Politics

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** FILE ** Actor Patrick Stewart receives a knighthood on Queen Elizabeth II's New Year honors list. Mr. Stewart is best known for his performances in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." (Associated Press)

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Disbarred Florida lawyer Scott Rothstein (left) and financier Allen Stanford have both pleaded not guilty to massive investment scams in 2009.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. Mary L. Landrieu's $300 million in dollars matched by the government for Medicaid services for Louisiana is one of the sweetheart deals in the health care bill.

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President Bush speaks to Vice President Dick Cheney by phone aboard Air Force One after departing Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska on Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo)

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Gerry Kraus, a registered nurse, joins hundreds of physicians in protesting plans for government reform of the health care system at a 2009 rally on Capitol Hill. (Allison Shelley/The Washington Times)

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** FILE ** Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, South Sudan's ambassador in Washington (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Lockheed Martin Corp. security personnel guard the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a workhorse aircraft for the Navy, Air Force and Marines, which received the funding President Obama requested, as well as $465 million for an alternate engine the Pentagon does not want. (Associated Press)

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Cross country skiers pass by the Cannon House Office building on Capitol Hill during a snow storm in Washington, DC, on December 19, 2009. Congress this month is beginning a 10-year, $752.7 million renovation project on the building that will include replacing all of the pipes and plumbing, some of which are more than 100 years old. (Katie Falkenberg / The Washington Times)

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The Washington Capitals shipped right wing Eric Fehr to the Winnipeg Jets for a 2012 fourth-round pick and prospect Danick Paquette. (Joseph Silverman / The Washington Times)

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**FILE** Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney (center), of New York, Dennis Moore, (left) of Kansas, and Steve Israel, of New York, speak during a March 17, 2009, news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington to discuss AIG. (Associated Press)

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, was forced to keep all 60 members of his caucus in Washington over a December 2009 weekend to overcome a Republican filibuster. (AP Photo)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS PUSHING PEACE: Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Democrat, joined peace activists in an antiwar rally near the White House.

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White House science adviser John Holdren. (Associated Press)

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A program to return the Mexican gray wolf, endangered in the U.S., back into the wild along the Arizona-New Mexico border has produced a decade of frustration and little resolution. (Associated Press)

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Lab technician Heather Bickley tests samples for H1N1 flu at the Arizona State Health Laboratory in Phoenix. With Arizona among at least 11 states where swine flu is already widespread, state health officials are working harder to detect cases of illness. (Associated Press)