WASHINGTON (AP) — At the RV Park he owns in a remote corner of southwestern Kansas, Jan Leonard is seeing the benefits of one of the federal government's most contentious programs.
Development is booming in tiny Hugoton, a town of roughly 3,900 people. The town is the site of a new cellulosic ethanol refinery that was funded in part by a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The same program funded high-profile flops like Solyndra, the California-based solar company that filed for bankruptcy and led to hearings over the Barack Obama administration's backing of unproven green-energy projects.
33. E-cigarette tech takes off as regulation looms - Friday, December 5, 2014
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Just a few years ago, early adopters of e-cigarettes got their fix by clumsily screwing together a small battery and a plastic cartridge containing cotton soaked with nicotine.
34. Nominee for auto safety chief faces uphill climb - Friday, November 14, 2014
DETROIT (AP) — Mark Rosekind is a nationally known expert in human fatigue. He may soon inherit a government agency that's been criticized for nodding off at the wheel.
President Obama on Wednesday nominated Rosekind, a National Transportation Safety Board member and a former NASA scientist with a Ph.D from Yale, to be the U.S. government's top auto safety regulator, pending Senate confirmation.
35. House panel: Safety agency mishandled GM recall - Friday, September 12, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency responsible for safety on the nation's roads was years late in detecting a deadly problem with General Motors cars and lacks the expertise to oversee increasingly complex vehicles, congressional Republicans charged in a report Tuesday.
36. Top Middle Tennessee residential real estate transactions July 2014 - Friday, August 29, 2014
Top July 2014 residential real estate transactions for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
37. Lawmakers press GM on report's findings - Friday, June 13, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers expressed disbelief Wednesday at General Motors' explanation for why it took 11 years to recall millions of small cars with defective ignition switches, and also confronted its chief executive with evidence that the company dragged its feet on a similar safety issue in different vehicles.
38. House GOP conflicted on health law alternative - Friday, May 30, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are united as ever in their election-year opposition to "Obamacare," but they're increasingly divided over their promise to vote this year on an alternative to it.
39. Health insurers: Payment rates above 80 percent - Friday, May 2, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top health insurance companies told members of Congress Wednesday that more than 80 percent of people who've signed up under the president's new health care law have gone on to pay their premiums — a necessary step for the enrollment figures touted by the Obama administration to hold up.
40. Congress seeks answers on delay in GM recall - Friday, March 28, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is demanding answers from the new CEO of General Motors and the head of the nation's auto safety watchdog about why it took at least a decade to recall cars with a defective part that is now linked to 13 deaths.
41. US House committee investigating GM recall - Friday, March 7, 2014
DETROIT (AP) — A congressional committee is investigating the way General Motors and a federal safety agency handled a deadly ignition switch problem in compact cars.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton of Michigan says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration received a large number of complaints about the problem during the past decade. But GM didn't recall the 1.6 million cars worldwide until last month.
42. Obama admin drives ahead with new cleaner gas rule - Friday, February 28, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is driving ahead with a dramatic reduction in sulfur in gasoline and tailpipe emissions, declaring that cleaner air will save thousands of lives per year at little cost to consumers.
43. 20-term Democratic Rep. Waxman to retire - Friday, January 31, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Henry Waxman, one of Congress' fiercest negotiators and a policy expert on everything from clean air to health care, will retire at the end of the year after four decades in the House.
44. Top Midstate residential real estate transactions for Dec. 2013 - Friday, January 10, 2014
Top December 2013 residential real estate transactions for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
45. House OKs coverage plans short of Obamacare rules - Friday, November 15, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — Brushing aside a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House voted Friday to let insurance companies sell individual health coverage to all comers, even if it falls short of the required standards in "Obamacare."
46. Policy cancellations: Obama will allow old plans - Friday, November 8, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes to his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled.
47. Obamacare enrollment low; Democrats unhappy - Friday, November 8, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday planned to announce a fix to counter the millions of health coverage cancellations going to consumers, as the White House tried to stem Democratic impatience over a program likely to be at the center of next year's midterm elections for control of Congress.
48. House GOP on health care: For repeal, not replace - Friday, July 19, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three years after campaigning on a vow to "repeal and replace" President Barack Obama's health care law, House Republicans have yet to advance an alternative for the system they have voted more than three dozen times to abolish in whole or in part.
49. Cleaner gas rule would mean higher price at pump - Friday, March 29, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration's newest anti-pollution plan would ping American drivers where they wince the most: at the gas pump. That makes arguments weighing the cost against the health benefits politically potent.
50. GOP issues new 'fiscal cliff' offer to Obama - Friday, November 30, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Monday proposed a new 10-year, $2.2 trillion blueprint to President Barack Obama that calls for raising the eligibility age for Medicare and lowering cost-of-living hikes for Social Security benefits, a counteroffer to jump-start stalled talks with the "fiscal cliff" just weeks away.
51. Obama, GOP back in tussle over oil pipeline - Friday, January 13, 2012
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and Congress are back where they were before Christmas, locked in an election-season tussle over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.
Republicans hope to again force Obama to make a politically risky decision, while he is seeking to put it off until after the November election.
52. Obama, Congress begin 2012 in oil pipeline dispute - Friday, December 30, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and Congress are starting the election year locked in a tussle over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas that will force the White House to make a politically risky choice between two key Democratic constituencies.
53. Congress flips dimmer switch on light bulb law - Friday, December 16, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in Congress are flipping the dimmer switch on a law that sets new energy-savings standards for light bulbs.
They've reached a deal to delay until October enforcement of new standards that some fear will be the end of old-style, 100-watt bulbs. GOP lawmakers say they're trying to head off more government interference in people's lives.
54. Top GOP aide for House panel has ties to Solyndra - Friday, November 25, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top GOP aide to a House committee investigating Solyndra Inc. once worked for a lobbying firm that helped the now-bankrupt solar company apply for a half-billion-dollar federal loan.
55. Chu takes responsibility for Solyndra loan - Friday, November 11, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking responsibility for a debacle that has embarrassed the Obama administration, Energy Secretary Steven Chu says he made the final decisions on a half-billion-dollar loan to a California solar company that later went bankrupt.
56. Debt commission members rake in health money - Friday, September 2, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors, drugmakers, hospitals and health insurers have spent millions over the years wooing lawmakers who now are on the powerful congressional panel charged with finding a formula to control deficits and debt, a new analysis finds.
57. GOP govs: Let states decide Medicaid spending - Friday, August 26, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's Republican governors, seeking a voice in Congress' upcoming debt debate, pushed Tuesday for looser restrictions on how states spend money on health care for poor and disabled Americans.
58. Deficit panel members had moments of independence - Friday, August 26, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even lawmakers most loyal to their leaders and political party on occasion buck them with a flash of independence or bipartisanship. That includes some of the six Republicans and six Democrats given the task of finding up to another $1.5 trillion deficit savings over the next decade.
59. 'Doomsday' defense cuts loom large for select 12 - Friday, August 12, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the dozen lawmakers tasked with producing a deficit-cutting plan, the threatened "doomsday" defense cuts hit close to home.
The six Republicans and six Democrats represent states where the biggest military contractors — Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Corp., Raytheon Co. and Boeing Co. — build missiles, aircraft, jet fighters and tanks while employing tens of thousands of workers.
60. Debt panel members face conflicting pressures - Friday, August 5, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP) — Before even getting down to work, members of Congress' new debt-reduction supercommittee face pressures to rally behind partisan principles and to find even more savings than planned.