The U.S. Justice Department unsealed indictments Tuesday against eight more current and former Navy officials in a bribery and kickback scheme led by a crooked contractor known as “Fat Leonard.”  The case, which cost the U.S. government roughly $35 million, has been under investigation for four years, and U.S. authorities say about 200 suspects were involved. “This is a fleecing and betrayal of the United States Navy of epic proportions … carried out by the Navy’s highest-ranking officers,” Acting U.S. Attorney Alana Robinson said Tuesday.  The Justice Department said Rear Admiral Bruce Loveless, a senior Navy intelligence officer based at the Pentagon, was among the suspects, along with three retired Navy captains, an active-duty captain, an active-duty commander and a retired chief warrant officer. They are charged with bribery, conspiracy to commit bribery, obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators.  The suspects are accused of taking bribes …

Steve Herman became VOA’s White House bureau chief in March after spending 25  years as a foreign correspondent.  His previous post required Herman to travel often throughout  the world. Now he reports from a small booth on the world’s biggest political stories. Here are his initial impressions of day-to-day work as a White House correspondent. The “mushroom method” refers to keeping reporters in the dark and feeding them manure. Throughout many presidential administrations, reporters assigned to the basement by the West Wing have frequently complained of being treated like mushrooms. Philomena Jurey, who covered Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan for VOA, titled her autobiography A Basement Seat to History. Others have compared their plight to prisoners in cramped, overcrowded quarters. “Most people think the White House beat is glamorous. It isn’t,” recalls former VOA White House correspondent Paula Wolfson. “It can be a boring grind …

The top U.S. Marine commander was bitterly criticized Tuesday for what one U.S. senator called the “repugnant” scandal involving nude photographs of female Marines. General Robert Neller faced questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee over his response to pictures posted on Facebook without the knowledge or permission of the women. “It’s a serious problem when we have members of our military denigrating female Marines, who will give their life to this country in the way they have, with no response from leadership,” Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York complained. Gillibrand demanded to know how the Marine Corps expected to confront “Russian aggression” if it could not crack Facebook. She also asked why Marine leaders had done nothing, even though social media harassment of service members has been going on since 2013. ‘I own this’ “I don’t have a good answer for you,” Neller responded. “I’m responsible. I’m the …

With the start of the government’s revised travel order looming, legal challengers hope a court decision will forestall the administration’s second attempt to limit travelers and refugees coming to the U.S. Lawyers with three groups involved in lawsuits related to President Donald Trump’s travel orders said they are watching the actions of a Washington state federal judge late Tuesday, and hearings in two other states Wednesday, for any decisions that could affect the Thursday implementation of the most recent order. Court hearings are expected in Maryland and Hawaii on Wednesday regarding similar challenges to the travel order. Three federal appeals judges last month upheld a Washington state ruling that suspended the first travel order, issued January 27, a week after Trump’s inauguration. The revised version released last week attempts to bypass the lawsuits, protests and frenzied roll-out of the first order. The most recent travel-related executive order, issued by Trump …

President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, said Tuesday that he was “awaiting instructions” from Trump on whether to support a restoration of the Export-Import Bank’s full lending powers. The U.S. government trade bank’s loans have been capped at $10 million for more than a year because it has too few board members, with Republican opponents to the bank blocking recent nominees. The cap means that EXIM cannot finance the largest export U.S. products such as Boeing Co. aircraft or Westinghouse nuclear reactors. Asked by Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, at his confirmation hearing whether he supported nominating new board members at the bank as part of a broad trade strategy aimed at reducing U.S. trade deficits and boosting exports, Lighthizer said that decision would ultimately be up to Trump. “I expect to do what the president instructs me to do when he instructs me …

An obscure U.S. agency, the Congressional Budget Office, has been thrust into the midst of the contentious Washington political debate over the fate of the country’s health care policies. Many Americans outside of official Washington likely have never heard of the 42-year-old agency, a group of about 235 non-partisan budget analysts and economists with advanced university degrees. But the CBO has emerged as a key stumbling block in the path of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans as they try to repeal and replace the national health care reforms championed by former president Barack Obama, a law popularly known as Obamacare. The CBO regularly turns out apolitical reports analyzing budgetary and economic issues facing Congress as it considers what programs to approve, how much they would cost in coming years and what effects they might have on U.S. economic fortunes and the country’s 325 million citizens. Depending on its findings, …

U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabian Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Tuesday at the White House to discuss what the Saudi Press Agency said was “the strengthening of bilaterial relations between the two countries and regional issues of mutual interest.” It was the highest level visit to Washington by a Saudi royal family member since Trump’s November presidential victory. The White House has not provided details of the meeting, but key issues likely to have been discussed include global energy prices and conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, where Saudi-led coalition forces supported by the U.S. has been bombing Iran-supported Shiite rebels for almost two years. Saudi Arabia is also part of a U.S.-supported coalition engaged in a bombing campaign against the Islamic State militant group in Syria. Saudi-U.S. relations cooled under the administration of President Barack Obama after it reached a nuclear agreement with regional …

A group of states renewed their effort on Monday to block President Donald Trump’s revised temporary ban on refugees and travelers from several Muslim-majority countries, arguing that his executive order is the  same as the first one that was halted by federal courts. Court papers filed by the state of Washington and joined by California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon asked a judge to stop the March 6 order from taking effect on Thursday. An amended complaint said the order was similar to the original January 27 directive because it “will cause severe and immediate harms to the States, including our residents, our colleges and universities, our healthcare providers, and our businesses.” A Department of Justice spokeswoman said it was reviewing the complaint and would respond to the court.​ January’s ban caused chaos A more sweeping ban implemented hastily in January caused chaos and protests at airports. The March …

Poland plans to seek the extradition of an American on suspicion of committing crimes against humanity in the World War II deaths of 44 Polish villagers, Poland’s government-affiliated history institute said Monday. The man, identified as Michael K., is suspected of ordering the killings in 1944 in eastern Poland when he was a commander in the Nazi’s SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion, the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) said in a statement. As a result of that order, several villages — including Chlaniow and Wladyslawin — were set on fire and buildings destroyed, the IPN said. “In our investigation, Michael K. is the main suspect. We are convinced that this person, living in the United States, was the person who carried out the pacification of [the villages],” Robert Janicki, a prosecutor with the IPN, told Reuters. “All the evidence we have gathered, mainly the documents we have collected, give us …

The U.S. has been relying on Pakistan as an ally in the war on terror in the region and has provided the country with billions of dollars in aid over the last 15 years. But American military and diplomatic officials have time and again expressed concerns about Pakistan’s inability or unwillingness to crack down on terrorists and extremists that are based in the country. As the new U.S. administration is positioning itself to address some of the pressing foreign policy challenges in the region, experts offer mixed recommendations as to what approach the new administration should pursue in its relations with Pakistan. “People are much smarter about what the region needs, the challenges, where the policy works and where it doesn’t,” said Shamila Chaudhary, a senior South Asia fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “We actually have built a pretty significant infrastructure to address what the problems …

The Congressional Budget Office says 14 million people will lose their health insurance coverage next year if Congress approves the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The nonpartisan CBO Monday released its long-awaited report on the cost of carrying out one of President Donald Trump’s favorite campaign promises — repealing and replacing Obamacare. It says if the Republican plan is adopted, 14 million people will be uninsured in 2018, with that number ballooning to 52 million by 2026 — almost twice as many people who would not have insurance if Obamacare remained intact. But the CBO said a new health care plan would cut the federal deficit by $337 billion between now and 2026. The new plan also would eliminate the tax penalty for anyone who decides not to buy insurance — a provision that will please many conservatives who call it an example …

U.S. Representative Steve King on Monday stood by controversial remarks on immigration and birth rates, in which he said “our civilization” could not be restored with “somebody else’s babies,” drawing condemnation from Democrats and fellow Republicans. The speaker of the Republican-dominated House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, and the leading Democrat in the chamber, Nancy Pelosi, both took exception to King’s remarks. The Iowa congressman on Sunday posted a tweet praising Geert Wilders, a nationalist, anti-Islam politician vying to become the Netherlands’ prime minister in a national election on Wednesday. “Wilders understands that culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies,” King wrote in a post that drew thousands of “likes.” Pelosi on Monday called on House Republican leaders to condemn King’s comments, saying they “must decide whether white supremacy is welcome in the GOP ranks.” A spokeswoman for Ryan, AshLee Strong, said, “The …

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Monday sought to convince public school leaders that school choice and local control are important in education. Speaking to members of The Council of the Great City Schools, a group of the nation’s largest urban school districts, DeVos stressed that parents, not Washington politicians, should be making choices about their children’s education. “Parents know better than any politician or administrator the unique needs of each of their children,” DeVos said. “Time and again, when parents are empowered to take charge of their children’s education, when they have quality options we see the results for students. For me this is just common sense.” More power to parents DeVos, a longtime advocate of charter and private schools, said parents must be able to pick the right educational setting for their children in the same way that they choose their food, clothing and extracurricular activities. DeVos gave the …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to begin the process of reorganizing the federal government, something he called “long overdue.”  During his first Cabinet meeting earlier in the day, the president said the purpose of the directive is to make government “less wasteful and more productive.” But critics previously have expressed concern that the process could lead to a compromise of government functions, especially in public health and national security.   Just prior to the signing in the Oval Office later, the president declared this “a major step to making the federal government efficient, effective and accountable to the people.” The order requires a self-examination by every executive department and agency to identify wasteful spending and how services can be improved. Asked if there’s a numeric goal or a mandated savings of a certain amount of money, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, at a news conference earlier in …

The Justice Department has asked for more time to respond to congressional requests to supply evidence for allegations by President Donald Trump that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his New York telephones during the campaign. Trump gave no proof when he tweeted the accusations earlier this month. But White House spokesman Sean Spicer says Trump did not mean to imply that Obama tapped his phone. Speaking at Monday’s White House briefing, Spicer attempted to moderate statements the president has made on Twitter suggesting Obama ordered surveillance of his New York City hotel. “He doesn’t really think that President Obama went up and tapped his phone personally,” Spicer said. Trump created a sensation earlier this month when he tweeted: “Is it legal for a sitting President to be ‘wire tapping’ a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!” In a separate tweet later, …

Before Donald Trump’s election, Laurence Berland viewed political protest as a sort of curiosity. He was in a good place to see it: San Francisco’s Mission District, once an immigrant enclave in the country’s heartland of radicalism that is increasingly populated by people like him — successful tech workers driving up rents while enjoying a daily commute to Silicon Valley on luxury motor coaches. Berland regarded the activism of his adopted city with a mix of empathy and bemusement, checking out Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and protests against the gentrification of his own neighborhood. But now there is less distance between him and activists on the street. On a recent day, Berland stood with about 100 others — from software engineers like himself to those who work in tech company cafeterias — outside a downtown museum for a rally against Trump. A clipboard-carrying organizer approached Berland to ask if he …