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During a speech Monday, the president said he is signing two proclamations which will shrink the Bears Ears National Monument and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. He called the measures a reversal of federal overreach, and says the move will restore the rights of land to the people of Utah. The president says the residents of the state know how to protect and conserve their own land, and Washington politicians do not. He added, lands must be protected and now will be protected by this new measure.

Chinese intelligence-connected billionaire James Riady wants to purchase an enormous copper mine to corner the market for China despite being banned from the United States in 2001. The Chinese are colonizing Africa but rapidly running out of copper deposits to mine in stable areas. “No matter where the project is, Chinese investors are coming for it,” and as China’s appetite dramatically outpaces its domestic supply and as Chinese investors chase after other countries’ resources, that includes America.

A former top aide to Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state arranged for crucial access to Chinese officials so a top aide to former President Bill Clinton could promote his private car dealership business to China, a new report says. Cheryl Mills, Clinton's chief of staff at the State Department, arranged the visit between a Chinese delegation and Thomas 'Mack' McLarty, who was chief of staff in her husband's White House, at a dinner at the State Department. McLarty had asked for an invitation to the dinner, which occurred in the spring of 2011, because of 'our substantial...

The New York Times reported this week on the unseemly transfer of cash from parties interested in a major uranium deal to the Clintons. The Canadian company selling Uranium One to the Russians donated $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation. And Russians tied to the deal gave Bill Clinton $500,000 for a Moscow speech. The deal had global consequences. It would put one fifth of all uranium production capacity in the United States under Russian control. So critical was the deal that it needed the approval of the U.S. State Department. State approved the deal, and it managed to so...

WASHINGTON - When two Russian immigrants and their American financial backer needed marketing help for their innovative electric motor, they turned to a merchant banker at one of the nation's largest investment houses - retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark. The meeting at the Washington office of Stephens Inc. in late 2001 proved fortuitous for both Clark, the former supreme commander of NATO, and the principals in WaveCrest Laboratories, at the time a small research and development company in Dulles, Va. "They hit it off pretty much right away," said WaveCrest spokesman Tom McMahon. Clark signed on as a consultant...

A federal judge handed a landmark victory to Kane County and the state of Utah on Wednesday in a years-long dispute with the federal government over whether some rural routes should remain in use as roads, or if they should be closed to the public. In two decisions, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups found he had jurisdiction to hear Kane County's claim, gave parameters for "reasonable" right-of-way widths on some routes and determined that 12 of 15 routes in dispute were roads and therefore accessible by the public. The distinction hinged on an 1866 law through which Congress sought to...

Frankly, I did not think of Chris Matthews as an episodic apologist until I watched his MSNBC documentary this week, "President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon." The episodic apologists are a familiar fixture of the Clinton administration, much as the court historians are a fixture of the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Whereas the court historians always could be relied upon to spin history FDR's heroic way, the episodic apologists always end up slobbering all over the Clintons -- albeit with a twist. The court historians were always pretty straightforward. They adored FDR from the beginning to the...

Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate held hearings on a bill to jumpstart domestic production of “rare earth” minerals, in order to break China’s near-monopoly on these little known but essential raw materials... “Rare earth” refers to a collection of 17 elements from the periodic table, with Star Trek-sounding names like holmium, europium, neodymium, and thulium. They tend to be found together, and exhibit similar chemical properties that make them useful — and in many cases vital — for a whole host of high-tech applications, such as superconductors, magnets, and lasers. Rare earths are essential ingredients in many emerging “green”...

In March 2004, James Riady, an Indonesian tycoon and devout Christian, received an honorary doctorate from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas. The university -- which has a scholarship program funded by the Indonesian -- didn't announce the honor. Nor did Riady pick up the diploma in person: He'd been barred from America after pleading guilty in 2001 to a "conspiracy to defraud the United States" through illegal contributions to the campaigns of Bill Clinton and other Democrats. Last year, however, the Indonesian mogul finally made it to Arkansas. He traveled there during the first of two previously unreported trips he...

NEW YORK -- As Chinese authorities have clamped down on unrest in Tibet and jailed dissidents in advance of the 2008 Olympics, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has taken a strong public stance, calling for restraint in Tibet and urging President Bush to boycott the Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing. But her recent stern comments on China's internal crackdown collide with former President Bill Clinton's fundraising relationship with a Chinese Internet company accused of collaborating with the mainland government's censorship of the Web. Last month, the firm, Alibaba Inc., carried a government-issued "most wanted" posting on its Yahoo China homepage, urging...

