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The U.S. Capitol building was being evacuated after an audible alarm was sounded, U.S. Capitol Police said on Tuesday. No other details were immediately available...

  THE NATIONAL STATUARY HALL COLLECTION By user:Southgeist [Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsOne of the most popular tourist destinations in Washington, D.C. is National Statuary Hall. Also known as the Old Hall of the House, it’s a semicircular gallery immediately south of the Capitol Rotunda. For nearly fifty years—from 1807 through 1857—Statuary Hall served as the meeting place for the House of Representatives. The Hall now houses many of the 100 statues of great Americans (two from each state) which together comprise the National Statuary Hall Collection.It’s an extraordinary honor for the men and women depicted here to have been...

A U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman says a bomb squad has safely destroyed a pressure cooker found in a "suspicious" vehicle left unattended near the Capitol building and that the vehicle's owner has been arrested.

Police arrested a Florida Postal Service worker who steered his tiny aircraft onto the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol after flying through restricted airspace around the National Mall on Wednesday. The pilot was Douglas Mark Hughes of Ruskin, Fla., who remained in custody Wednesday evening, Capitol Police said in a statement. On his website, Hughes took responsibility for the stunt and said he was delivering letters to all 535 members of Congress to draw attention to campaign finance corruption. "As I have informed the authorities, I have no violent inclinations or intent," Hughes wrote on his website, thedemocracyclub.org. "An...

WASHINGTON (WJLA) -- A small helicopter has landed on the Capitol's West Front in D.C. and the pilot was taken into custody. The Capitol building and the White House are currently under lockdown. More details to come...

A Moroccan man pleaded guilty on Friday to attempting to bomb the U.S. Capitol building in Washington in February, 2012, and could face up to 30 years in prison. Amine El Khalifi, 29, an illegal immigrant living in Alexandria, Va., struck an agreement with prosecutors under which he pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in Virginia. He was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property owned and used by the United States, intending to detonate a bomb and to shoot people. "I plead guilty," he said, standing before Judge James Cacher for the U.S. District...

... U.S. Capitol Police say Thornton had a backpack and a suitcase, which triggered a lockdown so the bags could be searched. Police say Thornton also was carrying some type of protest sign.

A precautionary lockdown of the U.S. Capitol was lifted after about two hours Saturday following a suicide by a man carrying a sign demanding taxes for the '1%'. The man died after shooting himself on the west front of the Capitol building just after 1 p.m., Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider said. No one else was hurt. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said the man had a backpack and a rolling suitcase, triggering an hours-long lockdown, and a sign that said something about 'social justice.'

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Police say the U.S. Capitol is on lockdown as a precaution after shots were fired in what appears to be an attempted suicide.</p> <p>Capitol Police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider says the suspected shooter was "neutralized" after a self-inflicted gunshot wound. It's unclear whether the man is dead. No one else is believed to be hurt.</p>

The FBI has arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies. Christopher Lee Cornell, of Cincinnati...

Kansas legislators have decided to live by the same law and principles that they have required of communities around the State.   They welcome armed people who have obtained concealed carry permits into the Statehouse.  It is not as if there is any serious risk involved.   People who go to the trouble of obtaining concealed carry permits have repeatedly shown themselves to be many times more law abiding than the general population.   They commit murder at only a fraction of the rate that police officers do.   If the legislature trusts armed police officers in their Statehouse, they certainly should trust...

As America withers from the effects of falling incomes, a shrinking labor force, abysmal economic growth, and decaying social capital, our imperial capital city remains vibrant. Washington, D.C. is as prosperous and prominent as it has ever been. Parenting magazine has named DC as the best place in America to raise a family. The counties of Northern Virginia and Southern Maryland which surround the capital are seven of the ten wealthiest in America. While Houston does petroleum, New York finance, and San Francisco technology, the business of Washington is influence peddling, palm greasing, and sausage making. Perhaps this explains...

On April 29th, hundreds of Second Amendment supporters attended the Second Amendment rally at the State Capitol in Lansing, Michigan.   The rally has grown over the years and is now a major annual event at the Capitol.   These rallies are becoming more and more common around the nation.  There were numerous articles written about the Michigan event this year. MLive published an article complaining about the open carry practices of the rally members at the Capitol.  The writer, Mark Lawrence, is identified as: Mark Lawrence works for the Michigan Legislature and is a member of the National Rifle...

Seven Democratic lawmakers are pushing to ban the use of electronic cigarettes on the grounds of the Capitol complex as part of a wider campaign against them. Led by the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin (Ill.), the group called on rulemaking committees in both chambers to include e-cigarettes in the Capitol's existing ban on smoking in public places and near building entrances. "Given preliminary [federal] research finding harmful chemicals present in e-cigarettes, measures should be taken to ensure that the public is equally protected from the potential dangers posed by e-cigarettes and their vapor," the lawmakers wrote Tuesday. Via a...

One of the men seeking the GOP nomination for Nebraska’s open Senate seat is proposing moving the capital from Washington to his home state, saying it would be an effective way to cut out the lobbyists and special interests that have turned Capitol Hill into an ATM dispensing taxpayers’ money. “That’s it, the way to cure the incredible ineffectiveness and dysfunction of both parties in Washington — we move the Capitol to Nebraska,” Ben Sasse, a university president and former Bush administration official, said in 30-second campaign ad that ran in Nebraska over the weekend during the NFL playoff games....

Outside the U.S. Capitol, Gus impatiently sat at the ready in the Senate parking lot, eyeing the tennis ball in his handler’s right hand. The chance to play with K-9 Tech Charles McGuire enticed the 5-year-old black Labrador retriever, but work comes before play for this member of the U.S. Capitol Police canine unit. “You ready? I’ve got the ball, you have to get ready,” McGuire scolded before he launched Gus into action one recent afternoon. In a matter of minutes, the pair swept around a row of parked cars — a red Ford Focus, a silver Saab sedan and...

A diverse group will gather near the U.S. Capitol on Saturday to denounce the government's dragnet phone and Internet surveillance programs revealed in June by whistle-blower Edward Snowden. The date is the 12th anniversary of President George W. Bush signing into law the USA Patriot Act, which with approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court allowed years of hushed data collection by the National Security Agency. "We're expecting this to be the largest privacy-related rally – potentially – in U.S. history," said Evan Greer, campaign manager of Fight for the Future, an Internet policy group that's helping organize the event....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Police in Washington are reviewing the use of officers' deadly force in the killing of a woman who tried to ram her car through a White House barrier, a shooting her family says was unjustified.

Miriam Carey (right), is the woman identified in news reports as the suspect in a shooting incident that left Capitol Hill on lockdown for a brief period Thursday afternoon, and has now reportedly been shot dead by police. This photo is from a newsletter announcing her having been hired as a hygenist at a Connecticut periodontics practice. Advanced Periodontics -ibtimes.com A woman with a one year old child unsuccessfully tried to ram her car through the security gates of the White House today. The police and Secret Service pursued the woman, and even though reports say she was not...

BREAKING ... The U.S. Capitol is in lockdown, amid reports of shots being fired.