US blames Russia in Ukraine gas dispute
WASHINGTON – The United States blamed Russia on Wednesday for the gas dispute with Ukraine that has led to a cutoff of supplies to Western Europe.

IRS agents soften heart for delinquent taxpayers
WASHINGTON – As the nation sinks deeper into recession, the IRS is offering to waive late penalties, negotiate new payment plans and postpone asset seizures for delinquent taxpayers who are financially strapped, but make a good-faith effort to settle their tax debts.

Hill aide: CBO to project $1.2T deficit in 2009
WASHINGTON – Congressional estimators are projecting an unparalleled budget deficit of $1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year.

FBI plans large hiring blitz of agents, experts
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Wanted by the FBI: agents, language specialists, computer experts, intelligence analysts and finance experts. The FBI said on Monday it had launched one of the largest hiring blitzes in its 100-year history involving 2,100 professional staff vacancies and 850 special agents aimed at filling its most critical vacancies.

Energy regulator resigns
WASHINGTON – Joseph Kelliher, the Republican chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, announced Wednesday that he will resign his position effective Jan. 20, coinciding with the end of the Bush administration.

Social Security unveils new online application
WASHINGTON – The Social Security Administration, envisaging the near-future prospect of 10,000 baby boomers applying for benefits every day, has put together a new online service that will allow people to get their benefits without ever traveling to a Social Security field office.

New Congress opens pledging to rescue economy
WASHINGTON – The Capitol rang loud with vows to fix the crisis-ridden economy Tuesday as Congress opened for business at the dawn of a new Democratic era. “We need action and we need action now,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Republicans agreed, and pledged cooperation in Congress as well as with President-elect Barack Obama — to a point.

TARP conditions bill under way in House: Hoyer
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Legislation is being prepared in the U.S. House of Representatives, and may come to the floor as soon as next week, to require more transparency and accountability from businesses getting taxpayer aid under the Treasury Department’s $700 billion financial bailout plan, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday.

House to vote Friday on two pay fairness bills
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote on Friday on two bills to combat workplace sex discrimination, including legislation named after an Alabama woman who lost a pay equity case at the U.S. Supreme Court because she waited too long to file a lawsuit, a senior lawmaker said on Wednesday.

House Committees Plan Stimulus Hearings
House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Wednesday there will be committee hearings on the proposed economic stimulus package, most likely next week, followed by markups of the massive legislation.

House requires info on presidential library donors
WASHINGTON – Future donations to presidential libraries would have to be publicly disclosed, the House decided Wednesday.

Republicans Maneuver for Position on Appropriations
A shuffling of ranking members on the House Appropriations Committee is under way today. Two senior Republicans said Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky was likely to get a waiver from the GOP steering committee, allowing him to remain as ranking member on the Homeland Security subcommittee.

John Warner passes torch to Mark Warner
WASHINGTON – Rivals-turned-friends John Warner and Mark Warner shared a walk up the Senate aisle Tuesday in a ceremony that marked generational and political change for Virginia.

Senate panel sets hearing on Obama HUD nominee
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sen. Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, on Tuesday scheduled a hearing for January 13 to consider President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Obama nominated Shaun Donovan, 42, presently New York housing commissioner, to head the national agency that enforces fair housing laws and manages affordable housing programs.

No serious objections expected to Hillary Clinton
WASHINGTON – Hillary Rodham Clinton has held lengthy private discussions with leaders of the Senate committee reviewing her nomination to be secretary of state and will face a public hearing Tuesday.

Detainees in Afghanistan seeking right for release
WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Wednesday questioned whether four men seeking to challenge their detention as terror suspects at a U.S. base in Afghanistan were likely to take to the battlefield if released.

Judge: Government hiding evidence in Gitmo case
WASHINGTON – A federal judge on Tuesday accused the Bush administration of hiding evidence in the case of a Yemen man who has been held as a terror suspect at Guantanamo Bay for six years.

Former Blackwater guards plead not guilty
WASHINGTON – Five former Blackwater Worldwide security guards pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal manslaughter and gun charges resulting from a 2007 shooting in a crowded Baghdad square that killed 17 Iraqi civilians and injured dozens of others.

Judge’s Order Could Keep Public From Hearing Details of 9/11 Trials
The military judge overseeing proceedings against five of the men accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks signed an order designed to protect classified information that is so broad it could prevent public scrutiny of the most important trial at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to lawyers and human rights groups. The protective order, which was signed on Dec. 18 by Judge Stephen R. Henley, an Army colonel, not only protects documents and information that have been classified by intelligence agencies, it also presumptively classifies any information “referring” to a host of agencies, including the CIA, the FBI and the State Department. The order also allows the court in certain circumstances to classify information already in the public domain and presumptively classifies “any statements made by the accused.”

High Court Urged To Hear Case Over Animal Cruelty Law
The U.S. solicitor general is urging the Supreme Court to review a 2008 federal appeals court decision that invalidated a federal law banning videos depicting animal cruelty. The New York Times reports that the Federal Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, was struck down in July by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as an unconstitutional violation of free speech. The law was enacted, in part, to outlaw the production of “crush videos,” which feature perverse acts of animal cruelty.

Colo. 1st state with 2 black legislative leaders
DENVER – Sharecropper’s grandson Terrance Carroll was chosen Wednesday as speaker of Colorado’s House of Representatives, making the state the first in the nation where blacks lead both chambers of its Legislature.