The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to approve Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice over nearly solid Republican opposition, paving the way for a historic confirmation vote next week.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a Washington-based organization, has filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, with the House Office of Congressional Ethics.

Senate Democratic leaders on Thursday abandoned plans for a vote on health care before Congress’ August recess, dealing a blow to President Barack Obama’s ambitious timetable to revamp the nation’s $2.4 trillion system of medical care.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke likely will face tough questions this week from lawmakers about taxpayer bailouts of financial companies, slow-moving government efforts to curb home foreclosures and the possibility that the Fed’s unprecedented steps to stimulate the economy could spur inflation later on.

The leading Judiciary Committee Republican is charging that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is “out of the mainstream” of legal thinking and has a very activist judicial profile.

President Barack Obama is struggling to show progress in a race against the clock to revamp the nation’s health care system this year.

Working to turn Russia from antagonist to ally, President Barack Obama asked the Russian people Tuesday to “forge a lasting partnership” with the U.S., but he acknowledged after talks with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that on divisive issues there won’t be “a meeting of the minds anytime soon.“

Al Franken refused his rival’s calls for an election night concession last November, choosing instead to begin vote counting and courtroom haggling that stretched almost eight months and ultimately landed him a seat in the U.S. Senate.

The Supreme Court will have a new look — and perhaps a new member — but the same right-of-center tilt when the justices return in late summer to deal with unfinished business about money in campaigns.

President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed the pharmaceutical industry’s agreement to help close a gap in Medicare’s drug coverage, calling the pact a step forward in the push for overhaul of the nation’s health care system.

President Barack Obama cited his own long struggle to quit the cigarettes he got hooked on as a teenager as he signed the strongest-ever U.S. anti-smoking bill Monday and praised it for providing critically needed protections for kids.

President Barack Obama is set to sign into law an anti-smoking bill that will give the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate tobacco.

Democratic leaders have committed to enacting by the end of the year the biggest regulatory revision to the U.S. financial system since the 1930s — an undertaking so ambitious it has some lawmakers worried about missteps.

No more “light” cigarettes or candy-flavored smokes. Bigger, scarier warning labels. Fewer ads featuring sexy young smokers.

The wife of a senator playing a lead role on a national health care overhaul sits on the boards of four health care companies, one of several examples of lawmakers with ties to the medical industry.

A tobacco control bill set to win Senate approval would give the federal government broad new powers to monitor and change a toxic substance that contributes to some 400,000 deaths every year.

Despite a less-than-rousing reaction from the Obama administration, House Democrats are considering a new tax on employer-provided health benefits to help pay for expanding coverage to the uninsured.

Prodding the international community, President Barack Obama called Friday “for all of us to redouble our efforts” toward separate Israeli and Palestinian states. “The moment is now for us to act,“ he declared.

While three fellow Democrats slug it out for the gubernatorial nomination, Sen. Mark R. Warner is taking a swing at the newly minted Republican ticket, describing it as the “‘No’ camp that didn’t move Virginia forward.“

Appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor is getting her first chance to make an impression on senators who will vote on her nomination to the Supreme Court, with a marathon set of Capitol Hill meet-and-greets that kicks off what could be a long debate.

The battle is on between conservative and liberal interest groups to define little-known federal judge Sonia Sotomayor before senators — away from the capital on a weeklong break — return to weigh in on the fate of the woman who would be the Supreme Court’s first Hispanic.

House Democrats are crafting a plan that would require all Americans to carry health insurance and would help families making less than $88,000 pay the premiums. Employers, too, would have to help foot the bill.

Under strong attack from Republicans, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the CIA and Bush administration of misleading her about waterboarding detainees in the war on terror and sharply rebutted claims she was complicit in the method’s use.

In a reversal, President Barack Obama is fighting the release of dozens of new photos showing U.S. personnel allegedly abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, a White House official said Wednesday.

“Can We Bankrupt The Country??? Yes We Can!” read one sign. “Socialism: Your tax dollars at work, for those who won’t,” read another.

Protesters began gathering at state Capitols and in neighborhoods and town squares across the country Wednesday to kick off a series of tax-day protests designed to echo the rebellion of the Boston Tea Party.

Call it Round Two of the news conference, with a big Internet twist.

“We want our money back and we want our money back now for the taxpayers,“ said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested that AIG executives should accept responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee vote, expected this afternoon or evening, would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to police the tobacco industry.