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Tuesday at the White House’s Easter breakfast, President Barack Obama momentarily attempted to address the current religious freedom controversy but stopped himself after reactions from the crowd.

Towards the end of his speech at Tuesday morning’s Easter Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama appeared to veer off script to make some comments that implicitly referenced the fierce debate that has been raging over the last week about “religious freedom” laws in Indiana, Arkansas and elsewhere. “On Easter, I do reflect on the fact that as a Christian, I am supposed to love,” Obama said. “And I have to say that sometimes when I listen to less-than-loving expressions by Christians, I get concerned.” As the crowd began to murmur, the president backed off, saying, “But that’s a topic for...

She sat in the back of the courtroom, wearing oversize black sunglasses, watching as the former Democratic congressional aide was sentenced for slipping a sedative into her drink and then raping her. It was the summer of 2010, and she had just arrived in Washington as a student intern. When they met, she believed Donny Ray Williams Jr., the longtime aide and former staff director for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee, could help her find a job with Congress. But instead, she later told authorities, Williams drugged and assaulted her.

Alexandria, the District of Columbia and Montgomery County joined New York City and dozens of other municipalities across the country Monday in demanding a court allow President Obama’s deportation amnesty to go into effect immediately, saying they want the tax revenue they think the newly legalized workers would bring. A federal court in Texas halted the amnesty, ruling that Mr. Obama likely broke the law in declaring it, but the local officials,...

The American Civil Liberties Union this week laid off 23 employees, about 7 percent of the organization’s national staff. The cuts affected employees in New York, D.C., California and Wyoming. ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero announced the impending reductions internally in a March 26 email to employees, and the affected staffers were notified Monday. In the email, which was obtained by The Washington Post, Romero cited the need for the ACLU to cut costs. In addition to the layoffs, the organization during the fiscal year ending March 31, eliminated ten national staff positions, postponed its nationwide staff conference to 2016...

Only about a third of the young immigrants who became eligible three months ago for an Arizona driver’s license after a lengthy legal battle have obtained one, according to state data. The immigrants, often referred to as DREAMers, are part of a federal program that shields them from deportation and gives them a Social Security number and work permit for two years. President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, in 2012 for young people who had been brought to the United States illegally as children. A similar program that would benefit parents of U.S.-citizen...

A 21-year-old woman charged in the stabbing death of a lawyer at a boutique Washington hotel told police she intended to rob the man but stabbed him in his room when he tried to prevent her from leaving... Jamyra Gallmon of Washington was arrested... A police investigation found Messerschmitt posted on Craigslist the day he was killed, "soliciting responses from other men," the court document shows. Messerschmitt communicated through Craigslist with a person using the username "chrissanchez0906," an investigation found, but police learned the account was linked to Gallmon. Messerschmitt invited the person he was communicating with to a room...

Republican presidential hopefuls are united in blasting President Obama for his chaotic enforcement of marijuana laws, but the unity quickly breaks down when they are asked how they would handle things if they were in the White House. Some have sent mixed signals, saying state decisions should be respected while questioning how Mr. Obama has respected those decisions. Others have refused to say how they would wield the federal bureaucracy against marijuana. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is one of the few potential candidates to take a firm stance, saying he would insist on following federal statutes that outlaw the drug....

In 1998, the Washington National Airport in Arlington, VA was renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport – and local Democrats are still bitter about it. The Washington Post recently conducted a survey of Washington, DC area residents, asking them what they prefer to call the busy airport. The results show that while younger people tend to call it by its current title, Reagan National, older, liberal commuters refuse to utter the name of the conservative president. In total, 72 percent of Republicans surveyed said they refer to it as 'Reagan' or 'Reagan National,' while only 35 percent of Democrats acknowledged the airport by that name. Survey participant Jason West's eloquent explanation...

Washington, D.C., will drop its appeal of a federal court ruling that overturned the city’s ban on carrying handguns in public, Attorney General Karl Racine announced Wednesday. City attorneys will instead focus on defending concealed-carry laws adopted by legislators in the months after U.S. District Court Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. declared the ban was unconstitutional. “We need to focus our energies not on litigating old laws, but defending new ones that our leaders enacted in good faith to comply with court rulings while still protecting public safety,” Mr. Racine said. Up until Judge Scullin’s ruling in July, D.C. residents...

