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(CNSNews.com) – At a hearing on Tuesday to determine the security status of U.S. borders, a GOP lawmaker grilled a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official on efforts to track down people who have overstayed their visa when 40 percent of the illegal aliens in the country fall into that category. “Mr. McAleenan, if I were a could-be terrorist, and I flew into the Harrisburg International Airport or Des Moines, Iowa, airport and didn’t leave after my visa expired, how would you find me?” Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), a member of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime...

DES MOINES — A state senator will push for public hearings on the death penalty in the Iowa Senate and House of Representatives as he files legislation to bring capital punishment back to Iowa. Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, has championed the idea of reintroducing the death penalty in Iowa since the abduction and killing of Elizabeth Collins, 8, and Lyric Cook, 10, this summer in Evansdale. Elizabeth’s parents joined Sorenson and parents of other missing and murdered children at a Capitol news conference, where the senator outlined five pieces of legislation he plans to introduce this session. Iowa abolished the...

A Democratic legislator in Iowa is startling citizens with his most recent proposal: ban the sale of semi-automatic weapons, and confiscate them from existing gun owners if need be. Here is an excerpt from Iowa’s Daily Times Herald, which conducted the interview with State Rep. Dan Muhlbauer: In an interview, a fiery Muhlbauer said it is time to act with “radical changes” on gun laws and other issues to protect schoolchildren from shooting sprees like the one last week in Newtown, Conn. “We cannot have big guns out here as far as the big guns that are out here, the...

A Ukrainian lawmaker from the far-right Svoboda Party has provoked international condemnations after referring to Jewish actress Mila Kunis as a “zhydovka”, a Ukranian slur that translates to “dirty Jewess,” on his Facebook page. “She is not Ukrainian, she is a Jewess by birth. She is proud of this and the Star of David,” politician Igor Miroshnichenko wrote on in the online message. “[S]he says nothing and expresses nothing positive about the country in which she was born. I can’t bring myself to say she is Ukrainian. Let her love America or Israel, people must not attach her to the...

A Minnesota state lawmaker who authorities say admitted having a liaison with a 17-year-old boy at a rest stop faced calls from party leaders on Monday to give up his re-election bid. Rep. Kerry Gauthier, 56, hasn't been charged in the July incident, and authorities said he wouldn't be because the boy was older than 16, the legal age of consent, and no money was exchanged. Police say the teenager responded to the lawmaker's Craigslist ad for "no strings attached" sex. Gauthier admitted to the liaison, according to police reports made public late last week. The teen told police the...

DULUTH, Minn. - Authorities are looking into an incident at an interstate rest stop in Duluth that involves a state representative. State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske says a witness approached a trooper at Thompson Hill rest area off Interstate 35 about 11 p.m. on July 22 and told the officer about some "suspicious activity." Roeske says the trooper had contact with Rep. Kerry Gauthier and turned the matter over to Duluth police because it was a "non-traffic" incident. Duluth police said in a statement the incident is still being actively investigated and released no further details. Gauthier, a Democrat, did...

GOP lawmaker calls for change to how government measures unemploymentBy Molly K. Hooper - 04/08/12 02:35 PM ET A Republican lawmaker is intensifying his push for legislation that would change how the government measures the unemployment rate. Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (R-Calif.) intends to press GOP leaders to move his bill to include the number of individuals who gave up looking for work in the percentage of jobless claims. Should the government measure unemployment with Hunter's figure, the unemployment rate would be higher than the current rate of approximately 8 percent– a potentially devastating assessment for the White House, especially...

“California Lawmaker Pleads No Contest in Shoplift Case,” The Associated Press reports at Fox News. Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, entered the plea in San Francisco Superior Court after the judge reduced a theft charge against her from a felony to a misdemeanor at a prosecutor's request. After she tried to lift $2,500 worth of clothes? How many of us mere mortals think we could get away with felony grand theft and have the prosecutor go to bat for us, and then walk away from it with no jail time, our jobs intact and a fine of less than the...

A Democratic lawmaker Wednesday clarified his opinion on the new head of the Democratic National Committee after some interpreted it as criticism. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) said he has full confidence that Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) will perform well and that he did not intend for his comments to be seen as critical of the party's choice or the congresswoman. He did reiterate that she will likely experience stress, because neither role is a "part-time job." "Clearly, some of the press would like some kind of fight in the Democratic Party,

A former DFL state lawmaker is sponsoring a "Tax the Rich Forum" this weekend aimed at firing up Democrats as the budget debate intensifies at the state Capitol. "It's a forum for Democrats I put together to try and get out of the malaise of last fall's election and to try and focus on what is certainly going to be a tug of war at the Capitol to solve the budget crisis," said former state Rep. Ken Tschumper of La Crescent, who served one term in the Legislature. Tschumper invited Democrats from Houston, Fillmore and Winona counties to the event,...

