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The U.S. is following Canada's footsteps regarding the production of pennies and nickels. According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Giethner, our U.S. Mint intends to remove the penny and nickel coins from circulation beginning early in January 2013.

To display your displeasure, simply mail 30 nickles to his office... http://bennelson.senate.gov/services/offices/ Ben will pocket them for his retirement fund.

A U.N. treaty governing the oceans could clear the way for U.S. oil companies to tap deep oil and gas reserves offshore, which supporters say would bolster America's energy security. But that access might be blocked, because conservatives opposed to the multinational treaty are fighting hard to keep a strong Senate majority from ratifying the pact. When Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice called in January for prompt ratification of the treaty, she gave American oil companies their best hope yet to tap oil and gas reserves lying under thousands of feet of seawater. <snip>.......... In 2003, about 62 percent of...

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- A truck driver has disappeared with the 3.6 million nickels he was hauling to the Federal Reserve Bank in New Orleans, police said Friday. Angel Ricardo Mendoza, 43, picked up the coins, worth $180,000, Dec. 17 from the Federal Reserve in New Jersey and was supposed to haul the cargo--weighing 45,000 pounds--to New Orleans for a trucking company subcontracted by the Federal Reserve, police said. On Dec. 21, Mendoza's empty truck and trailer turned up at a truck stop in Ft. Pierce, Fla. Miami-Dade police, the FBI and the Federal Reserve police are investigating.

Four of the 34 U.S. Senators up for election next year have announced their exiting--Zell Miller (Ga.), John Edwards (S.C.), and Ernest Hollings (S.C.), Democrats all, and Republican Peter Fitzgerald (Ill.) Now, signs are ominous that the next two senatorial shoes to drop will be those of Republican Don Nickles (Okla.) and Democrat John Breaux (La.). Word on the D.C. cocktail circuit over the weekend was that four-termer and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Nickles was anxious to make more money in the private sector, as was Breaux (who has been courted for every seven-figure lobbying job from legislative pointman of...

U.S. Senate '04: Four Down, Two More to Go? by John Gizzi Posted Sep 23, 2003 Four of the 34 U.S. Senators up for election next year have announced their exiting--Zell Miller (Ga.), John Edwards (N.C.), and Ernest Hollings (S.C.), Democrats all, and Republican Peter Fitzgerald (Ill.) Now, signs are ominous that the next two senatorial shoes to drop will be those of Republican Don Nickles (Okla.) and Democrat John Breaux (La.). Word on the D.C. cocktail circuit over the weekend was that four-termer and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Nickles was anxious to make more money in the private sector,...

Poll Shows Oklahoma Rep. Istook Winner of GOP Senatorial Primary Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla) will be a sure winner in a contest with Oklahoma City Mayor Kirk Humphreys if he enters the Republican primary for the senatorial nomination in the 2004 primaries. A confidential poll by Wilson Research Strategies done for the Friends of Ernest Istook group concludes that based on an exhaustive samplings "the Republican nomination is Istook's should he decide to seek it and that Congressman Istook is the Republican's best candidate to hold any open Senate seat in 2004." The possibility that a Senate seat will be...

<p>TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Politicians wondering whether Sen. Don Nickles will run for a record-setting fifth term are closely watching his bank account.</p> <p>The Oklahoma Republican has raised just $53,600 so far this year, and his campaign has $437,750 in the bank.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a week of lightning-fast action in the Senate, three veteran Republicans were instrumental in getting a determined Trent Lott to relinquish his leadership post and clearing the way for Bill Frist to replace him, participants say. Working separately and mostly behind the scenes, as congressional leadership races usually play themselves out, Sens. John Warner of Virginia, Don Nickles of Oklahoma and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky helped bring about the tumultuous change. In so doing, they hastened an end to a 15-day ordeal in which Lott's celebration of Strom Thurmond's segregationist run for the presidency in 1948...

Lott is out, who is best on RKBA to replace him? Here are some short biographies of the people that have announced they might run for senate majority leader, along with a few pertinent items I found on their sites. They are followed by a couple of members who GOA would rate much higher on supporting our RKBA. So far, Enzi looks best to me! --------------------- FRIST, William H., a Senator from Tennessee; born in Nashville, Tenn., on February 22, 1952; attended public and private schools in Nashville; graduated from Princeton University 1974; graduated from Harvard Medical School 1978; worked...

Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles -- a longtime Trent Lott rival who has called on fellow Republicans to consider ousting the embattled Mississippian as the Senate's GOP leader -- might have some explaining of his own to do about his membership in the men-only Burning Tree Club. We hear that Senate Minority Whip Nickles, who announced Sunday that Lott's Strom Thurmond gaffe "may jeopardize his ability to enact our agenda and speak to all Americans," is a fixture at the prestigious Bethesda club that enforces Saudi-like rules when it comes to females: No women are allowed -- not as members, not...

Over the weekend, when Trent Lott’s 49 other colleagues were linking their arms and holding their breath to see how his latest serial apology played out, Senator Don Nickles did the right thing. This was not an act of ambition. One would have to think that he is a singularly stupid man to imagine that he saw this as a ticket to the top of the pile. Of course his statement of the obvious – that Trent Lott has to step aside for the good of conservative policy and the Republican party – would be seen as opportunistic. To Senator...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Don Nickles (news, bio, voting record), the first Senate Republican to suggest that Trent Lott should be replaced as their leader, has built a civil rights voting record that is nearly identical to that of the man he would depose. The NAACP says that over the past decade, Nickles and Lott have voted the same on almost every issue deemed important by the civil rights community. And in almost every case, their votes were contrary to the wishes of that community. On the other hand, both Nickles, of Oklahoma, and Lott, of Mississippi, win the highest ratings...

Who do you think should be the Republican Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate?

Oklahoma Senator Don Nickles

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  The next chairman of the Senate Budget Committee wants Congress to consider finding savings from the government's popular and politically sensitive benefit programs -- which include Social Security and Medicare -- during its hunt for budget savings.</p>

Hillary is trying to say her bill says one thing. Nickles says the extension for unemployment benefits is much longer.

Oklahoma Sen. Don Nickles, the number two Republican in the Senate, said Saturday that he was "furious" at his colleague, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, over comments she made last week suggesting that President Bush could have prevented the 9-11 attacks. Then, in a warning to Clinton and other Democrats who have focused exclusively on 9-11 intelligence failures during President Bush's first eight months in office, Nickles added, "If we're going to have an investigation, we should have an investigation of why we didn't respond strongly to previous acts of terror." "I'm pretty critical of the previous administration," the leading...