Conressional earmarking is a $30 billion a year business and while lawmakers claim the spending goes to benefit their districts, it also has a funny way of benefitting major campaign donors. The Christian Science Monitor looks at the growing controversy around it.

 

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has come to the unlikely defense of embattled Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) in the debate over the search of Jefferson's office by FBI agents. Could it be that Hastert is worried he might be the subject of an investigation of his own?