** EXCERPT ** With a large charitable donation in hand, Indonesian businessman Mochtar Riady flew to Little Rock to dine with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at a 1993 gala honoring her as an "Arkansan of the Year" at a time his company, a multibillion dollar banking conglomerate, was seeking an end to a 30-year trade embargo with Vietnam. Five days after the March 4, 1993, dinner at the Excelsior Hotel, Mr. Riady took the embargo question directly to President Clinton, saying in a four-page letter that its demise would bring political reforms in that communist country. By that time,...

Hillary Clinton calls President Bush's talks with the Saudis about increasing oil output "pathetic." But it's not as pathetic as her co-president husband locking up billions of tons of clean coal in exchange for political contributions. As Bush wrapped up his Middle East trip, Sen. Clinton commented: "President Bush is over in the Gulf now begging the Saudis and others to drop the price of oil. How pathetic." A large part of America's energy dependence on foreign sources can be traced to Sept. 18, 1996, when President Bill Clinton stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon on the Arizona...

Scandals: Hillary Clinton calls President Bush's talks with the Saudis about increasing oil output "pathetic." But it's not as pathetic as her co-president husband locking up billions of tons of clean coal in exchange for political contributions.As Bush wrapped up his Middle East trip, Sen. Clinton commented: "President Bush is over in the Gulf now begging the Saudis and others to drop the price of oil. How pathetic." A large part of America's energy dependence on foreign sources can be traced to Sept. 18, 1996, when President Bill Clinton stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon on the Arizona...

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (R) walks out of the Gala Cafe to greet supporters while campaigning in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire, January 4, 2008. Voters in New Hampshire go to the polls January 8 in the U.S. presidential primary elections.

Sen. Hillary Clinton went on the counterattack today, one day after a stinging defeat in the Iowa caucuses to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. She said New Hampshire voters need to take a hard look at Obama, suggesting that they shouldn't just buy into his message of "hope" without analyzing his policies. Clinton said she wasn't suggesting anything in particular about Obama, but simply "drawing contrasts." "I'm running on my record. … I'm running on my plans," Clinton told reporters. "I think everybody needs to be vetted and tested. That's the way elections are supposed to operate. The last thing the...

IOWA ANTHEM Oh, Hillary, oh, Hillary...you thought you'd make history Oh, Hillary, oh, Hillary...you are evil as can be We saw right through your phoniness Your crimes it's time that you confess Oh, Hillary, oh, Hillary...go away now, quietly

LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Within days of introducing a $50 billion plan to combat AIDS, Sen. Hillary Clinton received a standing ovation at one of the nation's most influential evangelical churches after addressing its "Global Summit on AIDS and the Church." If the Democratic presidential frontrunner's aim was to make inroads into the electorate's heavily Republican evangelical community, her appearance at Saddleback Church with pastor and "The Purpose Driven Life" author Rick Warren apparently didn't hurt.

Clinton Campaign Acused for the Second Time of Planting a Question at a Public Appearance Saturday , November 10, 2007 By Major Garrett SIOUX CITY, Iowa — For the second time in as many days, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has had to deal with accusations of planting questions during public appearances. In a telephone interview Saturday with Fox News, Geoffrey Mitchell, 32, said he was approached by Clinton campaign worker Chris Hayler to ask a question about how she was standing up to President Bush on the question on funding the Iraq war and a troop withdrawal timeline. The encounter...

China's intelligence services are among the most aggressive at spying on the United States, followed by Cuban, Russian and Iranian spy agencies, according to the U.S. government's top counterintelligence coordinator. "These services are eating our lunch," Joel F. Brenner, the new head of the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, said in his first interview since being named to the counterspy post in August. Mr. Brenner, a former inspector general at the National Security Agency, told The Washington Times that the U.S. remains the No. 1 target of "virtually every significant espionage service on the face of the Earth." China's...

<p>FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON ON NOT CAPTURING BIN LADEN: 'At least I tried. That's the difference between me and some, including all the right wingers. They ridicule me for trying. They had eight months to try, they did not try. I tried. So I tried and failed'...</p>