Hillary is great, but look at other women too, activists say

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton would be the runaway favorite among Democrats for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination, a new Quinnipiac University poll shows, but activists at EMILY’s List, who have launched a campaign to elect the first female president, aren’t satisfied -- Clinton was the only female choice offered.

Obama nominates Penny Pritzker, Mike Froman to his economic team

WASHINGTON – President Obama praised Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker for her commitment to American workers on Thursday morning as he nominated her as his next Commerce secretary.

Obama to nominate Penny Pritzker as Commerce secretary

WASHINGTON – Making official what many Democrats have expected for weeks, President Obama plans to nominate Chicago business executive Penny Pritzker, a longtime political supporter and heavyweight fundraiser, as his new Commerce secretary on Thursday morning. 

Hillary Clinton to appear in Beverly Hills for award and speech

In the sort of appearance destined to fan speculation about her presidential aspirations in 2016, Hillary Rodham Clinton will speak in Beverly Hills next week at a gala hosted by the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Rep. Lamar Smith defends tentative changes to research funding

Republicans in Congress, long skeptical of the value of some taxpayer-supported research, have taken aim at the National Science Foundation with a bill that seeks to limit the scope of its grants.

Medicaid has mixed record on improving health for poor, study says

WASHINGTON — As state leaders debate whether to expand their Medicaid programs next year under President Obama’s healthcare law, new research suggests the government insurance plan for the poor has only a mixed record of improving health.

Most Americans remain in the dark on immigration bill

WASHINGTON – For all the attention given so far to efforts in Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, nearly four in 10 Americans say they don’t know enough about it to have an opinion, and fewer than one-quarter could correctly answer a couple of basic questions about it, a new poll shows.

Sarah Palin for Senate? Some tea party activists want her to run

SEATTLE — Sarah Palin’s last elective position in Alaska ended early when in 2009 she abandoned the governorship midway through her first term.

WASHINGTON – The race to replace John F. Kerry in the U.S. Senate will offer Massachusetts voters a familiar choice: a longtime Democratic officeholder against a fresh-faced Republican.

Massachusetts voters head to the polls for Senate primary

SOMERVILLE, Mass. – Stephen Lynch was in a hurry on Friday morning, first to a pair of diners along Broadway, then down the street to a firehouse. By day’s end, he’d hit 18 stops in six cities and towns in the Boston area, as he worked to do “14 days worth of work in four days,” as a volunteer put it.

Obama pledges to renew efforts to close Guantanamo prison

WASHINGTON – President Obama said Tuesday he is renewing efforts to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and will search for members of Congress to help him get it done.

WASHINGTON – The CIA, Justice Department and Homeland Security Department have launched a high level internal review of whether intelligence was mishandled prior to the bombings of the Boston Marathon, officials said.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, debating for the first and only time in his comeback campaign for Congress, professed not to hear when his opponent brought up the Appalachian Trail.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama renewed his pitch for investment in American infrastructure Monday as he named Anthony Foxx, mayor of Charlotte, N.C., to serve as his next Transportation secretary.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has blocked Alabama from enforcing a state law that authorized the police to arrest and jail persons who hid or transported illegal immigrants.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will nominate Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Anthony Foxx as the new secretary of Transportation on Monday, a White House official said.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama and Conan O’Brien led the 99th White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner Saturday at the Washington Hilton, hitting some familiar punch lines before acknowledging the hardships that have struck many in recent weeks.

WASHINGTON – So what do you give to the leader of the free world?

WASHINGTON -- Seeking to end flight delays that jammed airports nationwide, the House approved legislation Friday that will stop the furlough of air-traffic controllers, sending the bill to President Obama.

WASHINGTON — Married same-sex couples cannot make joint contributions to federal candidates as opposite-sex couples are permitted to do, the Federal Election Commission said Thursday, a decision that gay rights advocates said reinforced their case for overturning the Defense of Marriage Act.

WASHINGTON -- Two top senators predicted Thursday that gun legislation will come up again for a Senate vote – possibly before the end of the year – as public attitudes shift toward stricter controls.

DALLAS — President Obama praised former President George W. Bush on Thursday for standing tough in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and for his early support for immigration reform, drawing strong allusions to his current challenges as he paid tribute to his predecessor.

DALLAS -- President Obama is in the heart of George W. Bush country to pay tribute to the former president he describes as “concerned about all people in America, not just those who voted Republican."

PHOENIX — Sandra Day O’Connor is, obviously, quite familiar with historic firsts.

WASHINGTON--Ever since last week’s defeat of new gun control measures in the Senate, advocates have talked up the possibility that public outrage could turn a short-term loss into long-term victory for their cause.

Former President George W. Bush's presidential library doesn't open to the public until May 1, but the building will host a dedication ceremony Thursday for the 43rd president. Read more: Architecture review: Bush presidential library is fittingly blunt

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve President Obama’s nominee for top White House budget expert, bringing a woman into a top post in an administration that critics say has been dominated by men.

WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court unanimously backed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate a controversial form of coal mining called mountaintop removal, overturning a lower court decision that barred the agency from stopping a large coal mine in West Virginia.

WASHINGTON -- As delayed flights jammed up air travel, Senate Republicans on Tuesday blamed the White House for furloughing air traffic controllers, as Democrats offered a new proposal to replace the sequester cuts that have begun to affect ordinary Americans who need services from the federal government.

The surprise retirement of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) immediately swung attention to the state’s former Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer, who declined to say Tuesday if he would seek the job.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has extended some leniency to legal immigrants who are convicted of having a small amount of marijuana, ruling that such a crime is not an “aggravated felony” that leads to deportation.

WASHINGTON -- In a surprise move that deals a serious blow to Democratic chances of holding the Senate, veteran Montana Sen. Max Baucus has decided not to seek reelection next year, Democratic officials said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- The vast majority of Americans say that occasional acts of terrorism are “part of life,” and many doubt the government can do much more to prevent them, a new poll finds.

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued a sharply critical assessment of the State Department’s recent environmental impact review of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, certain to complicate efforts to win approval for the $7-billion project.

WASHINGTON – President Obama believes the civilian justice system can handle cases of domestic terrorism and supports the decision to try the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in federal court, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday.

WASHINGTON -- A Republican senator shouted in protest Monday as a top Democrat complained at a Senate hearing that opponents of immigration reform were improperly using the Boston bombing as a reason to delay changes to immigration law.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama on Saturday praised the law enforcement officers who worked to search for suspects and secure the Boston area in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings.

WASHINGTON – President Obama announced the end of “an important chapter” late Friday night in the Boston Marathon bombing with the arrest of a fugitive suspect.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama spoke on the phone Friday with President Vladimir Putin of Russia as U.S. officials scrambled to track the movements of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers.

WASHINGTON -- A top Republican senator, citing the Boston bombings, warned Friday against rushing ahead with a reform of the country's immigration laws, as concerns about terrorism appeared to revive conservative opposition to the proposal.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate formally shelved further consideration of gun legislation Thursday even as supporters of a plan to expand background-check requirements vowed to keep pushing the issue.

WASHINGTON — The nonprofit advocacy group backing President Obama’s second-term agenda plans to mobilize constituents against the U.S. senators who on Wednesday helped defeat a measure to expand background checks – including four members of the president’s own party.

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. senator who was the intended recipient of a letter apparently laced with ricin said he had hired the suspected sender, an Elvis impersonator, to play at a wedding a decade ago.

Here is a transcript of the remarks delivered by President Obama during an interfaith memorial service for those injured and killed by the Boston Marathon attack Monday, as provided by the White House:

President Obama vowed Thursday that Americans will move beyond the Boston Marathon bomb attack by bringing the perpetrators to justice -- and by refusing to live in fear.

WASHINGTON -- A Mississippi man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sending ricin-laced letters to President Obama, a U.S. senator and another official, authorities said. 

WASHINGTON — In a final appeal to her colleagues to reinstate an assault weapons ban, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) displayed on the Senate floor Wednesday a New York Daily News front page from the day after her ban was pulled from a broader gun control bill: It shows the photos of the 20 first-graders shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School with the headline: “Shame on U.S.”

WASHINGTON -- A dozen states and cities and three major environmental groups have notified the Environmental Protection Agency that they plan to sue the regulator unless it issues final rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama declared it a “shameful day for Washington” on Wednesday after the Senate defeated an effort to expand background checks for people trying to purchase guns.

WASHINGTON -- The push to produce more energy from renewable sources has stalled, and “the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago,” according to Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental organization that researches the energy sector and holds reserves of oil in case of supply disruptions.

WASHINGTON – An amendment to expand background check requirements to include most commercial sales failed Wednesday in the Senate, a significant setback to gun legislation developed in response to the Newtown, Conn., school shootings.

WASHINGTON -- Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s comeback try encountered severe turbulence Wednesday when the National Republican Congressional Committee withdrew its financial support less than three weeks before a special election for his former House seat.

WASHINGTON – Investigators say there are no signs of a link between the Boston Marathon bombings and potentially poisonous letters sent to the President Obama and a U.S. senator.

WASHINGTON – A suspicious envelope was found in one Senate office building and a suspicious package in another Wednesday as the Capitol complex heightened security the day after a letter addressed to a senator tested positive for ricin, a deadly poison.

WASHINGTON – An eagerly awaited immigration overhaul from a bipartisan group of senators arrived early Wednesday, an 844-page bill that both the political left and right now see as the best chance in decades to achieve fix a broken immigration system.

WASHINGTON -- An envelope addressed to President Obama and intercepted at a mail processing facility has tested positive for the poison ricin, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court declared Wednesday that U.S. courts will not be the world’s forum for deciding lawsuits alleging human rights abuses by corporations and tyrants on foreign soil.

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a bill to overhaul immigration laws and provide a path to legal status for an estimated 11 million people who overstayed their visas or illegally entered the United States, Senate aides said.

WASHINGTON -- The lead author of a compromise plan to expand background checks, seen as the centerpiece of larger gun legislation before the Senate, all but conceded Wednesday that there won't be the votes needed to adopt it.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama plans to travel to Massachusetts to honor the victims of this week’s bomb attack at the Boston Marathon, the White House announced Tuesday.

WASHINGTON – President Obama said Tuesday that the immigration legislation drafted by a bipartisan group of senators is “largely consistent” with the principles he has laid out, and he pledged his support to help pass comprehensive reform.

WASHINGTON -- A Senate plan to expand the background-check requirement for gun purchases faced a narrowing path to success Tuesday, as advocates for stricter laws sought to scrape together the last few votes they need from among a dwindling number of undecided senators.

WASHINGTON — President Obama vowed Tuesday to get to the bottom of the Boston bomb attacks but kept to his previously planned schedule, saying it is important to carry on.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional leaders reflected with grief on the tragic loss of life in the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, but had few immediate answers as to the nature of the attack.

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is investigating the double bombings at the Boston Marathon as an “act of terrorism,” President Obama said Tuesday as he vowed to find the perpetrators of what he called a “heinous and cowardly act.”

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency says greenhouse gas emissions in the United States showed a 1.6% decline from 2010 to 2011.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama vowed justice for the victims of the Boston bomb attacks on Monday but cautioned against the urge to “jump to conclusions” before a full investigation is done.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama has called officials in Boston to offer “whatever assistance is necessary” to investigate and respond to the deadly bomb blasts Monday and plans to speak publicly on the incident this evening, a senior White House official said.

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency has delayed indefinitely a much-anticipated final rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants.

Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn will lead a House delegation to Britain to attend the funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court justices said Monday they were highly skeptical of the idea that a company or a scientist can hold a patent on human genes and prevent others from testing or using them.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court will hear an appeal Monday from breast cancer patients and medical researchers who say the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office made a mistake when it granted a Utah company an exclusive right to profit from testing genes that signal a high risk of cancer.

WASHINGTON – One of the senators behind the compromise proposal to expand background checks on gun purchases will mount a Senate floor sales pitch Monday, part of a lobbying effort to ensure passage for the key piece of a larger guns bill when it comes to a vote this week.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) blitzed the airwaves Sunday to defend the immigration bill being written by four Republican and four Democratic senators.

WASHINGTON--The White House turned over the president’s weekly address to a stand-in Saturday, airing on its website gripping video of Francine Wheeler talking about the life and death of her 6-year-old son, Ben, shot in his classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Republican leaders unanimously approved a resolution Friday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8, the measure under court review that forbids same-sex marriage in California.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama’s income continued its recent creep downward in 2012, along with his effective federal income tax rate, according to the tax returns released Friday by the White House.

WASHINGTON — In its few months of existence, the nonprofit advocacy group launched to promote President Obama’s legislative agenda raised a little more than $4.8 million, a modest debut for an entity built on the infrastructure and grass-roots organization of Obama’s behemoth reelection campaign.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama's proposal to trim Social Security's cost-of-living adjustments has sparked not only Democratic outrage, but Republican confusion.

WASHINGTON – President Obama is proving to be a popular dinner host.

WASHINGTON – Senators writing a landmark immigration bill broke a logjam between farmworker unions and growers Thursday, reaching a tentative agreement on future agricultural visas and pay scales for foreign farmworkers, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

As the Republican National Committee begins to chart its path after stinging losses in recent presidential elections, a major focus of its spring meeting in Hollywood is how to draw more support from communities that have shunned the party in large numbers, notably Latinos, Asian Americans and single women.

WASHINGTON – The Senate crossed the first of many hurdles Thursday in the drive to pass new gun legislation, with a bipartisan vote to begin what could be weeks of debate on the issue.

As members of the Republican National Committee met in Hollywood to debate how to reverse their party's recent losses in presidential campaigns, they narrowly defeated an effort by a Virginia committeeman to undo all the changes to party rules made during the 2012 Republican convention.

WASHINGTON--The bipartisan group of senators pushing to finish a sweeping  immigration bill met late Wednesday as thousands of advocates gathered outside the Capitol, many waving American flags, to lend urgency to the effort. 

