AP - Minorities make up nearly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which minorities are expected to become the U.S. majority over the next 40 years.

CQPolitics.com - The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, facing a tough political environment and the prospect of defending dozens of competitive seats, will announce today the first round of candidates selected for the 'Red to Blue' program that targets GOP-held districts.

AP - Americans have come to detest Congress ever more deeply as it nears the end of a nasty fight over health care. But more than half still back President Barack Obama, a bright spot for a Democratic Party counting on its leader to help stave off expected losses in elections this fall.

AP - Legislation blending help for the jobless with popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals is slated to pass the Senate Wednesday over protests from conservatives who say it adds too much to the $12.5 trillion national debt.

AP - Governors and state education leaders are proposing a new set of standards to define what should be taught in the nation's public schools, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

AP - A soldier in the British army in Afghanistan has described how he saved the lives of two comrades by picking up a live Taliban grenade and throwing it back toward the enemy.

Politico - A crippling error for Northrop was its decision to bank too long and too heavily on Republicans.

Politico - GOP Sen. says Obama’s lack of direction on immigration reform is hampering efforts in Congress.

The Christian Science Monitor - The Obama administration has proposed using United Nations-guided principles to expand a type of zoning to coastal and even some inland waters.

AP - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was keeping up the pressure on Iran on Wednesday, consulting with the United States' closest and most influential ally in the Persian Gulf about how to respond to Iran's disputed nuclear program.

AP - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer is accusing 'some people' of seeking to politicize the situation surrounding former Rep. Eric Massa, who resigned amid accusations of sexual harassment.

Politico - In an Ideas piece, Innocent says there is a growing, if nascent, bipartisan consensus to end the war.

AFP - First Lady Michelle Obama bowed to tradition Tuesday and donated the dazzling ball gown she wore for her husband's presidential inauguration last January to the Smithsonian museum institution.

Politico - The DCCC plans to announce the first 13 House challengers and open-seat candidates to receive support through the committee's 'Red to Blue' program Wednesday, providing a guide to where the party senses it may have opportunities to play offense.

Politico - The legislation may fall short of resolving conflicts of interest.

AP - The first women to fly U.S. military planes will be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal on Capitol Hill.

AP - Up to half the food aid intended for the millions of hungry people in Somalia is being diverted to corrupt contractors, radical Islamic militants and local U.N. workers, according to a U.N. Security Council report.

AP - An international group of lawyers wants a U.N. human rights body to help an activist Chinese lawyer who has been missing for more than a year.

AP - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will raise concerns that the U.S. Air Force's $35 billion tanker contract is anticompetitive when he visits President Barack Obama later this month, a spokesman said Wednesday.

AP - President Barack Obama meets Wednesday with his Haitian counterpart, Rene Preval, who has come to Washington to thank Americans for the massive outpouring of earthquake aid and to outline what still is needed.

Politico - Former President Bill Clinton issued his latest endorsement of the 2010 cycle Tuesday, backing Maine State Senate President Libby Mitchell's bid for the Democratic nomination for governor. 'As President, I appointed her as the first woman chair of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, where she served with distinction for most of my administration and some of the next,' Clinton said of Mitchell in a fundraising email.

Politico - In an Ideas piece, Sloan says Massa’s response to charges has been nothing less than schizophrenic.

AP - Former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed announced Wednesday that he has decided not to run for Congress in Georgia.

AFP - The US House of Representatives was poised to vote Wednesday on a measure demanding President Barack Obama withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, in a key election-year test for his war strategy.

AP - Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom has signed a law making Holocaust denial punishable by three years in prison.

AP - A United Nations official says 90 Rwandan rebels have been killed in restive eastern Congo.

AFP - Barack Obama's top health official made a tough moral case to insurance giants Wednesday: put people and patriotism before profits and drop opposition to the president's overhaul plans.

AP - A long-overlooked group of women who flew aircraft during World War II were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday.

AP - First lady Michelle Obama is challenging software and video game designers to develop games and applications that get kids excited about living healthy.

Politico - She's challenging them to divert millions in anti-reform advertising dollars toward cutting premiums.

Politico - For-profit entities routinely collect millions in government dollars earmarked by lawmakers.

AP - Haitian President Rene Preval (reh-NAY' preh-VAHL') has visited the White House to thank President Obama and the American people for all the help his country received after January's massive earthquake.

