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Vice President Harris finds herself at a crossroads as she enters her third year in office. After a bumpy start, which saw a string of missteps and a slew of staff departures, Harris has sought to steady the ship. Now, as President Biden is expected to run for reelection, Harris will need to support him in that effort while making her case that she’s able to step in at a moment’s notice and can follow him to the White House in 2028. “The vice president is at an interesting place,” said one Democratic strategist. “In some ways she still has...

The United Nations nuclear watchdog released a report Saturday stating that Iran is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons, adding that the Islamic Republic has upgraded its nuclear facilities in order to defend them from possible cyber attacks. According to the report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran has installed new and improved 2IR as well as 4IR centrifuges, which according to experts, will be immune to cyber attacks that were able to breach the older centrifuges. The centrifuges have allegedly been installed, the report states, in a fortified underground facility for uranium enrichment near the city of Qom.

LONDON – Gold prices hit record highs for a fifth session on Thursday and silver rallied to its strongest since 1980 as the dollar slid to a three-year low against a basket of major currencies. The action in the currency markets added fuel to a rally sparked by concerns over the U.S. economic outlook, rising inflation, worries over euro zone debt and historically low interest rates in the United States, analysts said. Spot gold was bid at $1,502.10 an ounce at 1322 GMT, against $1,498.15 late in New York on Wednesday, having earlier peaked at $1,508.75 an ounce. U.S. gold...

Recession, bailout costs push federal deficit to $765 billion in first 5 months of budget year Lower tax revenue and massive government spending on the bank bailout pushed the federal deficit to $765 billion in the first five months of the budget year, well on its way to hitting the Obama administration's projection of a record annual imbalance of $1.75 trillion. The Treasury Department also said Wednesday that the February deficit reached $192.8 billion. That's a record for the month and up 10 percent from a year ago, but below analysts' expectations of $205.7 billion

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2007 – Anyone who watched the final episode of HBO’s “The Sopranos” series understands what the Army is up against as it works to fill its ranks with high-quality recruits. When young Anthony Soprano Jr., “AJ” to his family and friends, expressed an interest in joining the Army, he met opposition from all corners. His girlfriend balked. His mother, Carmela, tried to dissuade him for fear he’s be deployed to Iraq. His father Tony, New Jersey’s mob boss, ultimately distracted him with a new BMW and an opportunity to make a movie. The story may be fictitious,...

Muslims Open A Window To Faith Forum Reaches Out To Ease Suspicions As The Faithful Face Mecca MICHAEL MCANDREWS, July 7, 2007 AMID HUNDREDS OF MUSLIMS during afternoon prayers on Saturday, Asim Abdelrahman, 6, keeps close to his father, Abdel Abdelrahman, during the annual meeting of the Islamic Circle of North America held at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. The Abdelrahmans, who live in Princeton, N.J., joined about 15,000 other Muslims, mostly from New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as about 100 non-Muslim guests invited to learn more about Islam.

Hewlett-Packard Co. may be the world's largest technology company, but the superlative that better suits it these days is Provider of the World's Strangest Corporate Drama. For two weeks, almost every day has brought revelations of questionable tactics that HP investigators used this year and last to root out who had been describing boardroom deliberations to the media. Corporate intelligence is an old and frequently practiced art, but HP's efforts feel more Watergate than Wall Street. Not only did investigators impersonate board members, employees and journalists to obtain their phone records, but according to multiple reports, they also surveilled an...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (Army News Service, Aug. 31, 2006) – The active Army reached its fiscal 2006 retention goal one month early today when a Fort Campbell Soldier reenlisted. Staff Sgt. Michael Obleton, a truck driver assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, became the 64,200th reenlistment since Oct. 1, 2005. Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Richard Cody presided over the ceremony. “What a commitment. Our Army has been at war longer than we fought in World War II. Soldiers still reenlist knowing full well the dangers, knowing full well the sacrifice,” said Cody. Obleton, of Columbus, Ga.,...

Story by Multi-National Division - Northeast PAO A Korean doctor treats a patient at the Zaytun Hospital. Department of Defense photo by MND-NE PAO. On a recent hot morning, a 76-year-old woman from a small village near Irbil was ushered into the hospital in a wheelchair pushed by her son. She was greeted with thunderous applause. Mariam Mhiadin had become the 40,000th patient admitted to the Republic of Korea's Zaytun Hospital since it opened Nov. 27, 2004. During the brief ceremony that followed, Republic of Korea Lt. Col. Lee Hae-Seol, commander, ROK Division's Medical Battalion, handed flowers and gifts...

SACRAMENTO The union representing California Highway Patrol officers has agreed to a new four-year contract that will cost the state more than $30 million a year, the state Department of Personnel Administration said Tuesday. By law, salaries for the 6,400 officers are tied to what is paid to local police in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego and San Francisco, said department spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley. CHP salaries currently are in line with police in those cities, so the officers will get no increases to their base salaries this year, Jolley said. But they will likely see raises in future years as...

