Free Republic

..... More than a dozen prominent Washington research groups have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments in recent years while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found. .....

As many as a dozen members of Congress and their aides took part in insider trading based on foreknowledge of market moving information on Capitol Hill, disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff told CNBC in an interview. Abramoff, who was once one of the wealthiest and most powerful lobbyists in Washington before a corruption scandal sent him to federal prison for more than three years, said that many of those members of Congress bragged to him about their stock trading prowess while dining at the exclusive restaurant he owned on Pennsylvania Avenue.

HR4774 On March 5th, the US House of Representatives unanimously approved the naming of a Post Office after Cyndi Taylor Krier. Normally, a vote like this would not make news in The Daily Congressional. This, however, is a special case. According to The Washington Post“One of Washington’s minor traditions is to name post offices after heroes, usually recently deceased. A lot of them have been named recently for service members killed in Iraq. But Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) has taken a new approach. He’s pushing to name a post office after a prominent, very-much-alive lobbyist. And that’s not all. His...