Ex-US House Speaker Dennis Hastert starts prison term

Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert arrived at a Minnesota prison on Wednesday to serve his 15-month sentence in a hush-money case involving revelations that he sexually abused at least four boys when he coached wrestling at an Illinois high school. The 74-year-old Illinois Republican - one of the highest-ranking U.S. politicians to ever go to prison - arrived around noon at the facility in Rochester where he will be known as Inmate No.

Rebellious Democrats disrupt House, stage protest

Rebellious Democrats disrupted the House's legislative work on Wednesday, staging a sit-in on the House floor and refusing to leave until they secured a vote on gun control measures. Exasperated Republicans were forced to recess while cutting off cameras that showed the protest.

Toomey, Rubio boost shaky Senate GOP majority

In their quest to hold onto the majority, Senate Republicans got some good news Wednesday with swing state polls showing them in the driver's seat a month before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. According to new Quinnipiac polls released Wednesday, Sen. Pat Toomey holds a nine-point advantage over Democratic challenger Katie McGinty in Pennsylvania, while Florida's Marco Rubio, who hadn't announced his re-election bid when the poll was taken, leads Rep. Patrick Murphy , giving the GOP a boost in two states Donald Trump looks to flip for the Republicans in November.

Kathleen Parker: Trump’s born-again campaign

If you turned on cable TV news Monday, chances are good that you caught Corey Lewandowski fibbing that he doesn't have a clue why Donald Trump fired him as his campaign manager. In a series of interviews on several shows, Lewandowski dodged every question, including from CNN's Dana Bash on whether Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband had anything to do with his dismissal.

N.J. Politics Roundup: Christie’s school funding plan; Clinton warns about Trump on economy

Gov. Chris Christie proposes his "fairness formula" at Hillsborough High School in Hillsborough N.J. The proposal would disperse state aid equally across all the school districts and potentially reduce property taxes in some areas. 6/21/16 fumed after Senate Republicans blocked action on legislation to ban those on the terrorist watch list from buying weapons.

Portman, Strickland Tied in Ohio; Toomey Up in Pa.: Quinnipiac

Republican Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic rival and former Gov. Ted Strickland each get 42% support for Ohio Senate race, according to Quinnipiac University poll. In Fla., Republican Sen. Marco Rubio leads Democratic opponent Rep. Patrick Murphy 47%-40%; Rubio tops Rep. Alan Grayson 48%-40% NOTE: Rubio needs to decide by Friday whether he will seek re-election; he is re-evaluating his earlier decision not to seek a second term NOTE: Margin of error in Fla.

Dems stage election-year sit-in on guns, GOP unmoved

In this frame grab taken from AP video Georgia Rep. John Lewis leads more than 200 Democrats in demanding a vote on measures to expand background checks and block gun purchases by some suspected terrorists in the aftermath of last week's massacre in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people in a gay nightclub. Rebellious Democrats shut down the House's legislative work on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, staging a sit-in on the House floor and refusing to leave until they secured a vote on gun control measures before lawmakers' weeklong break.

Rep. Chaka Fattah convicted in corruption case

The 59-year-old Democrat, who represents West Philadelphia, was found guilty on all 23 charges he faced, which included racketeering, money laundering and fraud. The charges stemmed from schemes to repay an illegal $1 million loan to Fattah's failed 2007 Philadelphia mayoral campaign, with the Justice Department arguing that Fattah used federal grants and nonprofit funds, routed through campaign consultants to repay the loan.

Mitch McConnell wants to protect your Second Amendment rights, to hell with the Fourth

Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, which is frightening.We must make sure his hateful rhetoric does not even... Sign if you agree: Presidents do not stop working in the final year of their term. Neither should the Senate.

Obama chooses PNNL to lead Northwest manufacturing center

The national lab will focus on some of the most energy intensive industries in the region - food processing, advanced materials and forest products. Advances in smart sensors, digital process controls and information technology could radically reduce energy use in manufacturing and improve productivity.

Trump’s meager fundraising imperils presidential bid

Just weeks after going back on his pledge to self-fund his presidential campaign, Donald Trump on Tuesday came under attack from fellow Republicans stunned to learn that he entered the final month of the primary season with barely enough cash to run for a California House seat let alone the White House.

Dana Milbank: Congress on guns: doing nothing faster than ever

On May 24, the House Appropriations Committee took up a proposal "to deny transfers of firearms to persons known or suspected to be engaged in conduct related to terrorism." In a party-line vote, Republicans defeated the plan 29 to 17. Nineteen days later, a man whom the FBI had investigated as a possible terrorist went into an Orlando nightclub and, claiming solidarity with the Islamic State, shot 49 people to death with weapons he bought legally.

Special session talks go south

Gov. Mark Dayton and the leaders of the Republican caucuses in the Minnesota Legislature uttered plenty of discouraging words Tuesday after another meeting meant to plot a course toward a special session. Dayton emerged from the closed-door gathering of legislative leaders at his temporary offices in the Veterans Service Building in St. Paul saying he felt "much more discouraged" than when he went into the meeting less than an hour before.

‘Economikes’: the gatekeepers of Clinton’s economic policy

Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during the Democratic U.S. presidential candidates' debate in Flint, Michigan, March 6, 2016. International Monetary Fund's Economic Counsellor and Director of the Research Department Simon Johnson and Deputy Director Charles Collyns hold a press briefing on the release of the IMF's World Economic Outlook at the IMF Headquarters in Washington July 17, 2008.