HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Republicans scaled back plans for deep cuts in U.S. government spending as they took power in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, diluting a key promise that helped them to victory in November's election.

Former Shell Oil CEO John Hofmeister's prediction a fortnight ago that retail gasoline prices would hit $5 per gallon by 2015 has gone viral since then, drawing attention largely on the U.S. drilling policies but also spooking consumers and polarizing analysts in the process.

While Republicans, who will take control of the House of Representatives tomorrow, are promising to repeal healthcare reform and commence investigations into several facets of the federal government, Democrats, who are still in control of the Senate, have also been considering some significant moves aimed at curtailing the power of the filibuster.

John Boehner, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, gets sworn in tomorrow as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the most powerful positions in the world. He will have to show, almost at once, if he has the stuff for the job.

Top Senate Democrats have vowed to block a wholesale repeal of the health care reform law passed earlier this year, saying millions of U.S. senior citizens would face the prospect of paying more for prescription drugs if the repeal took place.

To the victor go the spoils. The GOP retook the House of Representatives in the November elections and, on Wednesday, they will officially take control, with each House member – all 242 Republicans and 193 Democrats -- taking the oath of office and Rep. John Boehner, R-OH, being sworn in as Speaker.

National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) expects India’s IT-BPO industry to reach $70 billion mark by the end of the current fiscal following rise in demand for software technology products.

Sponsors and supporters of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act were in Washington, D.C. today to urge the U.S. Senate to get past partisanship and pass the measure that will bring permanent healthcare and compensation to the approximately 20,000 Americans who are suffering from illnesses contracted while working at Ground Zero in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.

Chances that the federal government will remain open for the next several months improved today, as the Senate passed a Continuing Resolution to keep government programs funded, for the most part, at current levels until March 4, 2011.

Members of the U.S. Congress are convening on Monday in rare secret meeting closed to the public and media to deliberate on the START nuclear treaty presented to them by President Barack Obama.

The results of the 2010 U.S. Census will be made public tomorrow.

President Obama vowed that his administration will not give up on the DREAM Act, after the measure was blocked in the Senate Saturday.

Stocks finished narrowly mixed in a quiet session as traders await President Barack Obama signing the tax-cut extension bill into law.

The new Kobe Bryant controversy relating to his contract with Turkish Airlines is a bizarre, unexpected and fascinating juxtaposition of fame, media, wealth, sports, ancient history and multi-culturalism that could only happen in Hollywood.

Obama's tax cut plan is a done deal now. By cutting taxes and increasing spending, it is essentially a fiscal stimulus package for the next two years that will boost GDP growth, create jobs, and add to the budget deficit.

Congress passed a compromise deal late Thursday to keep alive Bush era tax cuts for all Americans and continue to provide unemployment benefits for millions of workers, with President Barack Obama set to sign the bill into law.

The House of Representatives has postponed deciding on an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.

The U.S. Senate passed the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 today by a vote of 81-19. It now goes to the House of representatives, which could take up the matter as early as today.

The Vietnam Veterans of America today filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New Haven, CT, claiming that the Department of Defense has failed to comply with the law by not releasing records on Personality Disorder discharges.

The court martial of Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, who disobeyed orders because he believes Barack Obama is not the legal President of the United States, begins today at Fort Meade in Maryland.

The U.S. Senate will vote today on a bill to extend both the Bush-era tax cuts and unemployment insurance.