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The Denver Police Department's bomb squad responded to reports of a suspicious package at an intersection near downtown at 2:30 p.m. today. Authorities said the suspicious package was reportedly at East 14th Avenue and Ogden Street in Capitol Hill. Police have closed Ogden from East 14th Avenue to East Colfax Avenue. The street remains closed while police continue to investigate.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The exclusion of the Pledge of Allegiance from a southwest Portland elementary school's ceremony has proved upsetting for a local mom. Departing fifth-graders at Capitol Hill Elementary usually open their promotion ceremony with the Pledge of Allegiance but not this year. "I was sad," said parent Briana Reese. "The flag was sitting up there, you know. Two of the kids went up and they said 'everybody rise' and we rose and I thought for just a second 'oh yeah, we're going to put our hands on our hearts and we're going to salute the flag' - but...

Despite all the talk in Congress about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it's not so easy greening the Capitol itself. For one thing, there's disagreement over how much it should cost for the Capitol Power Plant--which provides heating and cooling power to Congress--to use cleaner-burning natural gas instead of coal power. A recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the estimate for the House of Representatives' portion of the bill was about $1.1 million too high.Then there's the broader question of whether the fuel switch should even take place. Joe Lucas, a spokesman for the American Coalition...

More than 400 veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be storming Capitol Hill on Tuesday in support of the military operations in Iraq. Vets for Freedom, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit Washington organization composed of combat veterans, set up more than 300 meetings with House and Senate lawmakers. The group supports keeping U.S. troops in Iraq. The visits coincide with much-awaited testimony from Gen. David Petraeus on the situation in Iraq, and will be jump-started by way of a press conference Tuesday with presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the ranking Republican on the Armed Services panel....

WASHINGTON - A law enforcement official says police are investigating letters sent to Capitol Hill offices showing pictures of a Times Square military recruiting station that was bombed. According to the official, who was briefed on the investigation, the letters included words to the effect of, "We did it." The official did not know which offices received the letters. The small bomb caused minor damage to the New York military recruiting station before dawn Thursday and police were searching for a hooded bicyclist seen on a surveillance video peddling away.

The day James Anthony Williams allegedly stabbed to death a stranger on Capitol Hill, the homeless, mentally ill ex-convict showed up at his probation officer's office agitated, defensive and, the officer wrote, "barely able to hold himself together." Despite intense concerns about Williams' paranoid schizophrenia and violent behavior, the probation officer gave Williams a pair of Metro bus tickets and told him to come back in three days.

An anti-war demonstrator accosted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as she arrived to testify at a hearing on Capitol Hill, shouting "war criminal" before being dragged away by security. Members of the Capitol Police department also removed several members of the anti-war group "Code Pink" from the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing room, who struggled as they left. The hearing began on schedule and Rice's testimony did not appear to be affected by the incident.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R.-Ky.) isn’t an old man, but he’s old enough to remember when calling someone a “conservative” was sort of an insult. In an interview yesterday, the Senate minority leader said that the equation of his youth is reversed. “Ronald Reagan made the term, ‘conservative’ popular,” he said, and now “Democrats are running away” from the “liberal” label. McConnell is in a position to keep them running. McConnell has a tough job, holding a fractious and often fractured group of 49 Republicans together to stop the (forgive the redundancy) liberal Democrats’ agenda of high taxes, illegal immigration, retreat...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Gore -- star of an Oscar-winning movie, former U.S. vice president and the object of 2008 presidential speculation -- on Wednesday took his crusade against global warming to Capitol Hill. Glad-handing like the lifelong politician he was until losing the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush, Gore called his return to Congress "an emotional occasion." But he did not mince words on what he termed the current climate crisis: "Our world faces a true planetary emergency." Before a joint House panel dealing with energy, air quality and the environment and the Senate Environment and Public...

Washington -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, 3 1/2 years into his tenure in Sacramento, pressed anew Tuesday for California to get what he calls its fair share of federal money -- and found a warm reception from the state's newly empowered Democrats in Congress. When he won election in October 2003, the celebrity Republican governor billed himself as the "collectinator" who would use his pull with a GOP president and Republican-dominated Congress to bring home more money. But Congress is now in Democratic hands, and President Bush is cool to some Schwarzenegger initiatives, including his pushes on global warming and universal...

Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have to work five days a week starting in January. The horror. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the Maryland Democrat who will become House majority leader and is writing the schedule for the next Congress, said members should expect longer hours than the brief week they have grown accustomed to. "I have bad news for you," Hoyer told reporters. "Those trips you had planned in January, forget 'em. We will be working almost every day in...

As the Left continues to push for the legal rights of enemy combatants captured in the War on islamo-fascist terror, we get another glaring example of why military tribunals are necessary. The Judge presiding over the trial of Saddam Hussein said yesterday that he did not believe the deposed leader of Iraq was a dictator. This comes despite a preponderance of evidence of his genocide, corruption at the expense of his people, and overall oppression of the people of Iraq. If this is an indication of the Left's idea of a fair trial, they have succeeded in revealing to the...

WASHINGTON DC -- 25 U.S. Senators are asking that the U.S. president supports the democratically elected Serbian government. The letter argues that Serbia’s role is of vital importance for the future of South-Eastern Europe and America’s regional interests and that Belgrade has grown into a strong U.S. regional partner. “In order to help transform Serbia, the U.S. should support the reforms in the military and the security sectors, encourage cooperation with the Serbian Army and enabling its officers to attend military colleges and courses in the U.S.”, the letter said. The Senators remind that it is Serbia’s strategic goal to...

#1 Michelle Persaud, 27 Staff counsel Michelle Persaud’s delicate features burst into a smile as she describes the mistake many men make with her. Seeing her dark eyes and mocha skin, her flowing black tresses and expansive lashes, they sidle over, take in a breath and start speaking … Farsi!“I just look at them and smile,” the Maryland native, who has no Persian ancestry, says with a chuckle. “I get that all the time.”Persaud is the winner of our annual 50 Most Beautiful contest. But as you will see in the following pages, there is no shortage of beautiful people...

Congressional travelers took all-expenses-paid trips worth almost $50 million over a 5½-year period, with corporations and other private sponsors picking up the tab, according to a report released yesterday. The report raises fresh questions about influence-peddling that began last year when lobbying and corruption scandals erupted on Capitol Hill. “This is really a form of unregulated lobbying that is done completely out of public view,” said Jim Morris of The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit group in Washington D.C. Morris led the center's nine-month study of congressional travel disclosure forms, which was joined by Northwestern University's Medill News Service...

Most residents and visitors on Capitol Hill yesterday said they do not object to the display of the Ten Commandments outside a house just steps from the Supreme Court building, despite the District's ruling that a permit is needed. "I'm an atheist, and I don't agree with their message, but as long as it's on private property, they can do what they want," said resident Justin Cohen, 21. "As long as it's not going to be endorsed by the government, it's OK." Faith and Action, an evangelical group run by Christian activist Rob Schenck, displayed the 850-pound stone monument Saturday...

If the chips fall right for Democrats and their party seizes control of the House, President Bush's agenda on Capitol Hill would fall into the hands of some of his most dogged opponents. It's not just would-be Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, but a boatload of Democrats newly running committees who would determine what legislation gets debated and which programs and agencies get scrutiny. So who are the chairmen to be? _a Polish-American lawyer with a reputation for making witnesses quiver. _a die-hard liberal from New York's Harlem with 35 years in the House. _a free-spending progressive from Wausau, Wis....

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A conservative advocacy group is speaking for Americans who think illegal immigration is out of control and ought to be stopped. The Freedom Alliance, founded by Lt.-Col. Oliver North, said it is launching a movement called the "I'm Mad as Hell and I'm Not Gonna Take it Anymore!" coalition. The group is asking concerned Americans to call, email and fax congressional offices with objections to amnesty for people who come to this country illegally. "Senator Reid won't take immigration seriously until illegal immigrants begin invading Capitol Hill or his cushy office," said Freedom Alliance President Tom Kilgannon. "His wavering on...

Soon-to-retire Rep. Tom DeLay (R.-Tex.) said today he would personally file an ethics complaint against Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D.-Ga.) for striking a Capitol Police officer should no other House member do so first. DeLay’s comments came during a wide-ranging interview at his Capitol Hill office with reporters, including HUMAN EVENTS Editor Terry Jeffrey. “If nobody in this House files an ethics charge, I am,” DeLay said in response to a question about McKinney. “Her behavior is outrageous. And it’s not the only time.” DeLay was asked if he supported the Capitol Police’s actions following the incident with McKinney, which took...