'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America

Just miles from New York City’s hallowed Ground Zero, an Internet server in New Jersey hosts a Jihadist leader’s website that instructs supporters of al-Qaida to use explosive devices against western civilians, along with blueprints showing how to build the bombs.

Parents whose spouses flee overseas with their children called Thursday for the federal government to put sanctions on countries that don't help get those children returned, saying it should be considered a human-trafficking issue, not merely a family dispute.
The Energy Department expects to spend only a portion of its remaining advanced energy loan guarantee authority and funds, in part because of negative publicity caused by the high-profile failures of some recipients, the Government Accountability Office reports.

The chairman of the key House subcommittee that controls the Homeland Security Department's budget asked Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday to justify why the department has made major ammunition purchases in recent months, saying it's time to put rumors to rest.
The chairman of a House subcommittee that funds the Justice Department wants Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to call for an independent review of the department's Civil Rights Division in the wake of a government report that documented widespread abuses within the division.
The Justice Department on Tuesday dropped its support for a controversial provision in a federal law that allows police to review some private emails without a warrant, but it asked Congress to expand its surveillance powers in other ways.

As lawmakers and the public grow more concerned about drones and their implications for personal privacy, no one seems to know who in the federal government is responsible for tackling the issue.

President Obama's pick of Sally Jewell as his new interior secretary immediately drew praise from the environmental community and even some in the oil and gas sector.
A Republican-dominated House subcommittee has again killed efforts to allow no-excuse absentee voting in Virginia and join 34 states that allow more early voting.

House Speaker John A. Boehner's overture to Democrats and President Obama on immigration reform is already drawing fire from within the GOP, where lawmakers say he's writing checks that his fellow House Republicans won't cash for him.

With the so-called "fiscal cliff" quickly approaching at the end of the year, small-business owners on Thursday told a House subcommittee that the Obama administration's tax proposal would hurt the nation's leading job providers and prevent them from hiring or increasing wages and benefits.

Former top officials of federally backed Abound Solar told a House subcommittee July 18 that subsidies from China caused the company's collapse, while Republicans pressed a former government loan official about whether he used his personal email account to skirt records laws while discussing clean energy projects.

Building out space on city rooftops for work and play is a common-sense and potentially lucrative tweak to a century-old law that restricts the height of buildings in the District, D.C. officials and analysts told federal lawmakers Thursday.

Former top officials of federally backed Abound Solar told a House subcommittee Wednesday that subsidies from China caused the company's collapse, while Republicans pressed a former government loan official about whether he used his personal email account to skirt records laws while discussing clean energy projects.

The scholars and wordsmiths at the Department of Homeland Security leave everyone who aspires to good citizenship speechless.