Washington News
Page-board head testifies before House ethics panel
By MARA LEE
Friday, November 10, 2006
Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., head of the board overseeing House pages, testified about "who knew what, when and where" for more than three hours Friday before the House ethics subcommittee investigating the page scandal.
Then-Rep.
Rumsfeld's long tenure...women in the House...cities
By LISA HOFFMAN
Friday, November 10, 2006
Count on this: Nothing will budge embattled Pentagon chief Don Rumsfeld from his post, at least until December ends.
If he can stick it out that long _ and those who know him say he's not even contemplating leaving before President Bush exits in January 2007 _ Rumsfeld will reach the historic milestone of being the longest-serving defense secretary ever.
If you count the 14 months he served as Pentagon secretary during the Ford administration and add his current tenure since Bush appointed him in 2001, Rumsfeld will eclipse Robert McNamara, who served from January 1961 through February 1968.
Rumsfeld, 74, already holds the record as being both the youngest and the oldest man ever to run the Pentagon.
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While this won't be a record-breaking election year for women in Congress, it still is shaping up as one that will send more female lawmakers to Capitol Hill.
This year, 139 women are running for the House, where 67 women currently serve, and 12 for the Senate, which is home now to 14.
Foley will still get benefits from taxpayers
By AMIE PARNES
Friday, November 10, 2006
Now that he's resigned from office, just how much money can former Rep. Mark Foley expect to receive in the coming years?
When he turns 62, Foley, who turned 52 last month, will start getting a pension of $32,000 a year, according to the National Taxpayers Union.
A warming climate or a hoax
Friday, November 10, 2006
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, has said the idea that humans are causing global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." Here are some of his key assertions:
_ Temperatures are rising as part of a natural warming trend.
One senator's heated climate controversy
By ZACHARY COILE
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the debate whether humans are changing the climate is over. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, says the science linking human activity to global warming is overwhelming.
President Bush recently called global warming "a serious problem." He said there is still uncertainty over how much of the warming is natural and how much man-made, but he added that it was time to "get beyond the debate" and deploy new technologies to curb greenhouse gases.
Fallout from N. Korea's nuke announcement could help Dems
By MARC SANDALOW
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
North Korea's explosive declaration that it has joined the ranks of nuclear-armed nations is the sort of shock wave that at first glance would seem to provide a boost to Republican candidates.
One month before Election Day, with the GOP mired in a congressional sex scandal, the emergence of a new global threat and a renewed focus on national security seems to play right into a Republican strength with an issue that has secured their national majority the past two elections.
"Let me put it this way," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday from the briefing-room podium.
Diocese demands that Foley name clergyman
By AMIE PARNES
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
The Roman Catholic diocese where Mark Foley went to church as a child demanded Tuesday that the disgraced ex-congressman name the clergyman who he claims molested him 40 years ago.
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North Korea's detonation gives missile defense a boost
By LISA HOFFMAN
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Forget the misses and missteps that have plagued America's $95 billion national missile-defense program over the past decade.
North Korea's test of a suspected nuclear device is certain to provide an enormous boost for the often-maligned, enormously complex system the United States is developing to protect its territory from enemy missiles.
That's the conclusion of proponents of the program, who say that no better example exists of why such a system is needed than North Korea's detonation of what is believed to have been a small, possible precursor to a bomb.
Even if the detonation was a dud, it still served to illustrate the pressing need to erect a missile-defense system against a threat that is at least looming on the horizon, they said.
"Our world has significantly changed from this reality," said Riki Ellison, president of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, an Alexandria, Va., group that believes the United States should arm itself with the defensive system posthaste.
New federal law requires helping evacuate pets in a disaster
By KIMBERLY GEIGER
Friday, November 03, 2006
States will be required to help evacuate pets during a natural disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake or risk losing federal money under a bill signed by President Bush.
The bill was prompted by reports that as many as 50,000 pets were stranded during Hurricane Katrina.
Democrats have a plan for changes if victorious
By LISA MASCARO
Friday, November 03, 2006
With fewer than five weeks to go before the mid-term election and the very real possibility that Democrats could take over the House _ and in some scenarios the Senate _ the question comes naturally: Just what would Democrats do if they were in charge?
When Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and his counterpart in the House unveiled the Democratic platform for the 2006 elections back in July, there was little appetite for the news.