Potentially millions of current and former illegal immigrants now have the opportunity to fly their children to the U.S. with taxpayer dollars. Once they arrive, they will be eligible for benefits including a free education, healthcare and food stamps. The State Department and Department of Homeland Security will administer the program, ... Some of the benefits they will receive are a free education, medical care, living expenses and food stamps. ... The U.S. has already sent staff to the region and began accepting applications in December. If applicants don’t qualify for refugee status, they can be considered for parole status

Did anyone think one of the Senate’s most reliable RINOs, who’s up for reelection next year not just in a very blue state but in Barack Obama’s home state, and who supported the Schumer/Rubio Gang of Eight amnesty bill, was going to go to the mat to block Obama’s pick for AG to protest executive amnesty?Conservative Republicans won’t stick up for religious liberty even in red states for fear of being called bigots. The odds of a moderate Republican opposing the first black woman Attorney General of the United States in a Democratic stronghold were precisely zero. “I am...

Sen. Bob Menendez has been charged with using his office to improperly benefit a Florida eye doctor and political donor. […] Prosecutors had been investigating whether Menendez improperly advocated for the business interests of Dr. Salomon Melgen, including by intervening on the doctor’s behalf in a medical billing dispute. …

Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern who left a stain on Bill Clinton’s presidency, is now using her experiences to be a campaigner against bullying. Looking back on the sex scandal that led to Clinton’s impeachment nearly 20 years ago, do Americans consider her a victim or a willing accomplice? A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 69% of Likely U.S. Voters now believe the 22-year-old White House intern’s relationship with the 49-year-old president was a consensual one between two adults. Just 22% believe Lewinsky was the victim of an older, more powerful man. (To see survey question...

A heroic act of a D.C. man may have helped save a woman who was being raped.  The man picked up a stick and a brick and repeatedly hit the suspect, who was later caught by police.  This all unfolded early Tuesday on 16th Street, Northwest.  Ketrell Ferguson says he doesn't want to be called a hero, but by any measure of the word that's exactly what he is to a woman who was being sexually assaulted.  “I just cracked him as hard as I could, and when I cracked him he got off here and he started running,” said...

First Lady Michelle Obama was spotted leaving the DC location of SoulCycle this past Sunday, and has now been named a member of the cult… um… club, which offers fitness and indoor cycling classes. Soul Cycle describes its classes as a “dance party on a bike” (we all know how much the First Lady likes to dance) and combines high-intensity music and inspirational quotes that are said to benefit the mind and body. Examples of motivational phrases, which have been recited at the New York location, via Vanity Fair: “Be the same person on the outside as on the inside-those...

By a nearly 2 to 1 margin, Americans support the notion of striking a deal with Iran that restricts the nation’s nuclear program in exchange for loosening sanctions, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. But the survey — released hours before Tuesday’s negotiating deadline — also finds few Americans are hopeful that such an agreement will be effective. Nearly six in 10 say they are not confident that a deal will prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, unchanged from 15 months ago, when the United States, France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia reached an interim agreement with Iran aimed...

An incredible admission by US Vice President Joe Biden has been revealed, in which he told Jewish leaders that should the American Jewish community be in danger, it has only Israel to rely on—and not America. […] “You understand in your bones that no matter how hospitable, no matter how consequential, no matter how engaged, no matter how deeply involved you are in the United States…there’s only one guarantee. “There is really only one absolute guarantee, and that’s the state of Israel,” he stated. Responding to the statement, Corey Robin of Salon wrote how disturbing the statement is, given that...

When the news broke Saturday from the White House press pool report accompanying President Obama on his golf outing in the midst of world crisis, I filed it away for possible future developments: On a sunny and beautiful, if chilly morning, the president left the White House residence at 9:30am, wearing a light blue button-up shirt with no tie, a navy blazer and khaki slacks. He waved to the pool but didn’t respond to your pooler’s shouted question about the new Indiana religious freedom law. The president got into Marine One . . . The helicopter was wheels-up to Joint...