Six people were arrested in the Senate’s Hart office building on Tuesday, after protesters affiliated with the “Occupy D.C.” movement began chanting loudly and unfurling banners calling for the end of overseas wars and for increased taxes on the rich. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Capitol complex, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) softened his tone on the protest movements in both Washington and New York. On Friday, he had referred to them as “growing mobs.” But he steered away from that description Tuesday. Read full article > >

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Six protesters affiliated with the ‘Occupy D.C.’ movement arrested in a Capitol Hill building

On Capitol Hill, they are the apocalypse caucus. Twenty lawmakers, from both parties, who calculate that the best way to fix government is to act as if you wouldn’t mind if it burned down. In April, the House needed to pass two budgets to prevent a government shutdown. They voted no and no. In August, the House needed to pass a debt-ceiling agreement to prevent a national default. No again. Read full article > >

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Apocalypse on Capitol Hill: Lawmakers who love to vote no

The satirical media organization falsely reported that there was a hostage situation inside the Capitol building.

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Media Decoder: Capitol Police Investigate The Onion’s Twitter Posts

On Capitol Hill, Thursday was a rare day in which the House could do something important by doing absolutely nothing at all. The task: stave off a government shutdown by passing a budget extension that would get the federal government through the weekend. It wouldn’t require a vote. It wouldn’t even take the whole 435-member House. Read full article > >

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House passes budget extension to avert government shutdown — by doing nothing

Complaints of harassment and hostile work environments are on the rise on Capitol Hill, where offices aren’t required to keep personnel records, provide mandatory anti-discrimination training or protect whistleblowers despite forcing other government agencies and private employers to do so, according to a new report. Read full article > >

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Harassment complaints on the rise on Capitol Hill

A D.C. Council effort to break up what some members call a near monopoly of the local gasoline market has stalled as a result of aggressive lobbying on behalf of Eyob “Joe” Mamo — whose company owns, operates or supplies 164 stations in the Washington area. As the primary owner in Capitol Petroleum Group, Mamo has built a regional powerhouse in the fuel market, netting $778 million in revenue last year. And in May, as area gas prices soared past $4 a gallon, council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) sponsored antitrust legislation to break Mamo’s grip in the District by banning wholesalers from also owning retail service stations. Read full article > >

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D.C. gas mogul Joe Mamo finds increasing support of business model from council

What began as an investigation into an early morning car fire in Prince George’s County has been handed over to D.C. police, who are investigating the case as a homicide that took place in the District. The body of 34-year-old Antwain Henderson, of Capitol Heights, was found in a burning car in the county’s Landover area shortly after 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 31. Read full article > >

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District police investigate Prince George’s car fire as homicide

In some ways, Shanksville still seems like a place where nothing ever really happens. Hidden among Pennsylvania’s coal mines and cornfields, the town includes one general store, one school and two churches. There is a rocking chair and an American flag on every porch — but there is no gas station and no bank. And yet this town played a starring and often inspiring role in the 9/11 attacks. On Sept. 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed at about 575 mph into a patch of grassland just two miles outside Shanksville. The other three planes hijacked by al-Qaeda that day hit their high-profile targets, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but the passengers and crew on Flight 93 revolted midair. A plane thought to have been heading for the White House or the Capitol instead crashed into a far more unlikely spot, catapulting Shanksville into history entirely by chance. The 40 passengers and crew members died, as did the four hijackers. Read full article > >

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Shanksville 10 years later: The same, but changed

The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that she would oppose any move by the Obama administration to draw down troops in Iraq to 3,000 by the end of the year. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) made the remarks to reporters at the Capitol hours after Fox News reported that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had already signed off on the number, according to “multiple sources familiar with the inner workings and decisions on U.S. troop movements.” Panetta maintained Tuesday that “no decision has been made” on the troop levels. Read full article > >

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Iraq drawdown to 3,000 troops would be ‘a mistake,’ Feinstein says

With a spring that brought news of international conflict, ongoing U.S. wars and the death of Osama bin Laden, the road to Memorial Day 2011 seems particularly hard-fought. The holiday meant for honoring fallen U.S. service members will be met with a parade and concert , at 8 p.m. Sunday and 2 p.m. Monday, respectively, on the Capitol’s West Lawn. (Watch for coverage and photos on PostLocal .) As tourists spill in and temperatures rise, other places in the District will be gearing up for celebrations to greet the unofficial start to summer. Read full article > >

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Memorial Day: Recipes, travel tips and things to do

(Cathleen Allison / AP)On a day when most on Capitol Hill were consumed with the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed, Congress had one of its more surreal moments Monday when Nevada Republican John Ensign delivered the final speech of his decade-long Senate career — to a nearly empty chamber.

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In farewell speech to Senate, resigning Ensign apologizes for ‘arrogance’

The news of Osama bin Laden’s death may have consumed Capitol Hill Monday, but it didn’t alter House Republicans’ plans to continue their months-long quest to defund President Obama’s health-care plan.

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Another week, another vote (or two) to defund health-reform bill

Only nine of the 200 statues in the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall represent women, a microcosm of a national imbalance — less than 8 percent of the 5,193 public outdoor individual statues in the United States are of women.

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Gender inequality, given form

Admit it, D.C. You really don’t want voting rights in Congress. And it must not be all that bad having social conservatives on Capitol Hill helping to manage your money — as well as your morals.

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Does D.C. really want voting rights? It’s hard to tell.

The story of Capitol Hill’s week on the brink — which brought Washington within an hour of a government shutdown — is a narrative of three men, each with a confining sense of his own limitations.

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Budget battle came down to 3 men and their weaknesses