Disgraced Staten Island Rep. Vito Fossella has eulogized his party's pick to replace him.

Speaking Friday at Frank Powers' funeral, Fossella said his potential successor had given him words of encouragement, telling him, 'Everything will be OK.'

The 67-year-old Powers died June 22, three weeks after the Republican Party endorsed him for Fossella's seat.

Fossella announced last month that he wouldn't seek re-election. His decision came after a drunken-driving arrest and the revelation that he had fathered a child outside his marriage.

Facing an abysmal approval rating, Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons is shaking up his top-level staff.

Ohio has joined Indiana and four other states in ratifying an agreement aimed at protecting the Great Lakes.

A House panel on Friday subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey for transcripts of interviews with President Bush and Vice President Cheney during the federal probe into the leak of a CIA agent's identity.

Lawmakers budgeted just $100 million for damages when they reopened the government's discrimination settlement with black farmers. They probably should have handed over a blank check.

With more than 70,000 potential claimants, the liability could exceed $3 billion _ three times what was paid out in the original 1999 agreement.

The settlement was reopened thanks to legislation added to the farm bill passed last month. It illustrates how lawmakers often manipulate pay-as-you-go budget rules to give the appearance they are balancing the federal checkbook.

All those speculators getting the blame for driving up the price of oil these days _ just who are they? For part of the answer, look in the mirror.

A government watchdog group on Friday called for an investigation into whether a Texas congressman used his influence to persuade U.S. law enforcement authorities to intervene to rescue a distant Mexican ...

The goal to raise levees and build large-scale flood defenses around this flood-torn city could be delayed indefinitely because of congressional demands that Louisiana chip in $1.8 billion to the effort over ...

BATON ROUGE, La. - Governor Bobby Jindal has signed into law legislation that would ban government funding in Louisiana for what is sometimes called "therapeutic cloning." The practice involves taking a ...

The House approved financial help Thursday for mass transit systems facing a surge in riders because of high gas prices.

U.S. Army Spc. Kendell Frederick lost his life while trying to become a citizen of the country he was fighting for. Now, his mother hopes a bill President Bush signed into law Thursday will make sure no other soldier dies the way her son did.

Frederick, a native of Trinidad who moved to the U.S. in 1999, was killed in Iraq in October 2005 when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. He was only in the convoy because he had to go to another base to get a duplicate set of fingerprints made for his U.S. citizenship application.

Vice President Dick Cheney's top adviser on Thursday refused to claim any responsibility for the adoption of harsh interrogation methods following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks during a combative exchange with congressional Democrats.

David Addington, chief of staff to the vice president, said he merely responded, 'Good, I'm glad you're addressing these issues,' to the lawyer who wrote memos providing a legal basis for harsh interrogation techniques of terror suspects.

Addington appeared along with the lawyer, former Justice Department attorney John Yoo, before a House Judiciary subcommittee investigating the role of Bush administration lawyers in approving interrogation procedures. The tactics were far harsher than those traditionally used by the U.S. military.

On the heels of today's SCOTUS decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana barring the death penalty for sex offenders, Gov.

President Bush on Thursday lifted trade sanctions against North Korea and moved to remove it from the U.S. terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime he once branded as ...

The AFL-CIO endorsed Barack Obama for president Thursday, uniting the nation's 15 million union workers behind the Illinois senator and giving him full access to labor's massive bank accounts and political machinery.

As expected, the leaders of the nation's largest labor organization voted unanimously to endorse the Illinois senator, freeing the organization and its 56 unions to spend parts of its $200 million war chest on his campaign.

"We're proud to stand with Sen. Obama to help our nation chart a course that will improve life for generations of working people and our children," said John Sweeney, the AFL-CIO's president.

BATON ROUGE - As Gov. Bobby Jindal continues to say he won't veto what he calls an exorbitant legislative pay raise because he fears lawmakers would refuse to work with him, Speaker of the House Jim Tucker says ...

Global warming is likely to increase illegal immigration, create humanitarian disasters and destabilize precarious governments and could add to terrorism, all of which could threaten U.S. national security, ...

The House voted Wednesday to protect more than 20 million mostly upper-income taxpayers in danger of being slapped with a tax increase averaging $2,300 because of the alternative minimum tax.

To help offset the cost, the bill more than doubles the 15 percent tax rate that many private equity and hedge fund managers pay on their profits. It passed 233-189 on a mostly party-line vote.

That offset, strongly opposed by tax-averse Republicans and facing resistance in the Senate, assured that Congress still faces a struggle as it tries to stave off the effects of the AMT for another year.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a law allowing the execution of people convicted of a raping a child.

Rep. Chet Edwards says he's "humbled" by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's suggestion that Sen.