Federal Law

Mayor Vincent C. Gray is set to introduce legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain D.C. driver's licenses, following similar moves by Maryland and several other states. The legislation, according to a Facebook posting Tuesday night by the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Engagement, "would allow all eligible District residents the right to obtain a driver's license or DC identification card, regardless of citizenship or immigration status. " Gray, who is set to unveil the bill...

europe Euro-zone recession is longest in history The euro zone is now in its longest-ever recession — a stubborn slump that has surpassed even the calamity that hit the region in the financial crisis of 2008-9. The European Union statistics office said Wednesday that nine of the 17 EU countries that use the euro are in recession, with France a notable addition to the list. Overall, the euro zone's economy contracted for the sixth straight quarter, shrinking by 0.2 percent...

The company operating the District's fast-growing bicycle-sharing network may have underpaid some of its employees for more than two years, a former employee has alleged. Former employee Samuel Swen­son has told the U.S. Labor Department that he was paid $13 hourly for work that should have been subject to the federal "bicycle repairer" rate of $14.43 hourly or "truck driver, light" at $15.66 hourly. Before he left Capital Bikeshare , Swenson said, he received a raise to $15 hourly but was not paid fringe...

IOWA CITY, Iowa — More than a decade after a string of mailbox bombings injured people in Midwestern states, a judge will reconsider whether the former college student accused of carrying out the terrifying campaign is mentally competent to stand trial. U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett informed attorneys in March that he intends to order a competency hearing this year for Lucas Helder, 32, who has been committed to a federal institution for treatment since 2004, court records show.

District residents who plan to sell or rent their homes will now have to comply with tougher lead paint requirements that must be satisfied before the deal can go through. If the home in which you live or rent was built before 1978, chances are there is — or at one time was — lead paint. Exposure to lead — where the paint is peeling or chipping — is a serious health hazard, especially to young children who eat paint chips or chew on lead based window sills. In 1978, the federal government...

Justice Antonin Scalia needs to resign from the Supreme Court. He'd have a lot of things to do. He's a fine public speaker and teacher. He'd be a heck of a columnist and blogger. But he really seems to aspire to being a politician — and that's the problem. So often, Scalia has chosen to ignore the obligation of a Supreme Court justice to be, and appear to be, impartial. He's turned "judicial restraint" into an oxymoronic phrase. But what he did this week, when the court announced its decision on the Arizona immigration law ,...

Robert and Karen Capato's twins were born in 2003 — 18 months after Robert Capato's death. And in its first review of "posthumous conception," the ­Supreme Court on Monday struggled to align modern reproductive techniques to a federal law written in 1939. In the end, the justices generally sounded disinclined to award Social Security survivor benefits to the Capato children. Theirs is among about 100 cases brought by children of artificial insemination born after the death of a father that the Social...

Federal prosecutors announced terrorism charges against the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday, outlining a chilling plot in which the man and his brother allegedly used low-grade but deadly explosives timed to detonate a block apart. As he lay seriously injured in a Boston area hospital, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property, counts that could bring him the death penalty. He made his first...

1934 Spurred by the bloody "Tommy gun" era ushered in by Al Capone, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Bonnie and Clyde, seen at right, President Franklin D. Roosevelt mounts a "New Deal for Crime. " One part of it is the National Firearms Act of 1934, the first federal gun-control law, which levies a restrictive $200 tax on the manufacture or sale of machine guns and sawed-off shotguns. All sales were to be recorded in a national registry. 1938 Roosevelt...

On the eve of marijuana becoming legal in Washington state, the Justice Department warned that the possession, growing or use of the drug remains illegal under federal law. "Regardless of any changes in state law, including the change that will go into effect on Dec. 6 in Washington state, growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal law," said a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle on...

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday put aside its partisan differences to extend the federal government's main water resources law, which promotes investment in port improvements, flood protection, dam and levee projects and environmental restoration. The smooth passage of the Water Resources Development Act on a 83-14 vote was in sharp contrast to the last time Congress took up a WRDA bill in 2007, when President George W. Bush vetoed it and the Democratic-led Congress retaliated with the first veto...

RICHMOND, Va. — A federal appeals court heard arguments Wednesday in the case of a Virginia death row inmate convicted in the bludgeoning and stabbing deaths of a Richmond couple and their two young daughters. The hearing before a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals focused largely on whether an evidentiary hearing should have been held on disputed issues during Ricky Jovan Gray's state court appeals. A federal judge last year ruled that Gray failed...

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A bipartisan group of western lawmakers is pushing legislation in Washington to restore cuts of $110 million in federal mineral royalty payments to 35 states. Senators from New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah and Idaho signed onto legislation introduced Tuesday by Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican. Similar legislation was introduced in the House by Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. The bills would allow states to collect royalty payments directly from...

CONVERSE COUNTY, Wyo. — The Obama administration has never fined or prosecuted a wind farm for killing eagles and other protected bird species, shielding the industry from liability and helping keep the scope of the deaths secret, an Associated Press investigation has found. More than 573,000 birds are killed by the country's wind farms each year, including 83,000 hunting birds such as hawks, falcons and eagles, according to an estimate published in March in the...

Two hearing-impaired women have sued the District's public housing agency, claiming that it has "routinely" denied them and other deaf residents sign-language interpreters as required under federal law. Jacqueline Young and Latheda Wilson filed suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The D.C. Housing Authority , they say, has subjected them to "degrading treatment" by forcing them to communicate with agency representatives through "scribbled notes, attempts at lip reading, or...

The company operating the District's fast-growing bicycle-sharing network may have underpaid some of its employees for more than two years, a former employee has alleged. Former employee Samuel Swen­son has told the U.S. Labor Department that he was paid $13 hourly for work that should have been subject to the federal "bicycle repairer" rate of $14.43 hourly or "truck driver, light" at $15.66 hourly. Before he left Capital Bikeshare , Swenson said, he received a raise to $15 hourly but was not...

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) took a terrific, brave step in announcing his support for same-sex marriage, citing the example of his gay son. But here's the missing piece in the current gay-rights debate: When Portman's son graduates from Yale, no federal law will prevent an employer from denying him a job because of his sexual orientation. If Will Portman or a classmate came out of the closet after being hired, they could be fired for being gay. Really? you may ask. If so, you're not alone in your incredulity.

The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday called for the full chamber to reprimand Rep. Laura Richardson, accusing the California Democrat of breaking federal law, violating House rules and obstructing the committee's investigation. In an unusually harsh report , the panel found that Richardson flouted the law by "improperly using House resources for campaign, personal, and nonofficial purposes; by requiring or compelling her official staff to perform campaign work," and...

Federal prosecutors announced terrorism charges against the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday, outlining a chilling plot in which the man and his brother allegedly used low-grade but deadly explosives timed to detonate a block apart. As he lay seriously injured in a Boston area hospital, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property, counts that could bring him the death penalty. He made his first court appearance in...