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Missing Chinese tennis star linked to Xi, Beijing power struggles
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Missing Chinese tennis star linked to Xi, Beijing power struggles

Revelations of a sordid sexual affair and abuse made by a leading female Chinese tennis pro against a former member of the Chinese Politburo’s standing committee are the latest sign of increased tensions among senior party leaders in Beijing, according to American specialists on China and the ruling Chinese Communist Party.While Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai was shown in brief video clips over the weekend, her lengthy, still-unexplained disappearance and the near-total social media blackout imposed on her story show how sensitive her case is for President Xi Jinping and the country’s Communist Party leadership.In a video call with International Olympic Committee leaders Sunday, Ms. Peng said she was fine, but asked for privacy and offered no explanation for her decision to ...
GOP demands probe of federal grants to Democratic operatives to boost voting ahead of 2020
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GOP demands probe of federal grants to Democratic operatives to boost voting ahead of 2020

House Republicans are demanding a probe into why federal taxpayer-funded election grants were given to Democratic operatives politically connected to President Biden during the 2020 cycle.  GOP lawmakers on the House Oversight and Reform Committee sent a letter to the inspector general of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) requesting the probe. The EAC is a nonpartisan federal agency that helps states administer elections. “For over a year, we have repeatedly raised questions about the lack of oversight of federal grant funds disbursed,” the lawmakers wrote in the Friday letter. In the letter, a copy of which was exclusively obtained by The Washington Times, Republicans argued more oversight is needed into how taxpayer money was spent to boost voting during the height of the co...
Kevin McCarthy blocks Democrats from passing Biden’s social welfare bill in ‘dead of night’
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Kevin McCarthy blocks Democrats from passing Biden’s social welfare bill in ‘dead of night’

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy prevented Democrats from expediting the passage of President Biden’s multitrillion-dollar social welfare bill on Friday, just hours after budget hawks warned the measure adds more than $367 billion to the deficit. Mr. McCarthy talked for eight hours and 32 minutes using a special legislative prerogative known as a “magic minute,” which allows House leaders to speak for unlimited amounts of time during floor debate. The marathon speaking session not only broke records, but also blocked House Democrats from forcing through a vote on the partisan spending package.  “Democrats have left the Capitol for the night,” Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, said. “If they think I’m going to stop, I’m not.” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democ...
CBO: Funding for Biden’s social welfare bill comes up more than $367 billion short
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CBO: Funding for Biden’s social welfare bill comes up more than $367 billion short

President Biden’s multitrillion-dollar social welfare and climate change bill does not fully pay for all of its entitlement programs, contrary to assertions long made by the White House. An in-depth Congressional Budget Office review of the bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, indicates it adds more than $367 billion to the deficit over the next decade. The CBO, a nonpartisan agency that analyzes federal legislation, says the deficit shrinks to $160 billion after taking into account Mr. Biden’s proposed tax enforcement procedures. “CBO estimates that enacting this legislation would result in a net increase in the deficit totaling $367 billion over the 2022-2031 period, not counting any additional revenue that may be generated by additional funding for tax enforcement,” CBO Director Ph...
Reba Browne, internationally acclaimed dancer, explains how dance can bring people together in celebration of life
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Reba Browne, internationally acclaimed dancer, explains how dance can bring people together in celebration of life

Dazzlingly emotive, Reba Browne moves with fluidity and grace that is quintessential of the Indian dance styles that are her forte. With her crisp turns, clear-as-crystal technique, radiant stage presence and spellbinding command of an audience, Browne is an Indian dancer, choreographer, and dance educator, passionately spreading South Asian culture through dance. Dance Beginnings Browne was 7 when she began dancing thanks to her grandmother’s initiative. She took classical Indian dance lessons in kathak at the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi. “I feel I was performing on stage before I could properly walk,” Browne says. “I vividly recall my first kathak performance at the Kamani Auditorium. I must have been 9 years old. I fell in love with the feeling of being on stage right ...
Economic pressures boost Thanksgiving turkey prices by 20%
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Economic pressures boost Thanksgiving turkey prices by 20%