Democratic Rep. Bobby Bright (Ala.) on Wednesday ducked a question on whether or not he would vote for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) by joking that she "might even get sick and die." Bright, a centrist Blue Dog who voted against the healthcare reform law, made the comments in response to a question about whether he'd support Pelosi to retain the Speaker's gavel. Speaking at a local Chamber of Commerce event, Bright "joked that Pelosi might lose her own election, decide not to run for the speaker’s job or otherwise not be available," the Montgomery Advertiser wrote. He then suggested "jokingly"...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A top US lawmaker on Monday blasted the source of a huge cache of leaked military documents on the Afghan war and said such leakers belong in the "orange jump suits" of jailed criminals. "It is shocking that any American, much less someone in the Pentagon, would betray his country and possibly put our soldiers at risk by leaking information on the ongoing war in Afghanistan," said the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kit Bond. "The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won't stop until we see more perpetrators in orange...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A key U.S. House of Representatives Democrat said on Monday she is cutting billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan from spending legislation because she is outraged over reports of corruption and donor aid being flown out the country. Representative Nita Lowey, who heads the House appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid, vowed not to spend "one more dime" on aid to Afghanistan until she can be sure it is not being abused. The Democrat also announced hearings on corruption in Afghanistan, where the Obama administration is trying to work with the government of President Hamid Karzai to...

Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner (N.Y.) called on the White House Monday to detail conversations it allegedly had with Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) to try to convince him to drop his Senate bid. Weiner said allegations that White House officials had offered Sestak an administration job in exchange for his dropping his primary bid against Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) had become a growing political liability. "I think what the White House should do is, to some degree, say, 'Here are the facts,'" Weiner said Monday morning during an appearance on MSNBC. "If there's not a lot [to] what's going on here,...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A doctor from Iowa who is hoping to be selected as a Republican Party candidate for congressional elections in November has called for illegal immigrants to be implanted with micro chips so their movements can be monitored, press reports said. Patrick Bertroche, who is vying along with six other Republicans to be selected as the party's candidate for the third district in Iowa, was quoted as saying at a forum Monday that his solution for illegal immigrants was to "catch ?em... document ?em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going. "I actually...

As protests in Arizona over an anti-immigration law heat up, one conservative Utah lawmaker wants to bring the law to this state, and says he has the support to do it. Rep. Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, is drafting a bill that would require immigrants to carry proof of status and require law enforcement officers to question anyone they believe is in the country without documentation. The bill also would target employers who hire or transport undocumented immigrants as a preventive measure against the swell of undocumented immigrants he predicts would come to Utah from Arizona once the law there takes effect.

TRENTON, N.J. – A former New Jersey lawmaker who championed legislation fighting child pornography pleaded guilty Monday to distributing nude images of underage girls. Neil Cohen, 59, acknowledged viewing and printing images meant for sexual gratification from a computer in his former legislative office. He left at least one image at a receptionist's desk, leading to the investigation and charges. Cohen pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child by distributing child pornography and could be sent to state prison for five years when he is sentenced on July 12. Under terms of a plea agreement, Cohen will have...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Rep. Christine Johnson will serve an additional role when the Utah Legislature convenes this month. The lesbian lawmaker announced she's a surrogate mother, carrying a baby for two gay men. Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, said she decided to become artificially impregnated with sperm from one of the men after the two close friends expressed frustration over the difficulty of adopting a child. Utah law prohibits unmarried couples from adopting and does not recognize gay marriage.....

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security committee, Joe Lieberman, on Sunday said that the deadly shooting at Texas' Fort Hood military base was an act of "Islamist extremism." Lieberman, a former Democratic vice-presidential candidate, said it was too early to definitively state the motives of Nidal Hasan, who is alleged to have killed 13 and injured 30 on a murderous rampage last week, but said clues pointed to terrorism. "There are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act," he told Fox...

WASHINGTON – Show me some civility, Republicans cried Friday after a Missouri congressman speaking on the House floor was caught on microphone apparently cussing out a fellow Missourian. Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., had just finished addressing his Republican colleague Todd Akin Thursday. Skelton then turned to the side and muttered "stick it up your (insert word that rhymes with mass)." The comment was just audible on the C-SPAN tape of the proceedings and was not included in the Congressional Record, the official record of speeches on the House and Senate floor.