The Senate Judiciary Committee has before it a bill that proponents hope will not only increase protection of personal privacy, but will also bring some order and consistency to a conflicting patchwork of laws and judicial decisions about the government's reach into personal data stored in electronic records.

Stacie Marie Laughton's election on Nov. 6 drew national and even international headlines, as she became the first openly transgender person to be elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Then came the news, first reported by the Laconia Daily Sun over the past weekend, that Laughton is a convicted felon, having served time in the Belknap country House of Corrections. In the controversy that followed, the newly elected state representative announced on Tuesday she was resigning the seat. On Wednesday, she said she had reconsidered and would continue with plans to be part of the new House of Representatives in January.

There should be no talk of abortion — or as little as possible, anyway — in the "bigger tent" Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) recommends for the Republican Party. Republican candidates should "leave the issue alone," McCain said in his November 25 interview on Fox News Sunday.

In what might loosely be described as the "spirit of the season," the Congress of the United States will likely put together a huge grab bag "with a lot of stuff in it," including tax- and debt-ceiling increases, and drop it down the nation's chimney before adjourning for its Christmas recess, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) predicted Monday. 

Despite the report of record "Black Friday" and weekend sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, the White House Council of Economic Advisors warned Monday that the tax hikes due to take effect on January 1 could slow the holiday shopping spree unless Congress and the president agree on a way to avoid going over the much anticipated "fiscal cliff."

The average American is more likely to die in his bathtub than be killed by an Islamic terrorist. That is but one of many fascinating statistics presented by Charles Kenny (no relations to this writer) in his article on Businessweek.com,"Airport Security Is Making Americans Less Safe."

Today the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia to hear an appeal the lower court had previously rejected in a suit filed by Liberty University of Lynchburg, Virginia against the health insurance mandate on employers in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, commonly referred to as ObamaCare.

The United States may be looking to keep 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 timeline for withdrawal, as negotiations began in Kabul Thursday over the continued presence of American forces. 

In assessing the Republican meltdown of November 6, let us not blame the candidate at the top of the ticket. No, we mustn't blame the candidate, not when there are so many other explanations readily at hand.

Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory since 1898, voted in favor of statehood for the first time Tuesday, with 61 percent of the island's voters opting for inclusion as the 51st state in a non-binding referendum. Yet the same voters gave a narrow victory in the governor's race to Alejandro Garcia Padilla, whose Popular Democratic Party opposes statehood. Padilla appears to have edged out incumbent Luis Fortuno of the New Progressive Party by less than one percent of the vote.