By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Twenty members of Congress have sent a letter to the Boy Scouts of America, urging it to drop its ban on gay youth and adults.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday described the leak about a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen to The Associated Press as a "very, very serious" matter that "put the American people at risk," but he did not remember when he recused himself from the investigation into it, did not put his recusal in writing and never told the White House.
The House voted Friday to cancel the annual diversity visa lottery and give those immigration visas to high-tech foreign-born who earn advanced degrees from American universities, as Republicans powered through their chamber the first major immigration bill since the election.
The Obama administration said Wednesday it opposes House Republicans' first postelection immigration effort to entice more high-tech university graduates to stay in the U.S., signaling that this month's election has yet to foster a breakthrough on Capitol Hill on an issue all sides expect to dominate.
House Democrats defeated the broadest immigration reform effort yet in this Congress, voting down a bill on Thursday that would have ended the random visa lottery and replaced it with a system rewarding high-tech foreign graduates from U.S. universities.
A big immigration deal is still elusive but Congress is suddenly rushing to take a smaller nibble at the issue, with the House slated to vote on a Republican proposal later this week that would open up tens of thousands of green cards to foreigners who promise to bring their science and technology skills to the U.S.
D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray has tapped two Capitol Hill veterans to help him trumpet his "ambitious agenda" to the public after a string of personnel blunders threatened to obscure any progress during his first year at the helm of the city.
Redistricting suit likely to roil Virginia Assembly; D.C. Council now has ethics-reform bill; Maryland audit: assisted-living homes not getting inspected; Gray announcing (another) staff shakeup; Virginia's gun background check being challenged; Maryland revokes 157 nursing assistants' certificates; Sun: Franchot has a tin ear; Prince George's police seek accidentally released slaying suspect.
The House on Tuesday approved a five-year freeze on any new state and local taxes imposed on cellphones and other wireless services, including wireless broadband access.
After months on the back burner, the immigration issue returns to the political forefront Thursday when House Republicans take the first steps to require all businesses to verify their employees' work status electronically.
Massachusetts announced Monday that it will refuse to join the federal government's Secure Communities initiative, becoming the latest state to balk at the Obama administration's key anti-illegal immigration program designed to target gang members and violent felons for deportation.
Michelle Obama says some of the first family's best moments have been during trips abroad.
Acknowledging they were breaking new ground, deeply divided House lawmakers voted Thursday to censure Rep. Charles B. Rangel for breaking tax laws and House rules, saying Congress needed to live up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pledge to be open, honest and ethical.
Veteran Rep. Charles Rangel, the raspy-voiced, backslapping former chairman of one of Congress' most powerful committees, was censured by his House colleagues for financial misconduct Thursday in a solemn moment of humiliation in the sunset of his career.
Acknowledging they were breaking new ground, deeply divided House lawmakers voted Thursday to censure Rep. Charles B. Rangel for breaking tax laws and House rules, saying Congress needed to live up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's pledge to be open, honest and ethical.
"I can't support a bill that pits immigrant communities against each other," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, the ranking Democrat on the House immigration subcommittee.
She also said that it's not a one-to-one exchange, and immigration would actually decrease under the GOP bill.