AP - Anti-war lawmakers are getting a chance to make their case before facing almost certain defeat of a House resolution calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

AP - The top United Nations envoy in Iraq urged election officials Wednesday to release the results of this week's historic vote as quickly as possible, saying Iraqis 'have the right to know' the results as soon as possible.

AP - The committee that selects the Nobel Peace Prize winner will consider a record 237 nominations for the 2010 award, a Nobel official said Wednesday.

Reuters - A record 237 people and organizations have been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, with interest boosted by last year's award to President Barack Obama, organizers said on Wednesday.

Politico - Public Policy Polling is out with a rare bit of good polling news for Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, showing the congressman within striking distance of former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio in a general election match-up.

AP - The House passed legislation Wednesday that would ban misleading mailings designed to appear they're from the Census Bureau, following criticism that Republican groups were sending fundraising letters using the census name.

AP - Turkish officials on Wednesday lowered the death toll in this week's magnitude 6 earthquake from 51 to 41.

AP - A Spanish aid worker who spent 100 days as a hostage of al-Qaida's North African offshoot arrived home tired and grateful after being released Wednesday, and said she hopes two colleagues abducted with her in Mauritania will follow her soon.

AFP - President Barack Obama appears near a compromise to allow military tribunals to move forward for the alleged September 11 plotters in exchange for a deal to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center.

CQPolitics.com - Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer said Wednesday he and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham are 'getting real close' to a deal on a comprehensive immigration overhaul.

AP - President Barack Obama says Washington for too long has accepted billions of dollars in health care fraud and abuse as simply the cost of doing business. He says that must end.

Politico - Lawmakers warn Chief Morse that $5.5M error could cost him control of his own department's budget.

Politico - Senate Democrats seek to inject fresh momentum into efforts to overhaul the filibuster.

AP - The Federal Reserve, still dusting itself off from a fight that threatened to trim its powers, could emerge from a congressional overhaul of banking rules as the top cop over the nation's largest financial institutions.

AP - Virginia's General Assembly became the first in the nation Wednesday to approve legislation that bucks any attempt by President Barack Obama and Congress to implement a national health care overhaul in individual states.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — The Senate Wednesday passed a $137.9 billion package aimed at helping jobless people get more benefits and businesses to hire more workers, but only after controversy about the bill's cost and impact. The rare bipartisan vote was 62 to 36.

CQPolitics.com - Mark Critz -- the Democratic nominee to replace the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and a former Murtha staffer -- on Wednesday asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to release the transcripts of the interviews conducted with him when the office was investigating Murtha's earmarks.

Politico - But tensions remain, including finding a second GOP co-sponsor.

Politico - GOP Rep says Sestak claims of W.H. job offer may have crossed the line, if true.

AP - U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy is blasting the news media as 'despicable,' accusing it of ignoring the war in Afghanistan even as troops continue to die there.

AP - The New Jersey Supreme Court's disciplinary committee has publicly reprimanded a lower-court judge who belittled an immigrant defendant's poor English skills and compared another defendant to O.J Simpson.

AP - Silvio Berlusconi's allies pushed a controversial measure through parliament on Wednesday that shields the Italian premier from prosecution in two ongoing trials.

AP - Russian traffic police are under investigation for ordering civilian motorists to park their cars across a highway — and remain inside — to block a fleeing criminal suspect, prosecutors said Wednesday.

AFP - The House of Representatives on Wednesday roundly defeated a resolution demanding President Barack Obama withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan, in a key election-year test for his war strategy.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives rejected a resolution Wednesday that called on President Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by year's end.

CQPolitics.com - Georgia Democrats this week called for the House ethics committee to wrap up its investigation of Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) before he leaves Congress at the end of March.

Politico - Her office took no action after learning of concerns last year, sources say.

Politico - President wants Senate leader to strike narrow provisions from reform legislation.

Politico - St. Charles, MO – President Obama has met the enemy, and his name is Mitch.

Politico - The bill could significantly cut back FedEx's $2 billion in annual capital expenditures.

AP - E-mails turned over to the FBI and Senate ethics investigators provide new evidence about Sen. John Ensign's efforts to find lobbying work for the husband of his former mistress and could add to his legal problems, The New York Times reported.

AP - Honeycreeper birds, a fly and several ferns, trees and shrubs found only on a Hawaiian island were among 48 species added Wednesday to the endangered species list, boosting the number of such classifications by the Obama administration from two to 50.