

By H. Leighton Steward
Fantasy replaces reality in Obama's green economy

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.

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.

An emotional last-minute plea for leniency by Rep. Charles B. Rangel fell short Thursday as a House panel recommended that the New York Democrat face a public scolding on the floor of the House of Representatives for a string of financial and fundraising transgressions.

The full House Ethics Committee will meet Thursday to determine the punishment for New York Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel, who was found guilty Tuesday of 11 counts of violating congressional financial reporting and fund-raising rules.

In a stinging rebuke to one of Capitol Hill's most powerful lawmakers, a bipartisan House panel Tuesday found Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, guilty of 11 of 13 ethics-violation charges, including using congressional staff and stationery to solicit donations.
The scheduled Nov. 15 start of Rep. Charles B. Rangel's ethics trial is in jeopardy, because the former Ways and Means Committee chairman no longer has a defense team.

Ethics trials for two prominent House Democrats will be held after the November elections. The proceedings will determine whether Charles B. Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California violated standards of conduct.

Democratic leaders would rather waste time with comedian Stephen Colbert than uphold the ethics of Congress. With the refusal of the House to hold ethics trials for Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, and Maxine Waters, California Democrat, the arrogance and impudence of Nancy Pelosi's speakership is on full display.
She said, "If Republicans want to undermine the use of science at EPA they can't hide it from the American people because they have a right to know."
A Democrat on the committee, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, said Republicans were trying to hide criticism of the Environmental Protection Agency.

By Patrice Hill - The Washington Times
Nicholas Rastenis has been through the wringer.

By Tim Devaney - The Washington Times
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hinted Sunday that if rival Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ...

By Manuel Valdes - Associated Press
Three skiers were killed Sunday when an avalanche swept them about a quarter-mile down an ...