In the News

Congress approves scaled-back Sandy aid bill

Washington (CNN) -- Congress approved a $9.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package on Friday following delays over fiscal cliff bickering,...

Boehner has mixed record on fulfilling promises

House Speaker John A. Boehner’s lofty pledges to break with precedent and run Congress in a more inclusive, transparent manner ended up a...

Broad $60.4B Sandy relief bill criticized as ‘pork’

In more than 100 pages of legislation detailing the $60 billion disaster aid plan Congress considered, there’s almost no mention of specific...

The Austin Chronicle: Headlines

• Austin Police are investigating the suspicious death of a 13-year-old girl who was found unconscious outside a home (not her own) in...

Norm Dicks’ decades in Congress brought a lot of money back to home state

 WASHINGTON — Pentagon chief Leon Panetta strode into the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill, surrounded by military officers in dress-green...

Super-storm of pork hits Washington

Now that fiscal cliff panic is under control, we can return to panicking over Super Storm Sandy, which flooded the streets of Washington...

Hurricane Sandy pork

 Many news outlets are reporting that President Obama‘s proposed $60.4 billion federal aid bill for Hurricane Sandy victims is packed with...

Loss of Inouye Means Loss of Clout for Hawaii

HONOLULU — No man is an island. But in Hawaii, Daniel K. Inouye sure seems like one. After he died last week at 88, this state went into a...

DC Watch: Farm bill unlikely to be part of fiscal cliff efforts

With the clock ticking down to the end of the year, there is still no agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH)...

$60B Sandy Relief Bill Advances in Senate

Senate Democrats said Friday they have enough votes to approve a more than $60 billion Sandy relief bill, overcoming objections that it...

Engineering Boondoggles

While Washington is wringing its hands about the automatic across-the-board budget cuts known as...