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The “ComEd Four” trial preparing for closing arguments in Chicago could provide what one state representative says is a “master class” on needed ethics reforms at the Illinois capitol. Closing arguments are set in the trial where prosecutors allege a nearly decade long bribery scheme involving a utility and powerful statehouse actors. Three lobbyists and a former ComEd official on trial the past six weeks all pleaded not guilty in the scheme allegedly involving former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Madigan, who faces more than 20 corruption-related charges, has pleaded not guilty with a trial expected next spring. State Rep....

Official McCarthy for Speaker Thread

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told Republican colleagues at lunch Wednesday that he will make a new offer to Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on a path forward to raising the nation’s debt limit, marking the start of long-awaiting negotiations between the two leaders.

Manuel Henriquez, who was also the top executive investment giant PIMCO until 2016, will be replaced as CEO and chairman of Hercules Capital in Palo Alto. Henriquez was arrested in New York City and released on $500,000 bail after a brief appearance in Manhattan federal court Tuesday. According to court documents obtained by KPIX 5, Henriquez and his wife, Elizabeth, paid a $25,000 bribe to get a [legal proctor] cooperating witness to sit “side-by-side with [their] daughter [Isabelle "Izzy" Henriquez] during the exam and provided her with answers to the exam questions, and after the exam, he “gloated”…about the fact...

Spooked by the 2016 election, Democratic voters say they want above all else someone who can beat President Donald Trump, according to a new poll Monday. The only problem is they disagree on how you beat Donald Trump. The poll from Monmouth University found that an unusually large number of Democratic voters are prioritizing "electability" over values as they begin to think about whom to support in their 2020 presidential primary. "In prior elections, voters from both parties consistently prioritized shared values over electability when selecting a nominee," said Patrick Murray, the director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute. "It...

Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Thomas Suozzi of New York, Vincente Gonzalez of Texas, Anthony Brindisi of New York, Dean Phillips of Minnesota, Max Rose of New York and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia attended the midday White House meeting in the Situation Room. The lawmakers are not part of Democratic leadership, which has been leading congressional negotiations, and are rank-and-file members mostly hailing from more moderate congressional districts...

Rep. Dan Crenshaw questioned Monday whether the trip to Puerto Rico by congressional Democrats was a good decision amid the deadlock on border security. About 30 lawmakers traveled to Puerto Rico -- with their families and lobbyists -- for a winter retreat over the weekend despite the partial government shutdown. "It sounds like they had a lot of fun. They've also been talking a lot about the plight that federal workers see themselves in," Crenshaw said on The Story. "They're not wrong about that, but if we're gonna talk about that then I don't know if these excursions to Puerto...

President Trump is working around the clock during the government shutdown trying to negotiate with Pelosi and Schumer to secure border wall funding. The Democrats however, are partying at a beach resort in Puerto Rico on day 22 of the government shutdown. The Democrats don’t care about the 800,000 federal workers who are currently not receiving a paycheck. Democrat Senator Bob Menendez was spotted hanging out with a bikini-clad “colleague” on the beach in Puerto Rico three weeks into the shutdown without a care in the world. The Hispanic Caucus of liberal Democrats is holding their retreat at a posh...

Senators went into a recess skeptical over whether they could agree to legislation repealing and replacing ObamaCare. They will return on Monday more doubtful than ever. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), one of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) most loyal allies, said Thursday that it’s “unlikely” the GOP will get a healthcare deal. “I don’t see a comprehensive healthcare plan this year,” he told a local news station. Senate Republicans hoped to have a draft bill this week, but it now looks like there will at best be an outline.

The U.S. House on Thursday passed a five-year transportation bill that also revive(s) the charter of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which had been allowed to expire in the face of conservative opposition. the House of Representatives voted 359 to 65. All 65 "no" votes came from Republicans, including lawmakers opposed to the EXIM bank measure. "It proves to the American people that we can get things done," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, a Pennsylvania Republican.

Spokesmen for the two Egyptian presidential candidates recently advocated for putting the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel to a vote in a referendum. […] “Our enmity with the Zionist enemy goes to our very existence. It’s either us or them. No peace is possible,” said Tamer Hindawi, (Hamdeen) Sabahi’s spokesman, during the debate. He further claimed that “The Zionist enemy is clearly the head of colonialism in the region. In our view, the Camp David Accords are responsible for many of our crises, and might even be the main reason for Egypt’s subjugation to America, and for the decline...

