on the privacy of Americans, but he maintained that the programs initiated by George W. Bush help keep Americans safe, adding that he increased oversight of the surveillance. Obama warmed to the...

  • Obama: Defense Department helped build Silicon Valley

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/07/13 10:20 AM

    President Obama touted the federal government’s role in supporting Silicon Valley industry, as he reminded California donors that a Defense Department program helped research internet technology. “The incredible prosperity that is generated from Silicon Valley in part is because we...

  • NFL champ skips WH visit because Obama said ‘God bless’ Planned Parenthood

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/07/13 10:00 AM

    Retired Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk, who won a Super Bowl with the team last year, skipped the team’s visit to the White House due to President Obama’s support for Planned Parenthood. “I have great respect for the office of the presidency but about five or six weeks ago, our...

  • Sen. Mark Kirk to Eric Holder: Is DOJ spying on Congress?

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/06/13 05:20 PM

    Attorney General Eric Holder refused to answer when asked if the Justice Department is spying on members of Congress, citing the need for a classified conversation, which lawmakers accepted while asking him to make sure that evidence of such surveillance is not destroyed. “With all due...

  • White House: Surveillance is constitutional

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/06/13 02:30 PM

    Broad surveillance of the American people is constitutional, President Obama’s spokesman said Thursday following a report that the National Security Agency is collecting the phone records of all Verizon customers. Obama has a “robust legal regime” for surveillance activities that works...

  • Update: Judge orders Kathleen Sebelius to put dying girl on adult lung transplant list

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/05/13 06:05 PM

    Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius must allow a dying 10 year-old girl to be placed on a waiting list for an adult lung transplant by waiving a rule that would keep her off the list because she’s under the age of 12, a federal judge ordered today, after Sebelius told...

  • Senators: VA pays 188 employees to work for unions, despite backlogs

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/05/13 06:00 PM

    Two Republican senators pressed Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki about the 188 employees who work on “official time” on behalf of unions, at taxpayer expense, even as the VA struggles with a massive backlog of veterans’ disability claims. “Documents from your department list...

  • Military family’s appeal to Congress backfires after DOD denies coverage for disabled girl’s therapy

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/04/13 08:00 PM

    A military family’s campaign to have Congress restore health insurance coverage for a therapy administered to the disabled daughter of a Navy pilot backfired when a group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives recommended legislative text that the family regards as detrimental to...

  • Kathleen Sebelius won’t waive regulation for girl with five weeks to live: ‘Someone lives and someone dies’

    By Joel Gehrke | 06/04/13 03:10 PM

    Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rebuffed an appeal from Rep. Lou Barletta on behalf of a girl who needs a lung transplant but can’t get one because of a federal regulation that prevents her from qualifying for a transplant. “Please, suspend the rules until we look at...



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