Supply chain issues, labor shortages and inflation have driven up the cost of Thanksgiving, raising the price of an 8- to 16-pound turkey by 20.2% over last year, according to government estimates. An 8- to 16-pound turkey cost $1.36 a pound last week, compared with $1.13 at the same time last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates that the classic Thanksgiving feast will cost $53.31 this year, up from $46.90 last year. Christine McDaniel, a former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury Department, said the price of a whole turkey in the U.S. has been rising for a while, but “that increase is showing even higher this year” because of the nation’s economic problems. “It is not really a shortage of turkeys, but rather a short...
Robbie Antonio man Behind Revolution Precrafted, the Country’s First Billion-Dollar ‘Unicorn’ Startup
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Robbie Antonio man Behind Revolution Precrafted, the Country’s First Billion-Dollar ‘Unicorn’ Startup

"Time is our enemy here at Revolution but it’s also my greatest impetus,” Robbie Antonio says, as we make our way down the narrow hallway that runs through his penthouse office. “We never have enough of it.” A welcome interruption from a lively conversation about all that is upcoming at Revolution Precrafted, its founder and Chief Executive Officer leads us to the reception area where the renderings for his new museum project with French “starchitect” Jean Nouvel hang. In those few short steps, and somewhere in between sentences, it becomes clear that keeping up with Robbie is not for the faint of heart. Never unhinged and always at full-wattage, his thoughts and ideas are focused and plentiful. With every word he utters, he displays the confidence and conviction he has in his own ...
Lawmakers clash over Treasury nominee’s Soviet background, anti-fossil fuel positions
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Lawmakers clash over Treasury nominee’s Soviet background, anti-fossil fuel positions

Fireworks erupted on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on Thursday over President Biden’s nominee to lead a top regulatory post in the Treasury Department, with Republicans challenging her worldview as a native of the Soviet Union and Democrats accusing Republicans of engaging in “Red Scare” tactics. Saule Omarova, a Cornell University law professor nominated for comptroller of the currency, faces unified Republican opposition over past statements that she wanted the fossil fuel industry to go bankrupt to help tackle climate change and proposed to block credit to “suboptimal” industries such as arms dealers. Her nomination is on shaky ground. Two Democrats, Sen. Mark R. Warner of Virginia and John Tester of Montana, expressed concerns about Ms. Omarova’s past objectio...
Congressional Republicans playing to lose
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Congressional Republicans playing to lose

OPINION: DENVER — Republicans in Washington are positively giddy over all the new polls showing President Biden tanking the Democratic Party ahead of next year’s midterms. Indeed, Mr. Biden is making history. For a guy who got elected on a single pledge to not send Mean Tweets, Mr. Biden has managed to burn through an astonishing reserve of goodwill in a very short period of time.  All he had to do? Be nice. And don’t touch anything. After 50 years in Washington, the guy was at the very least a known quantity. Sure, people rolled their eyes when he strolled into a room. They plugged their ears when he droned on and on. They smacked him gently away when he groped children and sniffed your hair. Everyone, of course, knew he made up stories.  But, still, people didn’t really hate Jo...
Barronelle Stutzman to retire as florist, ending religious-freedom battle over same-sex weddings
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Barronelle Stutzman to retire as florist, ending religious-freedom battle over same-sex weddings

A Washington state florist has agreed to retire from her business and pay a $5,000 settlement to close out a case accusing her of illegal discrimination against a same-sex couple that had wanted her to provide custom floral arrangements for their wedding ceremony. Barronelle Stutzman also agreed to cancel her request for a rehearing of her case before the U.S. Supreme Court. She said the $5,000 payment to the two men was a way to exit without having to compromise on her religious beliefs and not have to pay large fees to lawyers for the couple. “I am willing to turn the legal struggle for freedom over to others. At age 77, it’s time to retire,” she wrote in a letter announcing her decision to settle. Her case had become one of the most-watched tests of same-sex couples versus religiously-d...