MOSCOW, March 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian and US anti-drug agencies will continue their usual cooperation, the head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) Viktor Ivanov said. “This is the first meeting that I’ve chaired under the sanctions regime,” he said on Wednesday. At the same time, he said, “We are not planning to curtail cooperation. Our US colleagues share our view.” “I hope that these are temporary problems,” Ivanov said.

High-stakes negotiations force people to reveal what they really care about, and in the 11th-hour deal to stave off a federal financial default, President Obama and congressional Democrats and Republicans each made clear their top priorities. For Republicans, it was preventing any tax increase to upper-income families. For Democrats, it was ensuring no cuts to Social Security, Medicaid and a handful of other programs that aid the elderly and the poor. And for Obama, it was getting a deal that would end the threat of an economy-shaking default until after the 2012 presidential election. None of the key players was...

I don't know about you, but I voted in November to send a message to stop run-away spending, stop government expansion, and defend our country from our enemies. I voted against incumbents, both Republican and Democrats, who voted against my wishes. Yes, I celebrated with my compatriots across the country who voted the same way I did. Unfortunately I am sensing that this new class of politicians may disappoint just like the last one! Already I am getting a sinking feeling in my gut that this new crop of politicians may fall prey to the same inside the beltway disease....

... John Tracy, president of public advertising and public relations firm that makes commercials for the Murkowski campaign, said he called Bookey upset about Fagan’s show early in the day. Tracy said he first called someone at the Murkowski campaign – he wouldn’t say who – to tell them he was making the complaint. The campaign person didn’t object, he said. “I told Dennis that I felt a suspension was in order. That I felt that what Dan had done was serious enough," Tracy said. Tracy is the chief executive for Anchorage-based Bradley Reid. The company is working for Murkowski...

It was rather incredible for Barack Obama to express outrage over the Supreme Court's pruning of McCain-Feingold's regulation of public financing and corporate campaign donations, since in June 2008 Obama became the first presidential candidate to forgo public financing in the general election, expecting that by doing so he could raise several millions more, much of it from the Wall Street and big-money interests that he now serially demonizes. The problem with Obama's hypocrisy is not just that, like most politicians, he does not do what he says, but that he fudges so vehemently and loudly and, to be candid,...

Two major wire services- AP and Reuters- cherry picked excerpts from Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical (a teaching document of the Catholic Church) on Tuesday to support left-wing economic and political positions, and all but ignored the pontiff’s traditional stances on the family, bioethics, and the environment. The AP also went so far to bring up “the state of the Vatican’s own [financial] books.” Both Philip Pullella, who regularly writes about the Pope and the Vatican for Reuters, and the AP’s Nicole Winfield zeroed in on paragraph 67 of the encyclical, which is titled “Caritas in Veritate,” or “Charity in...

On the far south side of Chicago, separated by more than 20 miles and a vast chasm in wealth from the city's soaring skyline, is a collection of squat brick buildings where Barack Obama says he found his calling. The President-elect has said that he learnt more from the locals when working in the Chicago projects than they learnt from him. Those who remember him say that he made little impact The Altgeld Gardens public housing project reeks of decay, fear and despair. At the only shop serving its 2,000 homes, water pours in from the roof on to sodden...

Those of us who have followed Illinois politics for any length of time are tempted to give the Rod Blagojevich arrest and pending indictment a quick shrug, a knowing smile, and a cynical sigh of know-it-all arrogance. "We've seen this before in Illinois, nothing new here, just move along" is the condescending response to questions from out-of-staters that usually suffice when some Illinois politico is caught with his fingers in the taxpayer's cookie jar. But the Blagojevich True Crime Drama is not criminality as usual in Illinois politics. The malfeasance of Governor Rod Blagojevich is so outrageous, so brazen, so...

One of the most cherished freedoms enumerated in the First Amendment is the freedom of the press. Beholden to no one, American journalists, reporters, news anchors and editors are free to investigate controversies and “speak truth to power.” Individual citizens do not have resources to ask prominent officials questions, verify claims or research important issues – but the media do. We rely on the press to deliver news and often assume the reporting is objective. The mainstream media have failed us. In the past, the press had the courage to report the facts no matter whose reputation was at stake....