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T-Mobile US Inc. on Wednesday announced a seven-day free trial program to get potential customers to “test drive” its wireless network. The deal requires a consumer to provide a credit-card number online and delivers an iPhone 5S in the mail for use over the seven days, the company said. Return the phone to a T-Mobile store and no charges will be assessed. “We’re not trying to make money on this,” T-Mobile chief executive John Legere said at a kickoff event in Seattle. The company hopes consumers who use T-Mobile’s data network under the program will find that it is faster...

The young couple had mastered the morning choreography of their tiny Columbia Heights kitchen. John Van Zandt squeezed into one corner and toasted an English muffin. In another, his wife, Florencia Fuensalida, brewed coffee. For years, renting a one-bedroom near bars and bus routes was a suitable trade-off for the wonders of the new Washington. But Van Zandt is 35 now; Fuensalida is 31. And kitchen space seemed a little tighter each day Fuensalida’s baby bump grew. Maneuvering past the fridge, Fuensalida repeated a tired refrain: “We’re going to need a bigger place.” But where? They were once a part...

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is on a flight from Europe and is scheduled to arrive in San Antonio, Texas, within hours. Bergdahl had been in a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, since he was released in Afghanistan after five years of Taliban captivity. He is expected to be taken to a military hospital in the Texas city for continued rehabilitation. "I can confirm that he is now en route to the United States aboard a U.S. military aircraft, having departed Ramstein Air Base earlier this afternoon," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement Thursday. "He will arrive...

Fresh off the brazen move by U.S. Marshals to sweep up and hide a local police department’s use of “Stingray” technology to vacuum up cellphone data, the AP now reports that it was apparently a matter of policy. The Obama administration has been quietly advising local police not to disclose details about surveillance technology they are using to sweep up basic cellphone data from entire neighborhoods, The Associated Press has learned. Citing security reasons, the U.S. has intervened in routine state public records cases and criminal trials regarding use of the technology. This has resulted in police departments withholding materials...

Susan Rice explains her praise of Bowe Bergdahl By: Jonathan Topaz June 6, 2014 11:50 AM EDT Susan Rice isn’t backing down from her controversial comments that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl served with “honor and distinction” in Afghanistan. “I realize there has been a lot of discussion and controversy around this,” the National Security Adviser said during an interview Friday with CNN’s Jim Acosta at the D-Day anniversary in Normandy, France. “What I was referring to is the fact that this was a young man who volunteered to serve his country in uniform at a time of war. That in...

Bowe Bergdahl furor adds to Dem angst about Barack Obama By: David Nather June 5, 2014 06:38 PM EDT On Monday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen was cheering the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. “I am looking forward to him being reunited with his family soon and am thankful for his service, his sacrifice, and his courage,” the New Hampshire Democrat said in a statement.By Wednesday, she wasn’t cheering anymore. “I continue to have concerns about the Administration’s failure to consult Congress,” she said in a second statement after the Obama administration briefed senators about the exchange for five Taliban prisoners.And...

The young woman walking across the stage in cap and gown in front of hundreds of celebrants has a familiar face. Even outside of this high school auditorium, she is recognized. On city streets here, strangers walk up to her and say, awkwardly, “Oh my God, you’re the girl from the Trayvon Martin case.” ¶ Nothing angers Rachel Jeantel more. Martin was not the one on trial. ¶ “Trayvon is the victim!” she often snaps back. “He did nothing.” ¶ A year after Jeantel became a central figure in the trial of George Zimmerman, who had killed her 17-year-old friend,...

President Barack Obama’s Rose Garden appearance Saturday afternoon with Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s parents was an attempt to humanize the prisoner swap to deflect potential criticism of letting five Taliban leaders out of Guantanamo Bay, White House aides say. It didn’t work. White House aides were aware Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had been tagged a deserter, and that they would be grilled over not keeping Congress in the loop. But they figured people would be most outraged over the national security implications. (Also on POLITICO: Obama officials head to Hill to talk Bergdahl) The White House has been surprised by how much...

A public welcome home celebration featuring Grammy-winning singer Carole King in honor of freed POW Bowe Bergdahl in the tiny town of Hailey, Idaho was abruptly cancelled today. The official reason given was a concern for public safety, but MailOnline has learned that it was not the only reason the party was scrubbed. Today's decision follows a row that erupted in Hailey between Mayor Fritz Haemmerle and US Army Platoon Commander Jonathan Kennedy, who lives in Hailey. And Kennedy wasn't the only towns person who voiced disapproval of a celebration for the soldier under fire. Mayor Haemmerle wanted to throw...

The town of Hailey, Idaho has canceled its June 28 event to celebrate the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who was released from Taliban captivity nearly five years after he was reported missing in Afghanistan.The Idaho Statesman posted this news release from organizers saying the the event is canceled "in the interest of public safety." Since Bergdahl's release on May 31, the town of 8,000 has been inundated with negative emails and phone calls. "When the news of Bowe Bergdahl’s release was announced this past Saturday, the organizers joyfully declared that the event would be renamed Bowe is Back, and would...

