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Sen. Mike Enzi wants the Obama administration to withdraw its nominee for Solicitor of the Department of Labor. Enzi sent a letter to President Obama accusing nominee Patricia Smith of giving "inconsistent statement and testimony" to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Enzi, of Wyoming, is the top Republican on the panel. Smith currently serves as commissioner for the New York Department of Labor and started a program in the city called "Wage Watch," which utilizes community groups to "participate in a range of activities aimed at improving labor law compliance, including holding know-your-rights training, providing employers with information...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over federal tax law, is seeking a vote this year on legislation that would increase the income tax rates on some Americans who earn as little as $104,425 per year.

WASHINGTON - Hustler magazine is looking for some scandalous sex in Washington again -- and willing to pay for it. 'Have you had a sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official?' read a full-page advertisement taken out by Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine in Sunday's Washington Post. It offered $1 million for documented evidence of illicit intimate relations with a congressman, senator or other prominent officeholder. A toll-free number and e-mail address were provided. The last time Flynt made such an offer was in October 1998 during the drive to impeach President...

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee introduced a resolution Monday to allow the panel to begin investigating a California judge for possible misconduct. In a statement, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., urged committee members "not to jump to any conclusions in this matter" involving U.S. District Judge Manuel Real. "Today's resolution merely allows the House Judiciary Committee to open an investigation to determine the facts," Sensenbrenner said. "Only after the House Judiciary Committee has conducted a fair, thorough and detailed investigation, will committee members be able to consider whether ... impeachment might be warranted." Sensenbrenner added that the next step...

The federal receiver in charge of California's inmate health care system said Thursday that the two prisons Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to build should be used instead as hospitals for inmates. The proposal was among a wide range of initiatives outlined by Robert Sillen in his first in-depth interview since he was given broad authority to reform the inmate health care system, which has been plagued for years by poor treatment and neglect. "Why spend that money twice?" Sillen told The Associated Press during an interview in his capital office. "It would seem to me the smart way to go...

The watchdog appointed by a federal judge to oversee California prison reforms said Wednesday he wants to force top aides of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to testify under oath in a case that could result in more federal control over the state's deeply troubled corrections system. John Hagar, the special master who reports to U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson, wants the judge to let him conduct a full investigation into whether the administration has been backsliding on reforms since the first of the year. At issue is whether Schwarzenegger's top aides have been currying favor with the state's powerful prison...

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as part of a plan costing at least $3.6 billion to alleviate overcrowding in California prisons, is proposing to free up space by contracting with other states to house 5,000 incarcerated illegal immigrants. A detailed outline of the governor's prison agenda, released Friday, also says the corrections department needs to add more than 51,000 beds -- the equivalent of at least 10 large prisons -- during the next 15 years and offers new insights into the stresses put on a 33-prison system that is operating at nearly 200 percent capacity. One new proposal is a...

2,000 inmates already are in two tent facilities PHOENIX - Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio wants 11 more large tents to house an influx of illegal immigrants. --

GAZA (Reuters) - The Hamas government wants a ceasefire with Israel and is willing to ask Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets from Gaza into the Jewish state, a spokesman said on Thursday. But Ghazi Hamad said Israel had to first stop military activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Islamic militant group scrapped a 16-month truce with Israel last Friday and soon after launched a barrage of makeshift rockets at the Jewish state from Gaza. "I spoke today with the prime minister and he said we definitely want quiet everywhere. We are interested in a ceasefire...

NEW YORK - Keanu Reeves says he's lonely and wants to get married and have children, in an upcoming issue of Parade magazine. The 41-year-old actor says he continues to mourn the loss of his stillborn daughter in 1999 and the death of the baby's mother, Jennifer Syme, in a car crash in 2001. Syme had a small part in the 1997 David Lynch film, "Lost Highway." She and Reeves had reportedly broken up in 2000. "When the people you love are gone, you're alone," he tells the magazine. "I miss being a part of their lives and them being...

Official wants Da Vinci movie bannedWed May 10, 8:51 AM ET MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippine government should ban the controversial movie "The Da Vinci Code," a senior official in the mainly Catholic country said Wednesday, describing the religious thriller as blasphemous. The film, based on the best-selling fiction novel of the same title, is due to open in Manila's cinemas next week. "I think we should do everything not to allow it to be shown," said Eduardo Ermita, executive secretary to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, expressing his personal opinion as a "devout Catholic." He told journalists the state's censors...

