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Have any of you looked at your last pay stub?

Bona Fides: I’m a native Floridian who moved to Montana in 1977 and I’ve lived here ever since. My longtime “significant other’s (Montana native)" relatives own and operate several ranches in Granite, Powell, and Yellowstone Counties here in Montana. And I also have long term friendships with many, many ranchers operating in the southern part of Phillips County, Montana, and in the Lemhi valley in Idaho. They produce the best ranch beef in the world. I can saddle my own horse; drive a tractor; run a backhoe, bulldozer, swather, baler, and combine; vaccinate cattle, work a head gate, and I’ve...

WHEN SHEILA JACKSON LEE first came to Washington in January 1995, the Texas Democrat railed against the Capitol's silk-stockinged elite. "The American people want reform, not phony but real reform," she said in her debut House speech. "They want to know that the days of free meals and free trips and special privileges are over. . . . As Members of Congress, we should not be using public office for private gain." How times change. It's about 200 paces from the awning of Jackson Lee's Capitol Hill apartment to the marbled steps of the Cannon House Office Building, where ...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House conceded Thursday that federal regulators improperly tried to drum up support among bankers for the Clinton administration's opposition to Republican financial legislation. The effort was attributed to a miscommunication and White House officials insisted that they never intended for the regulators -- who are supposed to remain isolated from partisan wrangling -- to work on behalf of administration policy. ``This is something we take seriously. It's incumbent on us to be clear and we take responsibility for that,'' said White House press secretary Joe Lockhart, who added that it was also the responsibility of ...