Free Republic

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (Reuters) – About 1,000 chanting protesters rallied on Sunday outside a California resort where conservative lawmakers and business executives met for a political strategy session hosted by billionaires Charles and David Koch. About two dozen police officers in riot gear lined up in front of the Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa in the upscale desert town of Rancho Mirage to keep the protesters away from the gated entrance. ... Another group, some dressed in hazardous material suits, tried to encircle the resort with yellow caution tape in a symbolic effort to "quarantine" the meeting, but they...

A well-known government-watchdog group will ask the Justice Department today to investigate U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris' dealings with a now disgraced defense contractor accused of bribery. Common Cause wants to know whether Harris broke the law when she and Mitchell Wade met at an exclusive Georgetown restaurant in early 2005. At that dinner -- which cost Wade up to $2,800 -- Wade offered to hold a fundraiser for Harris and sought her help obtaining $10 million in federal money. Common Cause's director of ethics campaigns said there is sufficient evidence to suggest Harris submitted the appropriations request in exchange for...