Immigration provision has Hispanic Caucus threatening ‘no’ health vote  —  A group of Hispanic lawmakers on Thursday will tell President Barack Obama that they may not vote for healthcare reform unless changes are made to the bill's immigration provisions.  —  The scheduled meeting comes …

CBC: Obama not listening  —  Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are headed to the White House for a meeting on jobs Thursday, and they'll have a few words to say about how President Barack Obama is doing his.  —  The 43-member caucus is fighting through one of the most difficult periods …

GOP Ups Ante on Earmarks  —  A day after House Democrats announced a ban on earmarks for private companies, their Republican counterparts hope to dramatically up the ante with a unilateral prohibition on all targeted spending projects.  —  If approved, the Republican policy would restrict GOP lawmakers …

Nancy Pelosi's office was told of concerns about Eric Massa  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office was notified in October by then-Rep. Eric Massa's top aide of concerns about the New York Democrat's behavior, two congressional sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday night.

More Messages Link Senator to Job Effort  —  WASHINGTON — Previously undisclosed e-mail messages turned over to the F.B.I. and Senate ethics investigators provide new evidence about Senator John Ensign's efforts to steer lobbying work to the embittered husband of his former mistress and could deepen his legal and political troubles.

Miss. prom canceled after lesbian's date request  —  JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi county school board announced Wednesday it would cancel its upcoming prom after a gay student petitioned to bring a same-sex date to the event.  —  “Due to the distractions to the educational process caused …

Hillary Rodham Clinton widens her circle at the State Department  —  Hillary Rodham Clinton ran a presidential campaign notoriously insular and unhappy, managing a group of egos and backstabbers whose dysfunction may have cost her the White House.  Understandably, people wondered what kind …

Chefs Call Proposed New York Salt Ban ‘Absurd’  —  MYFOXNY.COM - Some New York City chefs and restaurant owners are taking aim at a bill introduced in the New York Legislature that, if passed, would ban the use of salt in restaurant cooking.  —  “No owner or operator of a restaurant …

Americans' Global Warming Concerns Continue to Drop  —  Multiple indicators show less concern, more feelings that global warming is exaggerated  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup's annual update on Americans' attitudes toward the environment shows a public that over the last two years …

Senate Banking chairman Dodd to go it alone on financial overhaul  —  Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday will unveil financial overhaul legislation without a firm bipartisan deal.  —  Dodd and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) have spent weeks trying to hammer …

House liberal leader says Obama's stumping not changing many healthcare votes  —  President Barack Obama's stumping for healthcare isn't changing many — if any — votes in the House, a top liberal lawmaker said Wednesday night.  —  Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), the co-chairwoman …

Patrick Kennedy: Media Doing “Despicable” Job Covering Afghanistan  —  Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) railed against the Washington press corps today on the House floor for paying more attention to the likes of scandal-ridden Eric Massa than the war in Afghanistan.

Dan Senor Encouraged to Join New York Senate Race  —  Encouraged by state and national Republican Party leaders, Dan Senor, an author, private equity executive and Defense Department adviser in the last Bush administration, is seriously considering a political challenge against Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand …

What I Learned at the Tea Parties  —  Both the media and many high profile politicos still seem to be flailing around trying to find some way to label, quantify and pigeonhole the myriad tea party groups which are springing up all around the country.  Even Karl Rove, during a stop to promote his new book …

Texas Hearing Considers Deeper Conservative Stamp on Textbooks  —  AUSTIN, Tex. — Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social studies curriculum …

Holder Failed To Alert Senate To Old Brief  —  During his confirmation more than a year ago, Attorney General Eric Holder failed to notify lawmakers he had contributed to a legal brief dealing with the use of federal courts in fighting terrorism, the Justice Department acknowledged on Wednesday.

Obama's liberal base ‘disengaged’  —  WASHINGTON — Is President Obama losing his base?  —  Liberal and progressive organizations that helped propel him to the White House are turning on him now, little more than a year after he took office.  Their collective discontent …

65 Congress Members Voted Against The War In Afghanistan.  But Will They Vote Against The Funding?  —  You know, they actually debated the Afghanistan war yesterday.  You would think that throwing money down another hole would be something people would debate frequently, but apparently we don't do that sort of thing much these days.

As a progressive, Obama hews to the Wilsonian tradition  —  There are legislative miles to go before the government will be emancipated from its health-care myopia, but it is not too soon for a summing-up.  Whether all or nothing of the legislation becomes law, Barack Obama has refuted critics who call him a radical.

Fifty-One Herbert Hoovers  —  More than a year ago I coined a phrase that seems to have made its way into the econolexicon; writing about how cutbacks at the state and local level would tend to undermine fiscal stimulus at the federal level, I said that we had fifty Herbert Hoovers.  —  But I was wrong.