Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first of many hearings on comprehensive immigration reform. In the seven and a half hour hearing, senators debated 32 of the three hundred proposed amendments to the bill, and adopted 21 of the changes. The proposals ranged from plans to correct technical immigration issues, to Sen. Ted Cruz's amendment to triple the number of border control agents, to Sen.

Yesterday, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives postponed all floor votes so they could hold their ninth hearing about Benghazi. Instead of working on any number of pressing issues effecting Americans, Republicans spent nine hours on a political witch hunt.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew appears to have the right ideas. But, it doesn't seem like any of our elected leaders are listening. On Monday, Secretary Lew sent letters to members of the House financial services committee, urging them to uphold provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that regulate derivatives.

Last year, five major U.S. Banks and 49 state attorneys general agreed on a $25 billion settlement to compensate victims of abusive bank practices and foreclosure fraud. But, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the banksters are violating the terms of that agreement.

Unregulated capitalism is cancer on our nation. Like tumors, greed has metastasized, strangling once-healthy parts of our economy, and our social safety net. A new piece on Alternet lists several ways this cancer capitalism has taken hold. For starters, the hoarding of wealth by the banksters and the 1% has diverted resources away from nutritional aid programs.

This may come as news to some Red state lawmakers, but there's more to the Constitution than the Second and the Tenth Amendments. The background check bill failed the Senate, but that didn't stop several Republican states from passing bills to exempt themselves from federal gun laws.

While many on the Right fear monger about so-called “radical Islam,” and it's threat to our nation, a new poll shows that Muslims aren't the ones we should worry about.

Most of us are still feeling the effects of a struggling economy, but the corporate elite and the Wall Street banksters are doing better than ever. Many corporations have seen record profits in recent years, which have fueled buying sprees on Wall Street, pushing the DOW Jones to it's all-time high.

Living as an undocumented immigrant in this country is a civil infraction, not a criminal act. But, some members of our House of Representatives are working to change that. According to the Think Progress Blog, the bipartisan immigration bill that is coming together in the House would force all undocumented immigrants to plead guilty for breaking the law, and serve at least five years of probation.

Sequester cuts are hitting vital programs like Meals on Wheels, Head Start, and cancer treatment centers. So, it's difficult to understand why Congress would be pushing to spend $436 million on tanks that the Army says it does not need.

The motivation behind the world-wide economic con of austerity has been discovered. And, the source is none other than Pete Peterson – the debt-obsessed billionaire who stands to make billions off the privatization of our social safety net. Just days ago we told you how a 28-year-old grad student debunked the Reinhart-Rogoff study used to push austerity throughout the world.

Republicans want to stop the Securities and Exchange Commission from adopting rule 4-637, which would require corporations to disclose their political contributions. A group of shareholder activists, pension fund representatives, and Democratic lawmakers are pushing the S.E.C. to require corporations to report their political spending to investors.

After years of complaining that Democrats haven't passed a budget, now Republicans are refusing to negotiate at all on the Senate's recently passed spending plan. Under regular order, the two chambers should come together to find a compromise between the Democratic budget in the Senate and the Republican austerity plan in the House.

The banksters are cashing in off their own disaster. The big banks are buying up distressed real estate by the boat load, and renting or selling it back to the public for huge profits. And, in addition to making it even more difficult for economically-strapped Americans to become home owners, the banksters are increasing the likelihood of another Wall Street-fueled bubble that could crash our economy.

After a day-long manhunt, and the lock-down of a major American city, the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing was finally taken into custody on Friday. A Watertown resident tipped police after noticing blood on a boat in his backyard, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding out inside. Authorities report that he was severely wounded before agreeing to surrender.