John Bresnahan

For the past eight months, the House ethics committee has been without its top staffer and chief counsel, a vacancy that comes as the panel struggles to forge ahead on investigations of high-profile Democrats.

Eliza Newlin Carney

Suzia van Swol

America opened her arms to swear in 144 new citizens at the Naturalization Ceremony in U.S. Capitol today.
 
“From the birth of our nation, foreign born Americans have made an indelible impact on our society,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Deputy Director Michael Aytes told the group.
 
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), whose grandfather arrived in America at the age of 16 from Sweden, urged the new citizens to read the U.S. Constitution.
 

Nina Bernstein

The hand-scrawled letter from a New Jersey jail was urgent. An immigration detainee had died that day, Sept. 9, 2005, a fellow inmate wrote in broken English, describing chest pains and pleas for medical attention that went unheeded until too late.

"Death ... need to be investigated," he urged a local group that corresponded with foreigners held for deportation at the jail, the Monmouth County Correctional Institute in Freehold. "We care very much because that can happen to anyone of us."

Bart Jansen and Jennifer Scholtes
 
The House voted Tuesday to increase funding for the chamber’s 21 committees by 8 percent in the 111th Congress, providing a total of $304.5 million over the two years.
 
The resolution (H Res 279), adopted 288-136, drew criticism from several members upset that the funding increase for certain committees was not bigger.
 

John Boudreau

With unemployment skyrocketing across the nation, tech and other companies this year are expected to request fewer visas for highly skilled foreign workers, according to industry experts.

But whatever number is requested, the issue of H-1B visas is certain to be especially controversial in a year when many will ask why, with so many people unemployed, American companies should hire foreign workers.

Paul Rogers

After more than 22 years of bureaucratic inaction, efforts to clean up a former Air Force radar station on a scenic mountaintop above Silicon Valley and open its summit to hikers, bicyclists and picnickers may be finally gathering momentum, locally and in Washington, D.C.

"It feels like all the pieces are coming together and that it's going to happen this time," said Rep. Mike Honda, D-Campbell. "Why should only rich people have a view? It should be available to everybody."

Kitty Felde

There's a large pile of money - 8-and-a-half-billion dollars - coming to California schools, courtesy of the federal economic stimulus package. But KPCC's Washington Correspondent Kitty Felde says a turf war in Sacramento may interrupt the flow of dollars to classrooms.

Ken Yoder Reed
 
The first time we met, July 4, 2008, I told Wasim Malik I was sorry to read about the vandalism at his mosque on Evans Road. "Hey, we're all Americans and we're neighbors. I'd like to get to know you," I said.
 

Rachel Kapochunas

Though no widespread election catastrophes occurred on Nov. 4, problems persist in the handling of military and overseas ballots as well as other voter-related problems, members of a House Administration panel concluded Thursday.