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NY Senator Says She Expects to be ArrestedState Sen. Shirley Huntley from Queens is facing New York City Councilman James Sanders Jr. in a tough Sept. 13 Democratic primary. By Michael Gormley | Saturday, Aug 25, 2012 | Updated 6:46 PM EDT A veteran New York state senator said Saturday that she expects to be arrested Monday in the state's continuing investigation into the use of pork-barrel grants by legislators. Sen. Shirley Huntley, a Queens Democrat, didn't indicate what the charge against her might be. Huntley founded a nonprofit social service and education group that Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is...

A week before his big speech at the Republican National Convention, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio made a dry run of sorts in an appearance Wednesday at Forum Club of the Palm Beaches luncheon. And his request to keep the press from videotaping Wednesday’s talk has one local newspaper accusing the senator of censorship. It’s an allegation that political analyst Jack Furnari called “hyperventilating.”

A senator for Mae Hong Son has told police he accidentally shot and killed his personal secretary with a submachine gun in a restaurant in Phrae province, a duty officer at Wang Chin police station said on Monday. Senator Boonsong Kowawisarat The shooting occurred at a restaurant in Wang Chin district of the northern province on Sunday night, Pol Lt Choosak Poonsawat said. Boonsong Kowawisarat, 55, and his personal assistant Chanakarn Detkard, 46, were travelling to Bangkok in the senator's car and stopped for dinner at a restaurant on a local road in moo 2 in tambon Mae Keng, Phrae....

Pirkowski By Erin MillerWest Hawaii Todayemiller@westhawaiitoday.com Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Eddie Pirkowski sees one overriding issue facing Hawaii this election.“It’s all about jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said. “We’ve had a large drop in the number of open positions. I’m all about building relationships between Hawaii companies and the rest of the companies across the country to bring jobs here.”Pirkowski, an engineer-turned-CEO, said he sees room for Hawaii to increase its presence in the technology industry.“I’d love to build a Silicon Valley here in Hawaii,” he said.Close behind jobs for Pirkowski is the issue of taxes.“I want to cut taxes,”...

Eddie Pirkowski Answers U.S. Senate Candidate Survey By The Civil Beat Staff 07/18/2012 Courtesy of the Pirkowski Campaign Editor's Note: In June 2012, Civil Beat sent 10 questions to each of the candidates registered to run in the Aug. 11 primary for the U.S. Senate. Eight of the 11 responded, including Eddie Pirkowski. The questions and answers are reproduced below in full. Read responses by Ed Case, Mazie Hirono and Linda Lingle to see how Pirkowski's positions compare to those of his main competitors. Click on each topic listed below to read Civil Beat's question and Pirkowski's response. Drone Strikes...

It didn't take long after ObamaCare was upheld by the Supreme Court for CNN to browbeat Republicans about accepting defeat and getting behind the law. Anchor Brooke Baldwin asked Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) on Thursday afternoon why he was still fighting a law opposed by a majority of Americans. "You lost in 2010 when this law was passed, you lost again today. Yet you are still pushing for the repeal of this law. Doesn't that make you look kind of like a sore loser?" Baldwin obnoxiously asked.

Senate Democrats balk at ending Bush-era tax rates for wealthyBy Alexander Bolton - 06/19/12 05:00 AM ET A growing number of Senate Democrats are signaling they are not prepared to raise taxes on anyone in the weak economy unless Congress approves a grand bargain to reduce the deficit. At least seven Democratic senators have declined to rule out supporting a temporary extension of the Bush-era income tax rates, breaking with party leaders who have called for letting the rates expire for people earning more than $1 million per year. That gives Senate Republicans a chance to push a temporary extension...

Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday said there should be an investigation of Attorney General Eric Holder, but stopped short of joining Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) call for his resignation. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) told reporters that many GOP lawmakers share Cornyn’s frustrations with the Justice Department. “We certainly need to have an investigation of what has happened, and I think John Cornyn speaks for a lot of us as to the frustration we feel about not only the national security leaks, the "Fast and Furious" matter — there's been a whole litany of problems coming out of the...

Senator John Cornyn, (R-TX) called on Attorney General Eric Holder to resign during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today in Washington. CORNYN: You’ve violated the public trust in my view by failing to perform the duties of your office. So, Mr. Attorney General it is with more sorrow than with regret and anger that I would say you leave me with no alternative but to join those who call on you to resign your office… HOLDER: Senator, with all due respect there is so much wrong with the premises that you started your statement with it’s almost breathtaking in its...

