You know how your kids tell you, “Mom/Dad I want to” do this or that? Then you say “OK” without looking up from your magazine or turning away from your television program?

WASHINGTON — Unflinching on a critical first test, Senate Democrats closed ranks Thursday behind $460 billion in politically risky Medicare cuts at the heart of health care legislation, thwarting a Republican attempt to doom President Barack Obama's sweeping overhaul.

WASHINGTON -- Casting its first votes on revamping the nation's health care system, the Senate rejected a Republican bid Thursday to stave off Medicare cuts and approved safeguards for coverage of mammograms and other preventive tests for women. The first round of votes ended with a fragile Democratic coalition hanging together.

WASHINGTON — Side by side, leading Democratic and Republican senators pledged Monday to propel far-reaching immigration legislation through the Senate by summer providing a possible path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people now in the U.S. illegally.

Forget, for a moment, the 4-1 start to the 2007 season.

2008 All East Valley Region Baseball

WASHINGTON — Is the tea party the new Republican Party?

WASHINGTON — A Republican civil war is raging, with righter-than-thou conservatives dominating ever more primaries in a fight for the party's soul. And the Democrats hope to benefit.