SACRAMENTO -- It was one of those "oops!" moments everybody should have seen coming. But not everybody did, at least on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's staff. In one of a series of media events he held last week to polish his law-and-order credentials for his re-election campaign, the Republican governor announced he planned to sponsor a "Crime Victims Bill of Rights." It seemed like a run-of-the-mill event until Democratic Assemblywoman Nicole Parra put out a press release a couple of hours before the governor's Tuesday event in Oakland, announcing she planned to attend and "present" her proposed ballot measure that would...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - It's a true epidemic: the red, white and blue, stars-and-stripes banners are everywhere in the United States - on house facades, front lawns, cars and clothes. Hitting an high point on the July 4 US Independence Day holiday, it is a genuine phenomenon of American national pride that, inevitably, gets a good but also sometimes unwanted boost from commercial exploitation. "It's a little strange, this obsession of the flag," French author Bernard-Henri Levy wrote after traveling across the country. "Everywhere, in every form, flapping in the wind or on stickers, an epidemic of flags that has spread...

Highway maintenance workers, heavy equipment operators and other members of their union .. reach .. tentative contract agreement with the state. The Department of Personnel Administration announced the accord Friday. Under terms of the agreement, the estimated 12,000 members of the International Union of Operating Engineers .. receive a 3.5 percent pay raise effective today and a 2 percent to 4 percent raise on July 1, 2007, depending on the cost of living. Employees in the union, .. who work for Highway Patrol .. departments of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Transportation, Water Resources and General Services also would get a one-time...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has made a tentative deal with the union that represents 87,000 state employees, averting a possible strike. The three-year agreement reached Saturday with the Service Employees International Union Local 1000 - which includes workers in the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Department of Insurance - offers a 3.5 percent pay raise on July 1 that includes a cost of living increase one year later, and a one-time bonus of $1000. The contract must still be ratified by union members, who have not had a raise in three years. Union leaders had been authorized to call...

The state reached a three-year contract deal with its largest employees union on Saturday, avoiding a threatened strike by thousands of Department of Motor Vehicle workers, accountants, prison cooks and others responsible for the day-to-day operations of government. The deal, which must be ratified by a majority vote of the union's members, would provide the first raise in nearly three years for the 87,000 members of Local 1000 of the Service Employees International Union. The preliminary deal includes an 3.5 percent raise this year and another raise of up to four percent next year tied to the Consumer Price Index....

Gov. Schwarzenegger met for the first time ever with Inland tribal leaders Wednesday, signifying a marked change in his approach to tribes he once accused of "ripping off" taxpayers and not paying their "fair share" into the state's general fund. Tribal leaders emerged from the nearly 80-minute private talk with cautious praise for the governor but with no promises of new agreements on gaming or other issues. Schwarzenegger told the tribes he wants to talk to them individually about renegotiating the pacts that allow them to operate casinos, which the tribes said they are willing to consider. Mark Macarro, chairman...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday announced a plan to repay billions of dollars to schools that educators say he has owed them since he backed out of a budget deal he made shortly after taking office in 2003. The deal, reached as the governor finalized the annual May revisions to his proposed 2006-07 budget, calls for the state to repay $2.9 billion over seven years. Another $2.8 billion from an unexpected tax windfall this spring will also go to education. The agreement is expected to settle a lawsuit brought by education groups and it may also quiet one of Schwarzenegger's...

KABUL, Afghanistan, May 3, 2006 – A unique Afghan National Army communications unit reached a milestone recently by demonstrating its capability to plan, deploy and establish a communications station. Maj. Abdul Anan (left) and Capt. Gul Mohammed, officers with the Afghan National Army's Communications Support Element, perform radio checks during the unit's first deployment recently. Courtesy photo   The Communication Support Element is providing ANA leadership with the capability to extend command and control systems to a deployed operations center anywhere in Afghanistan. The battalion-sized unit is being developed to support the needs of the National Military Command Center in...

Sarkozy reaches out to far-right voters · If you dislike France then go, says interior minister· Poll puts Le Pen in third place in presidential vote Kim Willsher in Paris Monday April 24, 2006 The Guardian (UK) France's interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been accused of pandering to the extreme right in his campaign to become president by telling those who do not like the country that they can get out. Speaking this weekend to 2,500 members of his ruling right-of-centre UMP party, he appeared to use the language of France's anti-immigrant parties - a move that won applause. "If...

WASHINGTON, April 23, 2006 – After months of deadlock, Iraq reached an "important milestone" in its journey toward democracy with an agreement on top leadership posts for a national unity government, President Bush said yesterday. The parliament elected a president, two vice presidents, a parliament speaker and two deputies yesterday. President Jalal Talabani then named Jawad al Maliki as prime minister-designate. "This agreement represents compromise and consensus among many different Iraqi groups and it came after months of patient negotiations," Bush said in a speech at the California Highway Patrol Academy in Sacramento. "The agreement reflects the will of the...