An aircraft used by a state-owned Venezuelan natural gas company to evade U.S. sanctions and export control laws for the benefit of the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was seized in the Dominican Republic Thursday, authorities said.  The seizure of the Dassault Falcon 2000EX aircraft used by Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA), the sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural-gas company, came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the...

President Donald Trump fired the U.S. Federal Election Commission Commissioner and Chair Ellen Weintraub, sending her a letter regarding her “removal.” Trump took office Jan. 20, and since then has taken on a massive government makeover, sidelining and firing hundreds of top agency officials and civil servants as he attempts to install more loyalists and downsize the bureaucracy. Weintraub, like many others, was in Trump’s crosshairs, but she...

A House lawmaker Thursday jokingly suggested making therapy dogs a permanent fixture in committee hearings after voicing his concern about the “mental stability” of Democrats a day earlier.  On Wednesday, as Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform discussed wasteful government spending, Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., asked about bringing in therapy dogs for his Democratic colleagues amid back-and-forth sparring between both sides.  Crane asked committee Chair...