The Trump administration is going back to the “tough on crime” policies of the 1980s and ’90s. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered federal prosecutors to bring charges that carry heavy penalties – sometimes mandatory minimum sentences. This is a roll-back of Obama administration rules telling prosecutors not to charge nonviolent drug offenders with crimes that […]

One more of President Trump’s nominees can move into his office and take up the president’s agenda on international trade, specifically NAFTA. Robert Lighthizer, an international trade lawyer and former trade official in the Reagan administration, was confirmed as U.S. trade representative today by the Senate on a vote of 82 to 14.  He’s likely […]

The resignation of the U.S. Census Bureau director leaves the agency with no leader just month before it begins a big hiring and technology push for the 2020 census. Data from the census is useful far beyond counting the population. Economists and businesses use census numbers to decide where and when to expand, or pull […]

In the words of the president, the so-called “war on coal” is over. One could get that impression on news that coal production ticked up the first quarter, thanks to a cold winter boosting business for all energy. But long-term rival fuels like natural gas and renewables are pushing coal out of the market. And […]

Climate talks are underway in Bonn, Germany, this week starting on Monday. There have been concerns that the new Trump administration may be overly friendly to energy companies at the cost of the environment. Some countries at the talks worry that business has too much influence over delegates, and they are calling for more transparency. Click […]

We’ll get the Labor Department’s jobs report for April today. The report for March was dismal — just 98,000 jobs added — though economists think that was a winter-weather-induced aberration. But even if job creation rises this spring and summer, it’ll still be well short of what’s needed to create the kind of supercharged employment […]

President Trump has seen every one of his cabinet secretaries confirmed but key financial regulators. Most are still holdovers from the Obama administration, though rumor has it that the comptroller of the currency could be replaced within days. Click the audio player above to hear the full story.