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PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Here is what happened at the press conference Sen. John McCain just held -- accompanied by his wife, Cindy, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said that a bill to end tax subsidies for large oil companies will likely fail next week. Bingaman is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

When asked for her reaction to Tina Fey’s portrayal of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, McCain campaign adviser Carly Fiorina told MSNBC’s

Two months after filing suit over allegations of questionable contributions made to the 2006 and 2008 campaigns of Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, the Federal Election Commission has released three letters it sent to the Buchanan campaign asking for more details on the matter. # Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (aka CREW), which twice named Buchanan to its list of the most corrupt members of Congress, spoke out about the letters in a Wednesday press release

In less than eight minutes, the Florida House of Representatives cut back decades of environmental regulations. # Friday was the deadline for bills to get heard so they could be available for final votes next week, before the end of the legislative session. As the House sped through dozens of bills, Speaker Dean Cannon repeatedly urged members to keep questions brief, reminding them, as the axiom goes, “Bills are dying.” # The bills only needed to be discussed and amended so they could be debated next week, but House Bill 991, an industry wish-list that streamlines environmental regulations, was immediately rolled over and passed in a 95-16 vote, without questions or debate from members of either party

The Atlantic Wire, in one of those Ouroboros moments that crop up whenever the media covers itself, is reporting that AP correspondents have filed a Freedom of

A move by Minnesota Republicans to repeal school integration laws resulted in heated debate about the decades-long program that aims to diversify schools in the Twin Cities metro area and Duluth. During a floor debate on elimination of desegregation programs Thursday, Sen. Dan Hall, R-Burnsville, said, “I watched Minneapolis get destroyed, so I not only didn’t want my kids in the school system.

Conservatives are preemptively building a case against a potential Obama Supreme Court nominee.

This week, Louisiana’s legislature sidetracked a bill that would basically outlaw all abortions in the state. The bill would criminalize all abortions and define them as “feticide.” Louisiana is joining Mississippi in seeking “personhood” rights for fetuses. These proposed laws are aimed at banning abortions for all cases, including rape and incest

The National Organization for Marriage and the Minnesota Family Council have registered with the state campaign finance board to actively encourage voters to support an anti–gay marriage amendment on the 2012 ballot. The organizations are the target of an investigation by the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board following a complaint that both groups failed to disclose lobbying efforts in the 2010 election. MFC and NOM created Minnesota for Marriage and registered it as a ballot question committee late last week, a designation that will allow it to begin fundraising.

Public Policy Polling has a new study of the birther movement and finds that by a 44-36 margin, Republicans don’t believe that Barack Obama was born in the

Jeff Anderson Duluth City Councilor Jeff Anderson collected four more Iron Range backers in his bid to win the DFL endorsement to run against U.S.

A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling released on Monday that upholds a preliminary injunction against Arizona’s S.B. 1070 immigration-enforcement law could impact immigration bills moving through the Florida legislature, according to one immigrant rights activist

59 percent of New Mexico voters say the federal budget deficit reduction should not involve cutting Medicaid, according to a new poll commissioned by advocacy groups in the state. The Research and Polling, Inc. poll also found that 83 percent of surveyed New Mexico voters believe Medicaid, which provides government-funded health insurance for lower-income Americans, is an important program.

The California Supreme Court announced Thursday that the next stage in the ongoing legal challenge of Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage illegal

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is scheduled to hold a briefing Friday on bullying and peer-to-peer violence in K-12 public schools. Specifically, the

The U.S. House of Representatives will vote today on the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, or House Resolution 3, which was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith