WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service improperly screened applications from conservative groups that sought tax-exempt status, a senior IRS official said Friday.

IRS staffers selected for more review the applications that included the words “tea party” or “patriot,” Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations, said in a conference call with reporters.

“That’s absolutely inappropriate and not the way we should do things,” Lerner said.

The staffers also requested information the IRS does not normally ask for, including donor lists.

Lerner first disclosed the improper screening in response to a question she received at a conference sponsored by the American Bar Assn. in Washington earlier in the day. In the conference call that followed, she said that of 300 applications staffers selected for additional review, about a quarter were selected solely because of the flagged words. The rest were selected for a “broad spectrum”...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama said Thursday that the United States was “poised for progress,” but accused Congress of thwarting his efforts to get new economic initiatives off the ground.

Speaking at a high school in Manor, Texas, Obama said he would keep fighting even though Republicans have opposed his efforts to create jobs, raise wages and “help more young people get a good education and afford college.” “Some of them have been blocked in Congress for, frankly, political reasons,” he said. “I'm going to keep on trying. You know, I'm an optimistic guy.”

The president’s day trip was one of a series he plans to make highlighting a wish list of policies he outlined in his State of the Union speech earlier this year. The plans -- universal preschool, curbing the cost of college tuition and large investments in “innovation centers” -- don’t appear to be going anywhere in Congress and the White House has talked little...

WASHINGTON -- Senators on Thursday began the arduous task of going through some 300 proposed amendments to the delicately constructed bipartisan immigration bill. By lunch, they had disposed of 17.

With a packed audience of many pro-immigration legislation supporters, rows of them "Dreamers" -- the young people who were brought to the U.S. as minors and now find themselves in adulthood without legal status -- the Senate Judiciary Committee gaveled in for the first of what is expected to be many days of long hearings.

The exchanges were political and pointed, but not without substance. Senators spent most of the day on what is perhaps the toughest element before them: how to determine when the Southwestern border is secured to stop illegal crossings, a key trigger for when those already here can begin the decade-long process of legalizing their status.

U.S. immigration law: Decades of debate

"We have come up with a fair bill where nobody gets everything they want," said Sen. Charles E....

WASHINGTON -- Five days before two bombs tore through crowds at the Boston Marathon, an intelligence report identified the finish line of the race as an "area of increased vulnerability" and warned Boston police that extremists may use "small scale bombings" to attack spectators and runners at the event.

The 18-page report was written by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, a command center funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security that helps disseminate intelligence information to local police and first responders.

The "joint special event assessment" is dated April 10. It notes that at the time there was "no credible, specific information indicating an imminent threat" to the race.

FULL COVERAGE: Boston Marathon attack

"The FBI has not identified any specific lone offender or extremist group who pose a threat to the Boston marathon," the report reads.

Two officials read parts of the report to a Washington Bureau reporter.

Since the blasts, the FBI has acknowledged...

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans boycotted a committee vote Thursday morning on President Obama’s nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, prompting accusations of obstructionism from Democrats and calls to reform Senate rules.

Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said McCarthy has not adequately responded to their requests for information. Democrats noted McCarthy has been asked more than 1,000 questions – which they said was a record number.

“At this stage, their opposition, even to allowing us to vote, shows how far outside the mainstream they are,” Chairwoman Barbara Boxer said. “It shows how obstructionist they are; it shows their pledge to do better with women voters is false.”

McCarthy is the former head of the EPA’s air pollution branch. At that post, she implemented new regulations of carbon-emission standards in cars and light trucks, and cut mercury from power...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration announced Thursday that it would provide millions of dollars to community health centers to help them enroll Americans in health insurance programs next year under the president’s health law.

The move comes as the administration faces growing pressure from Democrats and other supporters of the 2010 Affordable Care Act to show how it will get Americans into health plans, a key goal of the landmark legislation.

Insurance companies will be required next year to offer health coverage to all consumers, even if they have preexisting conditions. And most Americans in turn will be required to have health insurance.

But unless younger and healthier people sign up for coverage, experts fear that health insurance premiums could skyrocket, undermining the law’s promise to control healthcare costs.

The Obama administration is working with consumer advocates, industry groups and others to enroll the uninsured next year, but with public ignorance of...

WASHINGTON — November’s election marked the first time in U.S. history that black voters turned out at a higher rate than whites, according to new census data showing how much the country’s burgeoning population of racial and ethnic minorities has reshaped the electorate.

Some of the increase in black voting stems from enthusiasm for President Obama and his campaign’s mobilization efforts, but much of the gain reflects a trend of ever-greater participation among blacks. Many were denied the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and have been the target of intensive voter registration and turnout efforts ever since.

Turnout has gone from 53% of voting-age blacks in 1996, the earliest year for which the Census Bureau has comparable data, to 66.2% in the most recent election. In all, almost 18 million blacks voted last fall, the agency estimates, up about 1.7 million from 2008.

PHOTOS: Top moments of the 2012 presidential election

White voter turnout,...

WASHINGTON -- A vote on President Obama’s nominee to lead the Labor Department was delayed for an additional week, the latest roadblock for the controversial choice.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon to decide whether to recommend the nomination of Thomas E. Perez, the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, to the full Senate.

But Republicans on the panel refused to allow what is usually a routine waiver of an obscure Senate rule that prohibits committees from meeting after the full Senate has been in session for two hours.

The committee was scheduled to meet at 10 a.m., the same time the Senate session started, but the hearing was postponed so senators could attend a special joint meeting of Congress to hear a speech from the South Korean president. The meeting has been rescheduled for May 16.

Democrats said the delay was not a sign the Perez nomination was in trouble. “They’...

WASHINGTON — Partisan politics loomed over a House hearing Wednesday  on the deadly September 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound  in Benghazi, Libya, as Republicans and Democrats clashed over the meaning of testimony from three witnesses who had little new to add to the story.

The hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee began with the chairman, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), complaining that the Obama administration and Democrats on the committee have not supported his efforts to get to the truth.

The ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), promptly accused the Republican chairman of politicizing his inquiry  and making baseless assertions about a potential military response that have been refuted by top generals.

“What we have seen over the past two weeks is a full-scale media campaign that is not designed to investigate what happened in a responsible and bipartisan way, but rather … unfounded accusations to smear public officials,&...

WASHINGTON -- A hearing on the deadly September 2012 attack on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi, Libya, began with sharp exchanges Wednesday morning when the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform accused the Republican chairman of making baseless assertions about a potential military response that have been refuted by top generals.

“What we have seen over the past two weeks is a full-scale media campaign that is not designed to investigate what happened in a responsible and bipartisan way, but rather … unfounded accusations to smear public officials,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland). “I am not questioning the motives of our witnesses. I am questioning the motives of those who want to use their statements for political purposes.”

Cummings challenged recent statements of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the committee and has asserted that the military could have done more to respond to the attack on the U.S....