Pat Dollard

The Hill: Democrats celebrated on Wednesday what they said was the “do-something Congress” that has been in session since the election. On what appears to be the last day of the lame-duck Congress, Democrats said the session was anything but lame, pointing to the litany of legislative accomplishments in the seven weeks since the election. [...]

Politico: President Barack Obama told Congressional Hispanic Caucus members Tuesday that he’ll renew his push for comprehensive immigration reform in 2011 — even though such an effort would face even longer odds in a Congress where Republicans control the House. Obama made the pledge after the defeat last weekend of a more narrowly tailored reform [...]

Fox News: With the stroke of several pens, President Obama signed the repeal Wednesday of the longstanding policy banning gays from serving openly in the military, capping off a yearlong legislative battle that just weeks ago seemed in danger of collapsing. Obama said he was “overwhelmed” before putting his name to the law rescinding the [...]

Vince Cable

Bloomberg: However history judges the 535 men and women in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate the past two years, one thing is certain: The 111th Congress made more law affecting more Americans since the “Great Society” legislation of the 1960s. For the first time since President Theodore Roosevelt began the quest for a [...]

LOS ANGELES (AP) – After days of relentless rain, Southern California was bracing for the most intense storm system yet, with evacuations ordered, roads covered by water and mud, and residents anxiously eyeing already saturated mountainsides denuded by wildfires. Forecasters expected heavy rain to move into Arizona, Utah and Nevada on Wednesday, but the focus [...]

KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) – Iraqi Christians on Wednesday called off Christmas festivities in three cities across the country as al-Qaida insurgents threatened more attacks on a beleaguered community still terrified from a bloody siege on a Baghdad church. Church officials in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul along with the southern city of Basra [...]

Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions New York Times: TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into [...]

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A day that began with authorities confirming Lindsay Lohan was being investigated for battery on a female staffer at a California rehab facility treating the starlet ended with the worker fired after giving an interview about the incident. Riverside County sheriff’s detectives said Tuesday they are investigating the “Mean Girls” star [...]