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O'Malley using agenda, fundraising to explore 2016 Associated Press Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 12:30 am, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Little-known outside his home state, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has methodically checked the necessary boxes toward earning the reputation of good Democratic soldier as he considers whether to run for president in 2016 — a White House bid that would face long odds. A former head of the Democratic Governors Association, O'Malley is one of the party's top fundraisers and made clear his national aspirations when he worked to raise more than $1 million for Obama's re-election campaign, the most of any sitting Democratic office-holder. Aides say O'Malley, now the DGA's finance chairman, will spend more time in places with active governors' races in 2014 — states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida — giving him a way to court the party's elite without the media glare of early primary states. Through it all, O'Malley will be overseeing implementation of his latest liberal legislative victories, new laws that would put him in lockstep with many party activists who play pivotal roles in primaries and caucuses. In November and on O'Malley's watch, voters approved the state's same-sex marriage law and a state version of the Dream Act, which allows immigrants living in the country illegally to pay in-state tuition at public colleges and universities. Throughout his tenure, Republicans have tried to tag him as someone who places his national ambitions ahead of the state and point to tax increases — he has raised taxes on the wealthy and boosted the state's gasoline tax to pay for transportation projects — as a sign of what could come. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a Democrat, sees a bright side for O'Malley, saying he has positioned himself to run well in the presidential primaries by promoting an agenda that sits well with the party's base.

Committee nears final big immigration decisions Associated Press Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 12:06 am, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee hopes to nail down an elusive compromise on high-tech visas and may punt a controversy over gay marriage to the full Senate as it makes final drafting decisions on immigration legislation that grants a shot at citizenship to millions living in the country illegally. The high-tech issue involves a negotiation at arm's length between industry, which relies on ever-increasing numbers of skilled foreigners, and organized labor, which represents American workers, according to lawmakers and officials close to the talks. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has introduced a proposal to give equal treatment under the bill to same-sex couples, a provision gay rights groups seek. A vote to add the gay rights provision could lead to approval on a party-line vote in committee, but lead to the collapse of Republican support on the Senate floor and the bill's demise. At its core, the legislation would provide an opportunity of U.S. citizenship to millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, create a new visa program for low-skilled workers and permit a sizeable increase in the number of high-tech visas, at the same time it mandates new measures to crack down on future unlawful immigration.

It was a rare moment in relations between the media and the government: In 2008, FBI Director Robert Mueller called the top editors at The New York Times and The Washington Post to apologize because the bureau had improperly obtained reporters' telephone records four years earlier.

His latest legislative achievements put him in the vanguard of his party's liberal base. He's been a top fundraiser for President Barack Obama. And he's ramping up his travel to help fellow Democrats around the country.

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