Outside the Beltway

President Obama will leave office as the first two term President who presided over eight years of war. It didn’t start with him and it won’t end with him.

A third major terrorist attack inside of a week.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch will essentially recuse herself from making a decision about indictments in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server.

President Obama signed a law vastly expanding public access to government records yesterday. In other news . . . .

Unlike previous civil rights changes, this one came without much fanfare, fight, or even discussion.

Depending on the outcome of the election, the Supreme Court’s just concluded term will most likely be remembered as the point at which the Court’s rightward tilt that began at the end of the Warren Court Era came to an end.

As with each previous committee that investigated the 2012 attack on the U.S outpost in Benghazi, the House Select Committee finds that mistakes were made but no evidence of wrongdoing or cover-ups.

Thanks to a 4-4 tie, President Obama’s temporary immigration relief program remains blocked by a Federal Court Injunction.

As expected, the Senate rejected four gun control measures introduced in the wake of the attack in Orlando.

The man who was brought in to clean up the I.R.S. after the alleged targeting scandal became public is facing censure and possible impeachment. Proving that there really is such a thing as a thankless job.

The May Jobs Report was bad all-around. The question is whether this will come to be seen as an anomaly or the beginning of a worrisome trend.

A group of states led by Texas has filed a suit in response to new guidelines from the Federal Government regarding the rights of transgender students.

Begun, the bathroom wars have.

A Federal Court has ruled that the Administration violated the law when it spent funds allocated under the PPACA for purposes other than those authorized by Congress.

The political fight over North Carolina’s so-called “Bathroom Bill” has moved to the Federal Courts.

Thanks largely to the fact that she has moved left on coal, Hillary Clinton seems likely to lose today’s West Virginia primary. But it will have only a minimal impact on Clinton’s quest for a delegate majority.

After starting off the year strong, the jobs market seems to have taken a rest in April.

The passage of a new law in North Carolina has revealed an apparent obsession among some on the right with who gets to use which restroom.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case challenging the President’s deportation relief plan, but it’s unlikely we’ll see a ruling on the merits.

With the Republican nomination fight down to two incredibly unappealing candidates, some Republican insiders are talking about looking elsewhere for a nominee.

With surprising unanimity, the Supreme Court rejected an effort to restrict the meaning of ‘one person, one vote’ in legislative redistricting.

The Supreme Court appears to be looking for a way to resolve an issue that has been mired in controversy for six years now.

The Supreme Court appeared deadlocked during oral argument in the latest case dealing with the PPACA’s contraceptive coverage mandates.

The coming political battle over President Obama’s effort to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia will likely be unlike anything we’ve seen before.

When all is said and done, Super Tuesday Part Two is likely to put Hillary Clinton significantly closer to being the inevitable Democratic nominee.

The eighth Democratic debate raises the question of whether we really need this many debates.

Hilary Clinton crushed Bernie Sanders in Mississippi, but was surprised by Bernie Sanders in Michigan. Nonetheless she still remains in control of the race.

The effort to stop Donald Trump seems likely to set off a civil war inside the Republican Party.

A Federal Judge in New York has denied an F.B.I. request to force Apple to extract data from iPhones involved in a Federal drug case.

All of which leads to a discussion of electoral rules.

The President has another plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay. It’s as likely to be well-received on Capitol Hill as all of his other previous plans on this issue.

The futility of US policy towards Cuba is obvious to anyone who gives it even a passingly objective assessment.

The politicization of Supreme Court appointments didn’t start with Republicans last night.

In the short term, Justice Scalia’s death will have a significant impact on cases the Supreme Court has already heard, and cases it is scheduled to hear in the next two months.

Another step forward with regard to the American-Cuban relationship.

As if to further demonstrate just how fair off the rails the GOP has gotten, Donald Trump’s unconstitutional, wrong-headed, racist notions are supported by wide majorities in the party that still claims to the by the “Party of Lincoln.”

Get ready for an expansion of the war against ISIS into Libya, because it’s probably not far away.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in what is guaranteed to be a high profile case heading into the 2016 elections.

Another hopeful step forward, thanks to diplomacy.

The North Koreans claim to have made a major advance in their nuclear weapons program, but there are many reasons to be skeptical.

The gun control regulations to be announced later today by President Obama later today amount to far less than the hype would lead you to believe.

Donald Trump has won Politifact’s ‘Lie Of The Year’ because, well, he’s told so many things that are utterly and provably false.

The final report to third quarter Gross Domestic Product shows that growth over the summer was, at best, tepid.

The final spending bill for the 2016 Fiscal Year sailed through Congress today, marking the end of a very successful first two months in office for Speaker Paul Ryan

Russian President Vladimir Putin had some praise for Donald Trump of all people.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a Court Martial for the circumstances that led to his being capture and held captive by the Taliban for five years.