“Pennsylvania, United States” on The Daily Caller

Texas Democrat Rep. Rubén Hinojosa said Monday that he is open to joining Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Robert Brady in support of a bill to curb speech that could be perceived as “threatening” to public officials. (more)

While many Pennsylvanians celebrated the arrival of 2011 on New Year’s Eve, home builders in the state likely did not blow their bugles and pop their poppers with quite as much exuberance. That is because this year marks the beginning of a new government mandate in Pennsylvania requiring that all new one- and two-family homes have an automatic fire sprinkler system — a feature that costs thousands of dollars. (more)

1.) John Shadegg: House GOP is ‘on probation’ — After 16 years in the House, Rep. John Shadegg is retiring to Arizona. The Daily Caller’s Jon Ward caught up with the son of Barry Goldwater altar ego Stephen Shadegg on his way out the door. Ward asked him, for instance, what makes the Tea Party different from previous conservative waves, such as Newt Gingrich’s 1994 production, in which Shadegg had a walk-on part as a newly elected congressman. “When the Gingrich revolution happened, the Gingrich revolution collapsed,” Shadegg told Ward. “It had betrayed its supporters.” By “it” Shadegg means Republican detractors and other “old bulls” like Tom DeLay, who claimed in 2005 that the government could not cut its spending any further. Now the party is getting a second chance, Shadegg said. “What happens to this class? Does this class get turned by Washington? Does the class change or does this class actually change Washington? I personally think that’s the $64,000 question.” Or, you know, the $1.7 trillion question. (more)

What kind of a person allegedly urinates in a convenience store freezer, ruining $508 worth of cookies, bagels, and other baked goods? (more)

1.) Inouye and other Senate dinosaurs make one last mad hobble for cash register — “In the waning days of the lame duck congressional session, Democrats controlling the Senate — in collaboration with a handful of old school Republicans — are pushing to wrap $1.27 trillion worth of unfinished budget work into a single ‘omnibus’ appropriations bill,” reports the AP. Sen. Jim DeMint hates this bill so much that he has threatened to read all 1,900 pages aloud if his colleagues do not make it smaller. To that end, a small contingent of fiscal guerillas are hoping to address the federal budget in the new year, when reinforcements will have arrived from Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Utah, and Kentucky. Until then, it’s DeMint, McCain, and Coburn attempting to hold back a red sea of pork. Their efforts are not completely futile. After requesting an earmark for the Kentucky National Guard to eradicate the most valuable cash crop in the United States, Sen. Mitch McConnell suddenly realized that he is not supposed to be spending other people’s money willy-nilly anymore, and had the earmark removed. “This is exactly what the American people said Nov. 2 they didn’t want us to do,” a chastened McConnell said. (more)

These days, John Heisman isn’t remembered for much beyond his name on an iconic trophy – a trophy he didn’t approve of in the first place. (more)

LOS ANGELES ( KTLA) — Police are searching for a Pennsylvania couple after a man’s dismembered body was discovered inside a backpack in a hotel near downtown Los Angeles. (more)

With the 2010 midterm elections behind us, the focus has turned to the new class of Republican leaders that were swept into office. Several have already been labeled as future stars of the party. Among them are Senator-elect Marco Rubio of Florida, Congresswoman-elect Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Governor-elect Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Senator-elect Rob Portman of Ohio, and Governor-elect Brian Sandoval of Nevada. These names have been floated as potential presidential and vice presidential candidates in the coming years. Here is a look at several other newly elected officeholders who have the potential be stars for the GOP: (more)

Trent Lott, the former senate majority leader from Mississippi, made news last summer when he said this of incoming tea party-backed senators: “As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them.” Lott’s words have since been held up as evidence that the Republican establishment in Washington is corrupt and out of touch – as case made most recently by Sen. Jim DeMint, in a widely-read op-ed that ran in Wednesday’s Wall St. Journal. (more)

This election season, the conservative women’s group, The Kitchen Cabinet, has announced that it will have representatives in all fifty states monitoring the elections Tuesday to ensure a fair process. (more)

WASHINGTON — Alex lives in Washington but votes at a church in Virginia. Kathleen signed a lease here but casts her ballot in Pennsylvania. Nicolas moved to the nation’s capital a year ago, but his polling place is in Connecticut. (more)

Most attendees The Daily Caller interviewed at Comedy Central political pundits Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s rally to “Restore Sanity and/or Fear” didn’t know for whom they are voting on November 2. They did, however, know they’re voting Democrat, down the line, because, they said, Republicans don’t fit their mold of “moving forward” in the country. (more)