Elizabeth Warren insists: I would be Massachusetts’ first Native American senatorBy Alex Pappas - The Daily Caller | The Daily Caller – 19 hrs ago Democratic Massachusetts U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren isn’t backing down from her claims of Native American heritage, telling a Fox television affiliate in Boston that she would be the state’s first senator with Indian blood if she were to defeat Republican Sen. Scott Brown in November. Asked by FOX 25′s Sharman Sacchetti on Friday if she would be Massachusetts’ first Native American senator, Warren responded: “I would be their first senator — so far as...

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who for 33 years in Congress has personified an increasingly unfashionable Republican centrism, said she won't seek re-election, taking a final shot at the Senate's partisanship. "I do find it frustrating...that an atmosphere of polarization and 'my way or the highway' ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions," she said Tuesday. The decision, which took members of both parties by surprise, transforms this year's battle for the Senate. Democrats hold a 53-47 advantage in the chamber. But because they have to defend 23 seats to the Republicans' 10, most analysts have...

“If Romney cannot win Michigan, we need a new candidate,” said the senator, who has not endorsed anyone and requested anonymity. The senator believes Romney will ultimately win in Michigan but says he will publicly call for the party to find a new candidate if he does not. “We’d get killed,” the senator said if Romney manages to win the nomination after he failed to win the state in which he grew up.

A faux pax by Senator Diane Feinstein outed the presence of Mossad chief Tamir Pardo in Washington to discuss a possible strike on Iran. Mossad director Tamir Pardo is in Washington for talks about a possible attack on Iran's nuclear installations, Israel's Channel 2 reported on Tuesday. Pardo's visit, which would normally be conducted in secret, was revealed by US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, 78, who made the faux pax at committee hearing. The hearing was being broadcast live by US television. Feinstein said she had spoken with Pardo, who also met with CIA director David Petraeus, adding...

So an ex-senator walks into a comedy club . . . That's not the setup to a joke - it's what happened Tuesday night when Arlen Specter took the stage at the Helium Comedy Club's open-mike night in Center City. "I've been in comedy now for 30 years," the former senator explained. Taking a try at stand-up was a natural step after spending so many years in the "sit-down comedy" of Congress - and, Specter noted, it was considerably less expensive. While some of his jokes are unprintable in a family newspaper - don't ask about the paraplegic who wanted...

usa today http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/12/ben-nelson-retirement/1

Brooklyn Senator Expected to Plead Guilty in Corruption CaseBy WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM and BENJAMIN WEISER Published: December 19, 2011 State Senator Carl Kruger was expected to plead guilty on Tuesday to federal corruption charges that he accepted at least $1 million in bribes to finance a lavish lifestyle, including a large home in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, where he lived with two gynecologist brothers and their mother, according to several people briefed on the case. One of the brothers, Michael Turano, who was also charged in the corruption case unveiled in the spring, was expected to plead guilty along with Mr....

The endorsement of a powerful gun-rights group is up for grabs in a key Senate race. The National Rifle Association’s (NRA) decision on whether to endorse Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) or Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg (Mont.) could be the deciding factor in what is expected to be a close contest. Political analysts say that the winner of this election could determine which party will control the Senate in January of 2013. Tester and Rehberg have strong gun rights voting records. The NRA gives Tester an A grade and Rehberg an A+. A Montana State University-Billings poll released earlier...

The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says the Justice Department has refused to make available 11 of 12 department witnesses called by the panel for transcribed interviews in the ongoing investigation of the botched Fast and Furious weapons operation. Sen. Chuck Grassley said that despite the department’s promises of good faith cooperation in the probe, only one witness has been provided so far - former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Arizona, who resigned in August after taking responsibility for his mistakes during testimony about Fast and Furious before a House committee. “The department has refused to schedule interviews...

Counterfeit military parts from China a ‘clear and present danger,’ senators sayBy John T. Bennett - 11/08/11 02:46 PM ET Senate Armed Services Committee leaders are fashioning a plan that would force the Defense Department to step up efforts to prevent counterfeit parts from being used on U.S. military platforms. The panel said a probe it launched in March has uncovered what senators of both parties labeled alarming evidence that most of the counterfeit components come from China, America’s top economic and military competitor. “During the course of the committee’s investigation, virtually every one of the dozens of people our...

Russell and Patricia Caswell are a hard-working couple who may soon have their American Dream taken from them by the unholy alliance of local and federal law enforcement officials seeking to cash in on the Caswell’s property. The Caswells face this dilemma even though they have broken no law and have spent their entire professional career working to combat crime with the very police force that now seeks to take their property though civil forfeiture. What is happening to Russ and Pat, however, is by no means an isolated instance and local law enforcement’s end-run around state laws designed to...