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North Virginia doctor Siavash Sobhani stated he was in “shock” after a State Department official allegedly told him his U.S. citizenship was stripped over a bureaucratic reason, according to The Washington Post. Sobhani, 61, who specializes in internal medicine, received a letter from a State Department official after applying for a new passport in February, according to the outlet. What the north Virginia doctor received, however, was not what he expected as he had gone through the passport renewal process several times previously without any issues. Sobhani was informed he should have never been granted citizenship in the first place...

Two top Democrats are asking the General Services Administration to terminate the lease of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. A letter sent Thursday by New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Virginia Rep. Gerald Connolly, chairman of the Subcommittee on Government Operations, argued that the lease should be terminated in light of the Trump Organization's longtime accounting firm saying it could not stand by nine years of financial statements prepared for the company. "New information, including that former President Trump may have submitted inaccurate financial information to the federal government...

Democratic congressman says new report shows ‘conspiracy theories’ are true. President Donald Trump was more intimately involved in the debate over relocating the FBI headquarters than Congress was told, a new inspector general report finds. Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, a Democrat representing parts of Northern Virginia, said the report he requested from the General Services Administration IG confirmed his suspicions that the president was involved in the decision to scrap plans to vacate the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, and move the agency to a campus location in either the Maryland or Virginia suburbs. “When we began...

Federal funding for Maryland’s Purple Line is in jeopardy, as are Metro’s hopes for a significant increase in money from the government under President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget released Thursday. Trump’s proposed spending plan, which slashes the federal transportation budget by 13 percent, also curbs long-distance Amtrak service out of Washington and cuts millions in federal grants that the region’s governments have relied on for new rapid bus lines, road work, bus stop improvements and bike paths. The cuts came as a shock to many, considering Trump’s campaign pledge to pump $1 trillion into the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. “I find...

U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) announced Sunday that she has spearheaded a bipartisan letter calling on the French government to cancel plans to release a convicted terrorist who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of an American and an Israeli diplomat. The letter, which was sent to France’s Ambassador to the United States, urges French officials to stop the release of George Ibrahim Abdallah, the former head of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Brigade who was convicted in 1987 of killing an Israeli diplomat and a U.S. military attaché. The U.S. State Department has also expressed its opposition...

A Democratic congressman from Northern Virginia claims Congress is partly to blame for the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.. Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.), in an interview with Washington, D.C., radio station WTOP on Monday, stood by comments he made that Congress deserves some of the blame for the deaths of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others because it failed to give President Obama all the money he had requested for embassy security – and had cut the State Department’s budget overall. Here is a transcript of Connolly's comments: WTOP Radio: Right after this...

Democrats in House of Reps. joined J Street in supporting Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions Seventy-four Democrats in the House of Representatives have joined the dovish J Street organization in supporting the Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions to the Palestinian Authority. “In our view, support for a two-state resolution is inseparable from such support for Israel, its special relationship with the United States, and its very survival as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people,” the letter said. Seven Jewish members signed the letter, including Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), John...

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee member Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., gestures during the committee's hearing: "Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion & Freedom of Conscience," Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, on Capitol Hill in Washington. I've got to admit to you I never even heard of Rep. Gerry Connolly until just now. But he's got to be one of the leading jerks in Congress right now. He scolds the panel arguing in favor of conscience rights that included Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, and leaders of other faiths for blowing...

"I believe today's hearing is a sham," said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., of the first of two session held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during the day. His tone sharp and finger pointed, Connolly went on to declare the witnesses -- who included a Catholic bishop, a Lutheran reverend, an Orthodox rabbi, and two Baptist theologians, all opposed to the administration's recent ruling -- "complicit" in the Republicans' "trampling" of House traditions that would, if observed, have produced a more balanced panel. "You are being used for a political agenda," Connolly told the holy men, after Republicans...

House Oversight Democrat says he will advise administration not to testify before committeeC.j. Ciaramella – 30 mins ago Democrats in the House Oversight Committee are in full revolt against Republican Chairman Darrell Issa, so much that one Democrat said he will urge members of the Obama administration not to testify before the committee. Today during a meeting of the technology subcommittee, Democrat Gerald Connolly said, “I’m going to advise the [Obama] administration to decline all requests by the Majority to testify before this Subcommittee and the full committee until this matter is resolved.” **SNIP** Democrats object to Issa’s interpretation of...

There he goes again. Carl P. Paladino, the Republican candidate for governor, promised he would be politically incorrect. He wasn’t kidding. On Thursday, during a rally in Hicksville, N.Y., he called the state’s junior United States senator, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, “Schumer’s little girl.” It was an apparent reference to Ms. Gillibrand’s close relationship with Senator Charles E. Schumer, but Mr. Paladino’s dismissive description of the only woman to hold statewide elected office in New York jolted the political world. His comments were reported on the Web site of Newsday and by NY1. Mr. Paladino, a businessman from Buffalo, has previously...

Tensions between Fairfax and Prince William counties over illegal immigration spilled over to local talk radio yesterday when Fairfax Board Chairman Gerald E. Connolly's office was peppered by calls from listeners of WMAL (630 AM) midmorning host Chris Core. Core posted Connolly's phone number and e-mail address on his show's Web site after interviewing Prince William Board Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-Occoquan). Stewart, whose board has taken aggressive steps in an attempt to roll back illegal immigration, including authorizing police officers to check the immigration status of crime suspects, has been critical of Fairfax for not taking a similar hard...

Fairfax - Calling Prince William County’s proposal on illegal immigrants political posturing and unworkable, Fairfax County Chairman Gerald Connolly fired back at Prince William County Chairman Corey Stewart this week over Stewart’s criticism of Fairfax’s handling of immigration issues. Stewart said Fairfax County must take action for the region to effectively curb illegal immigration. Prince William passed a controversial resolution directing police to check the status of crime suspects when there is probable cause to believe they are illegal immigrants. That approach, Connolly said, is hardly effective. “What, pray tell, constitutes probable cause? Is it how someone looks? Is it...