Congress

Senator Susan Collins' staffers beat Senator Olympia Snowe's staffers in the Cherry Blossom 10-miler, which was held on April 6. Each team fielded five runners. Collins' office ran a combined time of 4 hours, 25 minutes and 19 seconds to finish 12 of 18 Senate teams.

The Politico has a new feature called The Huddle , which provides a nice preview of what's happening in Congress on any given day.

On Tuesday, Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. There's a lot of coverage in today's newspaper and in other papers from around the country.

Gen. David Patraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will testify before Congress on Tuesday. Their testimony comes amid bloody fighting in Sadr City and after last week's battle in the southern Iraqi city of Basara,

Every year, the Citizens Against Government Waste, a government watchdog group, compiles the Congressional Pig Book, a list of the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget.

The Senate will consider a housing relief bill this afternoon. Last month, Republicans managed to block a similar bill. But as the housing crisis and economy have worsened, Democrats believed they might be able to peel off a few more votes.

The Senate will try again to pass a housing stimulus bill this week, even enough Senate Republicans - more than 40 - blocked a previous attempt to move a housing bill several weeks ago.

Congress' two-week Easter recess ends on Monday and, like all recesses, this one passed too slowly for my editors and too quickly for me.

This morning we provided some context around Sen. Susan Collins' voting streak. Her opponent, Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, has a 98 percent voting record since arriving in Congress in 1997, according to his Congressional office.

Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., the former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, announced Thursday that he is retiring from office.