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    Christina Wilkie

    Christina Wilkie

    White House reporter, HuffPost

  • Lockdown Lifted After Shooting At U.S. Capitol

    Capitol police identified the suspect as 66-year-old Larry Dawson.

  • This Video Of Donald Trump Proves He Doesn't Have What It Takes To Face Down Putin

    We don't need to be a punch line.

  • Bipartisan Group Of Senators Fights To Help Keep Kids Out Of Prison

    Four senators from both ends of the political spectrum will introduce a bill Wednesday that is aimed at keeping at-risk young people out of the prison system. Two Democratic senators, Bob Casey (Penn.) and Gary Peters (Mich.), will be joined by two conservative Republicans, Sens. David Vitter (La.) and James Inhofe (Okla.), in sponsoring a bill that would provide local governments with grants to help them address juvenile delinquency.

  • So Many Want To Hear Donald Trump Speak, They Need Bigger Venues

    The size of the crowds who want to hear Donald Trump speak has pushed organizers to find larger venues for two upcoming events in Arizona and Arkansas featuring the 2016 Republican presidential candidate. In Arizona, a planned rally with Trump and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio this Saturday has been moved from the Arizona Biltmore Hotel & Spa to the much larger Phoenix Convention Center. In Arkansas, the state GOP announced Thursday that the party's annual Reagan-Rockefeller Dinner in Hot Springs, which this year features Trump as the keynote speaker, would also be moving to a larger venue to accommodate demand.

  • Obama Under Pressure To Revoke Bill Cosby's Medal Of Freedom

    A national sexual assault prevention group is calling on President Barack Obama to revoke Bill Cosby's Presidential Medal of Freedom, following the release of court documents this week in which the actor admitted to obtaining sedatives to give to women he intended to have sex with. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honor, and was bestowed upon Cosby in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush. "This award was given to Mr. Cosby under false pretenses," PAVE Executive Director Angela Rose said in a statement on Wednesday.

  • Ahead Of MLB All-Star Game, New Hope For Victims Of Game-Day Sex Trafficking

    With one week to go before the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star game in Cincinnati, nonprofits there are employing an unusual item to help them reach out to potential victims of sex trafficking: hotel soap. The game next Tuesday is expected to draw more than 40,000 fans to downtown Cincinnati.

  • America Just Chose A Talented, Qualified Diplomat To Bring Hope To War-Torn Congo Basin

    Secretary of State John Kerry announced Monday that former Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) will serve as the Obama administration's special envoy for the Great Lakes region of Africa, an appointment that covers Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Perriello also has close ties to the Obama administration, and recently led a quadrennial review of the diplomatic and development agenda at the U.S. Department of State. The position of special envoy to this war-torn part of central Africa had been sitting empty for more than three months after Perriello's predecessor, former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), stepped down from the job in March and announced that he would be running for the Senate.

  • What Ted Cruz Admires Most About President Obama

    Republican presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz offered a window into his personality on Sunday, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" how he learned to tamp down his cockiness, and what he admires most about President Barack Obama. Cruz is on a tour to promote his new book, A Time for Truth, in which he recounts his time working on the George W. Bush campaign in 2000, and his hopes of securing a job in the newly elected Bush administration. Host Chuck Todd asked him to recount the experience for viewers.

  • Bernie Sanders Hints At What A Sanders Administration Cabinet Could Look Like

    Also doing a great job, Sanders said, is Columbia University economics professor and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, whose recent work has focused on the perils of radical free markets, such as those espoused by some in the libertarian wing of the GOP. Sanders also singled out Robert Reich, the former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley: "I think [he] is doing a fantastic job." Reich has long been an influential backer of labor unions, which have come under attack from Republican governors in recent years.

  • Huckabee Weighs In On Donald Trump's Controversial Immigrant Comments

    The initial article reported on an appearance Huckabee made Sunday on CNN’s "State of the Union." During the show, Huckabee was asked about Trump's comments calling Mexican immigrants crossing the border “rapists,” among other things. “I say some things very differently,” Huckabee replied.

  • There Are Lots Of Ways To Get More Women Elected To Office. Just Ask The Rest Of The World.

    Even as Hillary Clinton solidifies her grasp on her party’s nomination for president, women remain dramatically underrepresented in American politics, holding only 20 percent of the seats in Congress and just six out of the 50 governorships. Despite gains in 2014, there are still 94 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, with higher percentages of female officeholders than the U.S. To turn the tide, the U.S. can and should take cues from countries that have succeeded in increasing their percentage of female politicians, according to experts who spoke Tuesday at a panel convened by the Federal Election Commission.

