With only hours before its expiration, the House voted last night 250-153 to extend the Patriot Act, which President Obama then signed via autopen minutes before the deadline. more ›

The prosecution has rested their case in the federal corruption trial of Rod Blagojevich, and their presentation of the long-awaited wiretap audio has ended. We laughed, we cried, and we heard a lot of bleeped-out cussing on radio and on television. And since it takes a lot of time to poke through the Justice Department's excellent site and track down the appropriate audio, we thought we'd continue to show you the tapes the way you can't get them on broadcast media. You can find the first offering of uncut, purely profane audio here, and now we've worked our wizardry on a few more clips. more ›

First it was President Obama. Then it was U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. Now Team Blago has subpoenaed U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid's attorney acknowledges the senator received the subpoena but said, "This action does not mean that Senator Reid will testify at trial." more ›

With U.S. Senators getting down to the nitty-gritty of the health care bill in front of them, we knew compromises were going to be in order to get the bill hammered out to a passable form. Sure enough, two major steps were taken yesterday that might help the bill pass down the road. The more important of the two was an agreement relating to the public option - the government-run health plan proposed as part of the bill - though specifics about the bill were hard to come by as Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wasn't exactly forthcoming about details. (The initial mystery surrounding the agreement even prompted our own Sen. Dick Durbin to tell the New York Times late yesterday, “I have no idea," when asked if an agreement had been reached.) While the new deal doesn't take the public option completely off the table, it does make it a last resort of sorts. As for the details that are known, the L.A. Times reports: more ›

Last October, we took a look at the possibility of Chicago becoming the center of a nine-state high-speed Amtrak network. With the passage of President Obama's stimulus package, though, this could be much closer to reality. Among the bill's provisions is $8 billion for high-speed transit lines, now seemingly up for grabs. It hasn't yet been decided how much money will be spent and where, but there's already controversy over which proposed line will get the money and even over one of the lines itself, one GOP'ers have taken to calling "The Sin Express," which would connect San Diego to Anaheim and then Las Vegas. more ›

And here we thought the Saga of The Lord's Senator™ was all played out. But yesterday came the revelation that then-Governor Rod Blagojevich's brother had asked Roland Burris for a campaign contribution. The incident occurred prior to Blagojevich's appointment of Burris to replace Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate, but Burris failed to mention the incident while testifying under oath to the state house committee investigating Blagojevich for impeachment. And now that Burris has changed his story (again), he finds himself facing calls for a perjury investigation against him. more ›

U.S. Senate lawyers relented this afternoon and declared that Roland Burris's credentials met the chamber's rules and could be seated as the junior senator from Illinois. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin issued a joint statement, saying: "Barring objections from Senate Republicans, we expect Senator-designee Burris to be sworn in and formally seated later this week...We have spoken to Mr. Burris to let him know that he is now the Senator-designate from Illinois and as such, will be accorded all the rights and privileges of a Senator-elect." more ›

Painting by our own talented Lauri Apple