WASHINGTON - The Senate approved REI Chief Executive Sally Jewell Wednesday as the new secretary of the Interior by a vote of 87 to 11.  

WASHINGTON---President Obama’s budget offers a mixed bag to California: money eagerly sought by Los Angeles to expand its transit system, but no federal funds to help the state pay its nearly billion-dollar bill for jailing illegal immigrants.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mark Kirk, one of the lead Republican sponsors of a bipartisan compromise to expand background checks of gun purchases, says he hopes to name the legislation in honor of Hadiya Pendleton, a Chicago teen who was shot on a Chicago street just days after marching in President Obama’s inauguration parade.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama argued for “manageable” changes to Medicare and other social safety net programs as he released his budget proposal, a plan aimed at staking out the middle ground in the stalled deficit reduction talks.

WASHINGTON -- Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on Wednesday announced a compromise on the centerpiece of gun legislation the Senate is to begin deliberating later this week -- an expansion of background checks that will cover most commercial gun sales.

WASHINGTON — The Senate moved to begin long-anticipated deliberations Thursday over new gun laws as Republicans appeared to lack the strength to block the debate and bipartisan talks over expanding background checks on gun buyers appeared to have led to a deal.

WASHINGTON — President Obama will unveil a budget proposal Wednesday that curbs spending on Social Security, raises the minimum wage, closes tax loopholes for top earners and invests in infrastructure — an overdue document that the White House described as its final offer to Republicans in the deadlocked deficit reduction talks.

WASHINGTON – Negotiations on the centerpiece element of new gun control legislation appeared on the verge of a breakthrough Tuesday evening, with key lawmakers saying a final deal on expanding background checks for gun purchases could be reached Wednesday.

The architect of President Obama’s political narrative has a new story to tell: His own.

WASHINGTON -- Family members of Sandy Hook shooting victims are bewildered that Congress is still struggling to pass stricter gun laws, Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday afternoon.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate may begin voting as soon as Thursday on legislation intended to reduce gun violence, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) decided Tuesday to initiate the procedural steps required to overcome a threatened filibuster by a group of Republicans.

WASHINGTON -- Responding to concerns that North Korea is preparing to test a medium-range missile after weeks of bellicose threats, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific sought to reassure Congress on Tuesday that the Pentagon would be able intercept a missile aimed at the United States or its East Asian allies.

WASHINGTON -- Liberal magazine Mother Jones released a candid recording of a strategy session held by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign Tuesday. The recording, from Feb. 2, reveals the campaign’s particular focus on discrediting possible opponent and actress Ashley Judd.

As the 168 members of the Republican National Committee head to Los Angeles for their spring meeting — a visit meant to illustrate the party’s commitment to broadening its reach even in the bluest of states — Chairman Reince Priebus announced two new hires who will focus on stepping up the party’s efforts to engage voters in Asian and Pacific Islander communities. 

HARTFORD, Conn. – President Obama drew the families of the Newtown school shooting victims into an emotional call to pass gun control measures on Monday, urging that the displays of solidarity and grief in the aftermath not be the end of the country’s obligation to them.

WASHINGTON — Organizing for Action, President Obama’s nonprofit advocacy organization, has sought to be nimble as it ramps up a national effort to back his agenda on gun control measures and immigration reform.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- President Obama will meet Monday with family members of victims killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School to talk about their efforts to persuade Congress to pass gun control measures in response to the tragedy.

WASHINGTON -- New polling shows older Americans overwhelmingly resisting President Obama’s effort to pare back cost-of-living adjustments for seniors, veterans and the disabled as part of his budget overture to the GOP.

WASHINGTON -- After a two-week spring recess, Congress returns to work on Tuesday for a make-or-break legislative sprint on two White House priorities – gun violence and immigration reform – in a session that could help define President Obama’s second term.

WASHINGTON -- As news of the death of Margaret Thatcher came in Monday, tributes flowed from conservative leaders across the Capitol, showing the lasting influence the "Iron Lady" on the personal careers of many American lawmakers.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama apologized to California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris for commenting on her appearance during a fundraiser earlier this week, an aide said Friday.

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee asked the Obama administration Friday to provide data to back up its assertions that the southwest border is more secure than it has been in decades.

WASHINGTON – As part of his new budget, President Obama will propose cutting Social Security and other government benefits by lowering the cost-of-living adjustment, putting a key GOP negotiating demand into a formal White House proposal for the first time.

WASHINGTON – The last several years have seen huge shifts in polls on two intensely debated issues: marijuana legalization and same-sex marriage. On one, the change in opinion has prompted public officials to shift ground en masse; on the other, few have changed their stands.