  • A Bill To Keep Kids Out Of Prison Has A New Lease On Life, Thanks To Conservatives

    A bill in Congress aimed at preventing crime by keeping at-risk youth out of the prison system could get a major boost this year from an unlikely new alliance of progressive Democrats and libertarian-leaning Republicans. The Youth PROMISE Act, long championed by Virginia Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott, would seek to prevent youth crime by awarding grants to local governments for programs to prevent juvenile delinquency. It would also provide funds to collect more data on which juvenile intervention programs are working and which aren’t.

  • Major Texas School District Halts Controversial Truancy Courts

    WASHINGTON - A decision this week by a major Texas school district to suspend operations at its truancy court was welcomed by juvenile justice advocates, who have long pushed for an end the state's controversial policy of criminalizing students for having too many unexcused absences. "It's terrific to see [a district] take such a proactive stance," Deborah Fowler, executive director of justice reform advocacy group Texas Appleseed, told The Huffington Post. "We're impressed by their decision to really investigate the system, and to take seriously the disparate impact that truancy courts have on poor and minority students."

  • With Flights Delayed Indefinitely, U.S. Citizens Are Stranded In Nepal

    In the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that hit Nepal on Saturday, the U.S. has no plans to transport stranded U.S. citizens back home. The State Department on Monday acknowledged the death of at least four U.S. citizens in an avalanche on Mount Everest, but a spokesman did not have an estimate of how many Americans remained in Nepal, or of how many U.S. nationals had been reported missing. While the Indian and Chinese governments have airlifted and bussed out thousands of their own citizens since the earthquake, the U.S. government is directing Americans in Nepal to use commercial flights to transport themselves back home.

  • Fear Not, Oil And Gas Industry: Mark Begich Hasn't Forsaken You In His New Job

    Former Sen. Mark Begich has signed on with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the law and lobbying firm announced Wednesday. The Alaska Democrat, who lost his re-election bid in November, will offer strategic policy advice to the firm's clients, but will not formally register as a lobbyist. While in the Senate, Begich was a reliable backer of bills that would benefit his state's oil and gas industry, at times taking positions that put him at odds with leaders in the Democratic Party.

  • More Kansas Schools To Close Early For Lack Of Funding

    Six school districts in Kansas will close early this year, following budget cuts signed in March by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. Two school districts, Concordia Unified School District and Twin Valley Unified School District, announced earlier this month that they would end the year early because they lacked the funds to keep the schools open. This week, four more districts confirmed they would also shorten their calendars, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

  • Dad Claims Wealthy Town's Little League Demoted His Son Over Affordable Housing

    Darien resident Christopher Stefanoni argues in the lawsuit that his son was moved from one Little League team to another with younger players in retaliation for Stefanoni's proposed real estate development project, according to the Courant. The 2013 lawsuit names Little League board members, who deny Stefanoni's allegations and recently filed the motion to dismiss the suit.

  • Kansas Schools Will Close Early This Spring For Lack Of Funds

    Two school districts in Kansas announced this week that the academic year would end early because they lack sufficient funding to keep the schools open. Concordia Unified School District will finish up six days early, on May 15, and Twin Valley Unified School District will let students out 12 days early, on May 8, the Associated Press reports. In March, Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed a school funding overhaul, which resulted in the state's schools losing a combined $51 million meant to help them finish out the current academic year.

  • Justice Department Investigates Texas Prosecution Of Children For Truancy

    The Department of Justice is investigating whether truancy courts in Dallas County, Texas, deny due process to juveniles charged with failing to attend school by preventing access to lawyers and imposing large fines. Texas is one of two states where truancy is prosecuted as a crime in adult courts. The Constitution's guarantee of due process applies to every individual, regardless of age or disability,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement Tuesday, announcing the probe into Truancy Court and Juvenile District Court in Dallas County.

  • Adelson-Backed Online Gambling Bill Splits GOP At Hearing

    After months of delays, a controversial bill to ban online gambling received a hearing from a House Judiciary subcommittee on Wednesday, pushing it closer to a vote that may divide the GOP and test Republicans' loyalties to one of the party's biggest donors. The Restore America's Wire Act, or RAWA, would impose a federal ban on all Internet gambling, including online state lotteries and poker. Since it was introduced last year, RAWA has been championed almost singlehandedly outside Congress by casino magnate and GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, whose army of lobbyists have made clear that the bill is a top priority.