Obama looks to find common ground with Republicans on the Keystone XL pipeline and on Social Security.
58,000,000
— The fine the Philippines wants the U.S. Navy to pay for damage done to its treasured Tubbataha reef when the USS Guardian ran aground on it in January. That's 58 million Philippine pesos, which works out to $1.4 million.
Immigration Reform: The Coming Fight Over The Low-Skilled Worker Visa
The proposal at the heart of the Senate immigration reform bill is realistic but faces a dim future in Congress. Inside the fight over the new W-visa.
BattlelandMilitary Mental Health
“Take Two Wars and Call Me in the Mourning”
There is something out of whack with the way the nation treats its troops’ mental ills. You can see it in the data, sense it in the stories they tell, and feel it when you talk to the surviving family members of those who gave …
James Earl Ray: Newfound Video Shows Arrest of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Killer
Tennessee officials wanted to make sure they got the arrest of the fugitive gunman on tape. Here’s how the tape was made — and how it was found after disappearing for decades.
BattlelandMarines
Lightning II Bug
The Marines’ F-35B Lightning II jump jet performed its first night-time short takeoff and vertical landing at Maryland’s Patuxent River Naval Air Station on Tuesday.
This ability to take off from, and land on, cramped spaces …
Why the Combat Infantryman Badge Counts
No one cares about the Combat Infantryman Badge, a three-inch piece of black plastic some Army infantrymen wear on their uniforms.
Everyone should care that the infantrymen who wear it risked breaking their mothers’ …
BattlelandProcurement
“How’d This Escape?”
And they say the Pentagon is slow when it comes to procurement? It moved pretty quickly this week – although it was cancelling a procurement instead of actually buying something.
There’s both good and bad news associated …
BattlelandWeapons
President Obama Learns the Value of the Military Toolbox
Last month, the Obama Administration began noticeably increasing military shows of force on or near the Korean peninsula, as the North’s young leader increasingly took steps of his own to increase tensions. Some of the earliest …
“The true definition of assisted living is being a general officer in the U.S. military.”
— Army General Carter Ham, speaking at his German headquarters Friday as he steps down as chief of U.S. Africa Command after 39 years in uniform.
Tanks…for the Memories…
After 69 years of American armor in Germany, all U.S. Army tanks have now left the country.
BattlelandKorea
Just In Case: U.S. Has Plans for Americans to Flee South Korea
Courageous Channel isn’t some new offering from your cable TV provider.
It’s the name of the regular Noncombatant Evacuation Operation exercise done by the U.S. military in South Korea to practice getting thousands of U.S. …
“I'm sorry. I wish it was otherwise. But that's a fact of life. And the longer we defer these things, the worse it's going to be for all of us.”
— Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Wednesday, speaking about looming budget cuts. But he just as easily could have been talking about North Korea.