Controversy over the prisoner exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl — and over allegations he abandoned his Afghanistan post — has brought blowback on businesses in Hailey, Bergdahl’s hometown. The Hailey Chamber of Commerce has received hundreds of phone calls from people angry that the community had planned a June 28 “Bowe is Back” celebration for a possible deserter, Chamber Membership Director Kristy Heitzman said. The Chamber wasn’t organizing or sponsoring “Bowe is Back” but promoted the event on its Facebook page, she said. Organizers cancelled the event midday Wednesday. Some of the angry callers are veterans, Heitzman said. One...

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was expected to get a hero’s welcome in his hometown of Hailey, Idaho, but as more information comes out about Bergdahl possibly being a deserter whose actions led to other soldiers dying, the tide has turned, and now Reuters’ Mark Felsenthal reports that the town of Hailey has called off its planned celebration for Bergdahl’s return. This comes just a day after town officials were pleading for a damper on the hate they’ve all received ever since allegation’s of Bergdahl’s misconduct came out. The president of the town’s Chamber of Commerce said she’s received an onslaught of...

About 2 million people enrolled in Obamacare exchanges submitted information that doesn’t match up with federal records, potentially jeopardizing the coverage and federal subsidies for some of them, the Obama administration said Wednesday afternoon. The news, first reported by The New Republic and The Associated Press citing federal documents, was confirmed by officials with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees Obamacare programs. The officials emphasized that discrepancies in people’s application data are unlikely to affect their coverage or the level of subsidies they received. Rather, they’ll have to submit additional documentation to ensure that they’re getting the...

The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Monday to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, equaling the highest minimum wage in the nation. The law will phase in the higher wages over a three- to seven-year window, depending on the size of a company. Corporations that employ more than 500 workers will have to pay $15 an hour by 2017 if their employees don’t receive company-paid health care. Smaller businesses can wait until 2019 to reach the higher rate. All workers will receive the highest wage by 2021. “The people who work for a living have basically seen no...

Thompson submachine guns are as much a legend as the bad — and good — guys who fired them. With as many colorful nicknames as the gangsters whose rat-a-tat-tats roared through the 1920s, the weapon remains an icon of American criminal, military and pop culture history. No matter what you call it — the “Chicago Typewriter,” the “trench broom,” the “chopper,” the “annihilator” — the Tommy gun is a vintage Hollywood favorite. It was used not only by desperados such as John Dillinger to rob banks and Al Capone’s mobsters in the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, but also various...

Jay Carney, the journalist-turned-press-aide who jousted daily with his former colleagues over issues from the Benghazi terrorist attack to the glitch-ridden health care website, stepped down as the White House press secretary on Friday. President Obama interrupted Mr. Carney’s regular briefing to deliver the news, announcing that Mr. Carney would be replaced by his deputy, Josh Earnest, whose ties to Mr. Obama date to the 2008 presidential campaign, in which Mr. Earnest served as the communications director in Iowa. “Jay has become one of my closest friends and is a great press secretary and a great adviser,” Mr. Obama said,...

Jay Carney spent three years successfully keeping the press at bay even as reporters grew increasingly disenchanted and adversarial with the administration. During his tenure as White House press secretary, Carney, who stepped down on Friday, faced grillings over several administration failures, real and perceived, ranging from the botched Obamacare rollout to the revelations of NSA surveillance to the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi. Throughout it all, the press secretary was confident and composed, said journalists who cover the White House. He might dodge, counter, or stonewall — a source of constant frustration for the reporters — but he rarely...

White House press secretaries hustle for the president. Then a lot of them go on to do the same thing for special interests. The Washington parlor game Friday: Will outgoing press secretary Jay Carney do the same? Since the start of the Clinton administration, five of the last nine press secretaries landed softly in the world of corporate communications for a large multinational company or with a public affairs firm. (QUIZ: How well do you know Jay Carney?) The lucrative line of work relies on in-town connections and insider knowledge of an administration. It looks and feels a lot like...

One Direction better watch out. A new boy band is taking the stage and they’ve got the power of the White House behind them. The tween group, Twenty20, includes the offspring of some of Obama’s top advisers — Jay Carney’s 12-year-old son, Hugo, U.S. Trade Rep. Mike Froman's son Ben, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan’s son Lucas and Joey Doyle, whose mom is Hillary Clinton's former presidential campaign manager turned Obama campaign adviser Patti Solis Doyle. All four are classmates of Sasha and Malia Obama at Sidwell Friends School.

With the toughest gun-control regulations in the country, California has a unique, centralized database of gun purchases that law enforcement officers can easily search. It offers precious intelligence about a suspect or other people they may encounter when responding to a call. But this rare advantage wasn’t enough to help authorities head off the May 23 rampage in Santa Barbara that claimed six victims. Before a half-dozen sheriff’s deputies knocked on Elliot Rodger’s door last month in response to concerns raised by his mother about his well-being, they could have checked the database and discovered he had bought three 9mm...