GRAPEVINE, Texas - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he wants the NFL to return to the Los Angeles area — with two teams. After meeting with a group of NFL owners, Schwarzenegger said he was there to make sure "we're getting not only one NFL team to the Los Angeles area, Southern California, but to actually get two teams. That's why I came. Why limit it?" NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and a committee of 11 owners met to hear proposals from Los Angeles and Anaheim. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle were there to make...

WASHINGTON - Not long after columnist Jack Anderson's funeral, FBI agents called his widow to say they wanted to search his papers. They were looking for confidential government information he might have acquired in a half-century of investigative reporting. The agents expressed interest in documents that would aid the government's case against two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, who have been charged with disclosing classified information, said Kevin Anderson, the columnist's son. In addition, the agents told the family they planned to remove from the columnist's archive — which has yet to be catalogued...

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syrian President Bashar Assad issued an order Saturday for a special committee to investigate any Syrian involvement in the assassination of a former prime minister in neighboring Lebanon, the state news agency said. The move comes as the U.N. Security Council considers a U.N. investigator's report that implicated top Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the Feb. 14 killing of Rafik Hariri and accused Assad's regime of not cooperating with the probe. Syria sharply disputed the report's findings, but said it would cooperate in the U.N. investigation, which has been extended until Dec. 15. Assad ordered the...

UNITED NATIONS - The United States is making a new push for the U.N. Security Council to confront human rights abuses by the ruling military government in Myanmar, despite strong opposition from a few members, a U.S. official said Thursday. American diplomats have gone to several key capitals around the world to try to convince other governments that the 15-nation council, the most powerful U.N. decision-making body, should discuss Myanmar, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said. "The U.S. would very much like to bring this to the council if we can get sufficient support," Patterson said. "We think it belongs in...

NAIROBI, Kenya - An influential religious leader and alleged al-Qaida collaborator vowed in an interview Wednesday to establish an Islamic state in Somalia, a lawless Horn of Africa nation the United States fears could grow into a major base for Islamic terrorists. "The Western world should respect our own ideas in choosing the way we want to govern our country, the way we want to go about our own business. That is our right," said Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, a key figure in a growing religious camp vying with secular factions for control of Somalia. Despite peace talks and the...

'Iron Lady' wants to kick out foreign petty crooks By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 01/10/2005) Foreigners living in Holland who repeatedly commit petty crimes will face deportation, under plans announced by the country's immigration minister yesterday. The shift in policy lowers the legal threshold for deporting immigrants holding Dutch residence permits. At the moment, they face expulsion only for serious crimes, such as kidnapping or murder. The policy change was put to the cabinet by the "Iron Lady" of Dutch politics, Rita Verdonk.A spokesman for Mrs Verdonk said she took action after an advisory panel urged the government to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The former lover of Pledge of Allegiance challenger Michael Newdow is again fighting to keep the words "under God" in the pledge. Sandra Banning and Newdow, an atheist, are the unmarried parents of the elementary school-aged daughter Newdow sued on behalf of three years ago when he challenged the pledge. A San Francisco federal appeals court in 2002 agreed that it was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion for public school children to recite the pledge because it includes the words "under God." After the court ruled, Banning challenged Newdow's standing to sue, saying he did not have...

ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. (AFPN) -- Air Force Reserve Command officials said they are extremely concerned about reservists assigned to New Orleans or Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., who have not contacted their units with their status after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29. "Only 63 percent of our (servicemembers) assigned to Keesler and 56 percent who are assigned to New Orleans have reported their status," said Steve Mann, AFRC director of personnel. "We are very concerned about the more than 930 reservists who are unaccounted for and who may be in need." People assigned to...

DENVER (Aug. 17) - If a group of prominent ecologists have their way, lions and elephants could someday be roaming the Great Plains of North America The idea of transplanting African wildlife to this continent is being greeted with gasps and groans from other scientists and conservationists who recall previous efforts to relocate foreign species halfway around the world, often with disastrous results. But the proposal's supporters say it could help save some species from extinction in Africa, where protection is spotty and habitats are vanishing. They say the relocated animals could also restore the biodiversity in North America to...