By Mike Soraghan

Washington - Senate passage of a massive energy bill this week, two months after the House approved a much different version, has set the stage for an intense congressional debate on energy that could alter the West’s environmental landscape. >> MORE

By John Aloysius Farrell

Washington � President Bush faced one of the toughest tasks of his presidency Tuesday night, persuading wary Americans, in the face of only mixed results, to continue to pay a steep price in money and lives in Iraq. >> MORE

By Mike Soraghan

Washington - An evangelical Christian congressman said his faith was “attacked,” while a Methodist minister questioned why an Air Force Academy commander accused of pushing his faith on cadets would be promoted, as Congress continued to grapple Tuesday with the topic of religious tolerance at the school north of Colorado Springs. >> MORE

By Michael Riley

White House officials may have suppressed information about a spike in illegal immigration that followed President Bush’s announcement last year that he would push for a massive amnesty of undocumented workers, according to documents released Tuesday. >> MORE

President Bush today announced his plan to nominate Ronald M. Sega, of Colorado, to be under secretary of the Air Force. >> MORE

By John Aloysius Farrell

Washington - In approving a granite monument on the grounds of the Texas statehouse but rejecting near-identical displays inside two Kentucky courthouses, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld the wall that separates church and state but splintered on how American government can commemorate the Ten Commandments. >> MORE

By Joey Bunch

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Jessica Gonzales does not have the right to sue Castle Rock police for not enforcing a restraining order against her husband just hours before he killed her three daughters in 1999. >> MORE

Once again, you have been informed that the Constitution means nothing.

After last week’s Supreme Court decision, “eminent domain” can now simply be referred to as “government-sanctioned property theft.” >> MORE

Washington - I tried to pay a call on the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy last week.

The council posts its address on its website: 2100 M St. NW, No. 303. That’s also the address that CREA gave the IRS in its most recent filing.

“You want George Washington University?” asked Nita, the security guard in the lobby, when I got to 2100 M. “That’s all who is up there.” >> MORE

By Anne C. Mulkern

Washington - Lawmakers want a veterans cemetery in Colorado Springs but need to overcome a 3-mile obstacle to get one.

U.S. Sens. Wayne Allard, a Republican, and Ken Salazar, a Democrat, on Thursday asked the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Veterans’ Affairs to support a bill they’re co-sponsoring to place a national cemetery in Colorado Springs. Rep. Joel Hefley, a Colorado Springs Republican, has a similar bill in the House. >> MORE

By Anne C. Mulkern, Eric Gorski and Erin Emery

Washington - Air Force officials Wednesday guardedly reported finding “a perception of religious intolerance” in their probe of the Air Force Academy but denied any overt bias against cadets who are not evangelical Christians. >> MORE

By Mike Soraghan

Washington - Christian conservative activist Ralph Reed billed a casino-operating Indian tribe for a 1999 anti-lottery radio advertising campaign by Focus on the Family founder James Dobson (pictured here), documents show.

The documents were released Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on alleged wrongdoing by tribal-casino lobbyist Jack Abramoff. >> MORE

By Karen E. Crummy

Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette defended her turf Wednesday, telling her Republican colleague Tom Tancredo to quit using Denver as “a punching bag” and focus on the problems of his own constituents. >> MORE

By Mike Soraghan

Washington � Democratic attempts to condemn reports of religious intolerance at the Air Force Academy spilled into the national debate about the role of religion in government Monday when a conservative Republican congressman accused Democrats on the House floor of waging a “war on Christianity.� >> MORE

By Mike Soraghan and Anne C. Mulkern

Washington - When a Louisiana Indian tribe called on lobbyist Jack Abramoff to help stop a rival tribe from opening a competing casino operation, he used a Republican environmental organization with Colorado roots to get access to the woman who’d make the final decision: Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Abramoff and the organization, in turn, used the name of Focus on the Family leader James Dobson in their efforts to pressure Interior Department officials to rule in their favor, documents suggest. >> MORE