Pat Dollard

WASHINGTON (AP) – The House ethics committee on Monday announced three counts of alleged ethics violations against California Democrat Maxine Waters, including a charge that she requested federal help for a bank where her husband owned stock and had served on its board. Waters, a 10-term representative from Los Angeles, has denied any wrongdoing and [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) – In Arizona, the shooting death of a rancher blew the lid off simmering anger over border security and helped solidify support for a tough new immigration law. A similar eruption threatens in Virginia following the death of a Catholic nun in a car accident involving a man in the country illegally and [...]

Press TV: The Iranian intelligence minister says the arrogant powers of the world are spending billions of dollars on fueling ethnic conflicts to destabilize Iran’s border. “In the past 25 years, more than 80 centers and institutions for soft war have been founded and around 2 billion dollars has been spent on them annually,” Hojjatoleslam [...]

Arizona Republic: One of two inmates who escaped from an Arizona prison was captured in Wyoming, authorities said Monday. During a news conference, investigators said Tracy Province, 42, had been by arrested by U.S. Marshals and the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Department. Province was armed, and was carrying a hitchhiking sign with “Casper” written on it, [...]

Financial Times: The Federal Reserve is set to downgrade its assessment of US economic prospects when it meets on Tuesday to discuss ways to reboot the flagging recovery. Faced with weak economic data and rising fears of a double-dip recession, the Federal Open Market Committee is likely to ensure its policy is not constraining growth [...]

Washington Times: State and local governments this summer gained the dubious distinction of being the nation’s biggest source of job losses — a trend that likely helped to break a stalemate in Congress last week over providing states with additional aid. Facing budget shortfalls estimated at more than $60 billion for the fiscal year that [...]

Wall Street Journal: ATLANTA—Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is expected in Georgia Monday to stump for her candidate in the state’s hotly disputed GOP gubernatorial primary on Tuesday—a race in which red-meat conservative issues like gay marriage and abortion have taken center stage. Ms. Palin is working, to the surprise of some in the GOP, [...]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials briefed on the decision say Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to eliminate a major military command in Norfolk, Va., and try to cut the Pentagon’s use of outside contractors by 10 percent next year. The plan was to be announced at a Pentagon press conference on Monday. It is part of [...]

Washington Times: New guidance telling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to focus on apprehending terrorists and criminals has many of ICE’s rank-and-file agents wondering who then is responsible for tracking down and detaining the millions of other illegal border-crossers and fugitive aliens now in the country. The new guidelines are outlined in a June [...]

Arizona Republic: Just a few years ago, when the economy was booming, the area around the Home Depot on Thomas Road and 36th Street in east Phoenix was packed with a couple of hundred men congregating on sidewalks and street corners soliciting work as day laborers. Day laborers, mostly undocumented Mexican immigrants, also proliferated in [...]

Fox News: In New Jersey, a “Tea Party” candidate surfaces but local activists haven’t heard of him. In Michigan, a Democratic operative appears closely tied to a slate of candidates running under the Tea Party banner. In Florida, conservative activists are locked in court over the right to use the Tea Party name. The list [...]

MIAMI (AP) – Paul Skidmore’s office is shuttered, his job gone, his 18-month job search fruitless and his unemployment benefits exhausted. So at 63, he plans to file this week for Social Security benefits, three years earlier than planned. “All I want to do is work,” said Skidmore, of Finksburg, Md., who was an insurance [...]

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) – American military officers were flying to Guantanamo Bay from bases around the world Sunday to serve as jurors for war-crimes suspects as the offshore tribunal system gears up for one of its busiest weeks under President Barack Obama. The Pentagon is holding military commissions sessions this week for [...]

The Hill: The House will vote next week on a Republican measure that would prevent Democratic leaders from passing controversial policy initiatives during a lame-duck session of Congress this year. Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Rep. Tom Price (Ga.) introduced the privileged resolution last Thursday in response to reports that Democratic leaders told their base [...]

Los Angeles Times: Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan — FBI agents helped identify six slain American medical volunteers whose bodies were flown to the Afghan capital on Sunday from the remote northeastern region where they had died in an ambush, the U.S. Embassy said. Ten members of the charity group, who were providing eye-care and other [...]