Reid holds onto Nevada Senate seat

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader who has stayed largely outside the U.S. budget fight this year, will be thrust into prominence just five days before the deadline for tax increases and spending cuts.

The Democratically-controlled U.S. Senate will not be a free-for-all of new gun regulations following the shooting at Sandy Hook, according to Majority Leader Harry Reid. Instead, Senators will focus on passing legislation that can move through the Republican-controlled House, Reid said.

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders rushed to assemble a last-ditch agreement to avoid middle-class tax increases and possibly delay steep spending cuts in an urgent attempt to find common ground after weeks of post-election gridlock. The focus turned to the Senate after President Barack Obama held an hour-long, high-stakes meeting with the leaders of Congress on Friday afternoon to try to avoid the automatic austerity measures that begin to take effect Jan. 1 that threaten to send the economy sputtering into another recession.

Whatever else Nevadans can say about their Senate race this year, they can't say they've been denied a clear choice. In the blue corner is Harry Reid, who took to the Senate floor last night to introduce yet another bill to extend unemployment benefits. One important thing to note: The measure varies unemployment insurance by state. The states with the highest levels of unemployment get up to 99 weeks of help.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday that he would support a new ban on assault weapons as an amendment to pending gun control legislation.  ""I will vote for Dianne Feinstein's assault weapons ban," Reid said in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor.

AP - President Barack Obama is wrapping up a two-day swing through Missouri and Ne