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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.

Italy: Gaddafi fails to show up at top-level meeting in Rome Rome, 12 June (AKI) - The speaker of Italy's lower house cancelled a top-level conference in honour of Muammar Gaddafi in Rome on Friday after the Libyan leader failed to arrive. "The conference with Gaddafi has not been held due to the delay by Libyan (leader) Gaddafi," said Gianfranco Fini, a senior ally of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. "The two-hour delay is not justified." Gaddafi was scheduled to meet Fini late Friday and take part in a conference with the speaker and former Italian foreign minister Massimo D'Alema....

Lawmakers Chide Automakers Over Dealership Cuts GM Issues State-by-State Closings List By Dan Eggen and Kendra Marr Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, June 13, 2009 Out of the 1,323 General Motors dealers targeted for elimination, the most will come from Pennsylvania. Ninety dealerships will be forced to wind down in the state. Pennsylvania is followed by Ohio with 79, Illinois with 66, California with 65 and New York with 60. GM, which has declined to name individual dealers, released the state-by-state list for the first time yesterday to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. And lawmakers vented their frustration, demanding...

The new independent ethics panel created to help the House police itself has started 10 reviews of lawmaker misconduct, but hasn't gotten to the point of deciding whether to refer any matters to the House ethics committee. The information was contained in the first quarterly report of the Office of Congressional Ethics, issued Wednesday. The report says that 37 people have contacted the office, but doesn't make clear how many were filing complaints versus simply seeking information. So it's not clear if the board has declined to review any complaints. The OCE, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, is looking at...

WASHINGTON – House lawmakers on Wednesday accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of impeding their probe into the agency's failure to uncover the alleged $50 billion Bernard Madoff fraud. The clash between lawmakers and high-ranking SEC officials at a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing came after the man who waged a decade-long campaign to alert the regulators to problems in Madoff's operations denounced the agency for its inaction. ... In loud, angry exchanges, lawmakers threatened to issue subpoenas to SEC officials to compel their testimony in the case.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Alaska lawmaker leading an investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's dismissal of her public safety commissioner should be removed because he appears to be manipulating the probe to damage her vice presidential candidacy, a Republican legislator says.

MPs too scared to talk about forced marriage 'in case they lose Muslim votes' Politicians are too scared to speak out against forced marriage in case they lose valuable Muslim votes, according to a veteran Labour MP. By Martin Beckford Religious Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 12:46AM BST 02 Sep 2008 Ann Cryer said politicians in areas with high Muslim populations, many of which are Labour heartlands, should be at the forefront of the campaign to stop young couples being made to wed against their will by their families. But she claimed that some politicians are afraid to speak out on...

Democrat State Rep. Mark DeSimone was arrested outside his home after police found evidence that his wife had been assaulted.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri legislator was charged with a felony Thursday for allegedly driving away after hitting a pedestrian with his pickup truck. Authorities say state Rep. Brad Robinson was driving the truck that hit a 46-year-old man south of St. Louis in the early hours of New Year's Day. His wife, Tara, had told police she was driving, but authorities say a high school's surveillance camera captured the couple switching seats in the truck moments after the accident. The Democratic lawmaker from Bonne Terre was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, and could get up...

SAN FRANCISCO - Federal authorities on Thursday charged a rookie San Francisco lawmaker with fraud, accusing him of attempting to extort $80,000 from a group of fast-food franchisees who had business permit troubles with the city. During an FBI sting earlier this year, the tapioca drink shop owners delivered a $40,000 payment to Supervisor Ed Jew in marked $100 bills and promised to pay the rest later, authorities said. Jew has acknowledged taking the money, but said he did so at the businessmen's insistence and on behalf of a consultant he recommended they hire to help with their permit problems....

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — At the Arkansas Legislature, it's against the rules for a lawmaker to have even a cup of water sitting on his or her desk. That cup of spittle with a day's worth of tobacco juice is fine, though. A state representative disgusted by the expectorate wants a state law that would rid the House and Senate of Styrofoam spittoons. "It's gross," said Rep. Pam Adcock, a Little Rock Democrat who plans to file legislation that would ban all tobacco products, not just cigarettes, from the House and Senate chambers. Gov. Mike Beebe, a former state senator,...

WASHINGTON - Rep. Keith Ellison, Congress' only Muslim, made a weekend trip to Iraq, where a pair of sheiks urged him to help counter al-Qaida's vision of Islam. Ellison, D-Minn., said he met in Ramadi with the two sheiks, who oversee several hundred thousand congregants. "They were very upset and concerned that al-Qaida is misrepresenting Islam," Ellison told reporters Monday during a conference call from Germany on his way back to the U.S. "And they were talking to me about what I can possibly do to work with them to give a clearer, more accurate picture of what Islam is...

BALTIMORE - Former state Sen. Thomas Bromwell, a powerful figure in Annapolis during his nearly 20 years in the legislature, has agreed to plead guilty to taking bribes from a construction company executive, his attorney said Friday. Bromwell, 58, will plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy and filing a false tax return, said attorney Barry Pollack. Sentencing guidelines call for a prison term of about 6 1/2 years to 8 years for the former Senate Finance Committee chairman, Pollack said. "It was a very difficult decision for him, but taking into account what's best for him, what's best for his wife,...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The last of five lawmakers indicted in an undercover public corruption probe dubbed Tennessee Waltz pleaded guilty Monday to bribery. Former state Sen. Kathryn Bowers, 64, a Memphis Democrat, pleaded guilty to one federal count accusing her of splitting $11,500 with an accomplice who served as a go-between with FBI agents posing as dishonest businessmen. She had insisted for two years that she was innocent. "I needed to go on and admit that I'd made some mistakes so that I can go on and try to move on with my life," Bowers said outside court. In exchange...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- An Iowa lawmaker is switching parties. Representative Dawn Pettengill, a Democrat from Mt. Auburn, announced today she's switching to the G-O-P. Pettengill, who was elected to the House in 2004, says she's pro-business, pro-taxpayer, fiscally conservative and dedicated to representing her constituents. She says House Democrats pursued an agenda that "veered far from the principles" for which she and her constituents stand. This year, lawmakers expanded stem cell research at the University of Iowa, approved a one-dollar-a-pack pack cigarette tax increase and added sexual orientation to the protections of the state's civil rights laws. Democratic...