WASHINGTON – A significant number of Latino voters could be convinced to vote for Republican candidates if the GOP changed its tack on immigration, according to an analysis of election results and polling data by a Seattle-based polling firm that extensively surveys Latino voters.

“Immigration is causing Republicans to leave votes on the table,” said Stanford University professor Gary Segura, one of the principals of the Latino Decisions polling firm, speaking with reporters by telephone Wednesday.

An estimated 31% of Latino registered voters would be more likely to vote for a Republican if the party took the lead on pushing for immigration reform, according to poll results.

That difference would be enough for a Republican presidential candidate to win 42% of the Latino vote and the presidency, Segura said.

“Republicans don’t need to win a majority of Latino votes to win; they just need to not get crushed,” he said.

Latino voters contributed the...

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is ending the ban on women serving in combat in the U.S. military, potentially opening up more than 200,000 positions on the front lines and possibly also jobs with elite commando units.

Pentagon officials said Wednesday that Panetta gave the armed services until 2016 to ask for special waivers if they believe any positions should remain closed to women.

The decision specifically overturns a 1994 rule that barred women from serving with smaller ground combat units.

Panetta’s decision was seen as a recognition of women’s contributions to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of the demand for troops, women often found themselves on the front lines serving as drivers, medics, mechanics and in other roles when commanders attached their units to combat battalions. They didn’t receive combat decorations or other special recognition, however.

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The move will also help women...

WASHINGTON — The White House will go ahead with nominating Marine Gen. John Allen to be top U.S. commander in Europe, following an investigation by the Pentagon inspector general that found his emails with a Florida woman were not improper.

White House spokesman Jay Carney called Wednesday for the Senate to approve Allen’s nomination “in a timely manner” now that the investigation is complete. Allen is currently top commander in Afghanistan.

Allen’s nomination to take over as supreme allied commander in Europe, the top officer at NATO, has been in limbo since Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the inquiry in November into Allen's e-mails with Jill Kelley, a socialite in Tampa, Fla.

The Pentagon announced Tuesday that the inspector general had exonerated Allen. The White House must formally resubmit the nomination before the Senate can hold a confirmation hearing, U.S. officials said.

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Maj. Dave Nevers, a spokesman for...

WASHINGTON -- A three-judge federal appellate court heard brief oral arguments Wednesday in what art experts say could be the last great Holocaust-era art restitution case, one with a California connection, but issued no ruling.

The unusual case was brought by heirs and relatives of a legendary Hungarian art collector in a dispute over possession of more than 40 artworks valued at $100 million -- including some paintings now hanging in Hungarian museums -- that were stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

The lead plaintiff is David de Csepel of Altadena, Calif., great-grandson of Jewish banker Baron Mór Lipót Herzog. His once vast collection included paintings, sculptures and other works by such artists as El Greco, van Dyck, Velázquez, Renoir and Monet.

Arguing that Hungarian courts acted unjustly by failing to return the paintings or pay restitution to Herzog’s relatives, the lawsuit seeks to use U.S. courts to press the claim against the government of Hungary, three of its...

WASHINGTON — Nearly 20.6 million people watched Monday’s presidential inaugural festivities on network television, a drop of 46% from the 2009 event, which drew nearly 37.8 million viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings.

The fall-off was consistent with audiences for other second inaugurations: in recent history, only President Nixon has enjoyed more television viewers for his second swearing-in than his first.

The viewership figure reflects the average number of people who tuned to live network coverage from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET to watch President Obama’s swearing-in ceremony and parade. Nielsen does not track online streaming, or most television viewers outside the home.

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Monday’s audience was larger than the one that tuned in for President George W. Bush’s second inauguration, which was watched by 15.5 million people. Bush’s first swearing-in drew 29 million viewers.

The largest television audience...

WASHINGTON – House Republicans approved a temporary suspension of the $16.4-trillion ceiling on the nation’s debt Wednesday, allowing the federal government to continue borrowing through spring while Washington shifts to more ambitious budget battles.

Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) convinced his rebellious majority to go along with the new strategy by promising them the opportunity in the months ahead to extract deep spending cuts to Medicare and other domestic programs.

The approach was a seismic political shift for Republicans who in the past had pressed for simultaneous cuts, which House Democrats dismissed as “irresponsible” and a “gimmick.”

The vote was 285-144, and despite the robust support it would not have passed without Democrats -- 33 Republicans opposed it.

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“We know with certainty that a debt crisis is coming to America,” said Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former vice...

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, facing tough questions from Senate Republicans on the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, insisted Wednesday that she has moved aggressively to address security weaknesses laid bare by the assault.

In long-awaited testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Clinton acknowledged her personal responsibility as head of the State Department, and stressed that she has begun implementing all 29 corrective steps recommended by an in-house investigative board.

“I take responsibility,” said Clinton, whose appearance before the committtee was delayed for a month by a stomach flu, a concussion and a brief hospitalization. “Nobody is more committed to getting this right.”

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At the same time, Clinton said she hadn’t seen specific requests for additional security personnel for the lightly protected diplomatic mission in Benghazi, saying...

WASHINGTON -- National Rifle Assn. Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre lobbed a scathing critique at President Obama's second inaugural address Tuesday night, warning that turning away from "absolutism" puts constitutional rights at risk.

LaPierre's speech, delivered at the Weatherby Foundation International Hunting and Conservation Awards in Reno, targeted one line in particular from Obama's Monday address: the president's declaration that "we cannot mistake absolutism for principle."

"Obama wants to turn the idea of absolutism into a dirty word -- just another word for extremism," LaPierre said.

He later added, "Mr. President, you might think calling us absolutists is a clever way of name-calling without using names. But if that is absolutist, then we are as absolutist as our Founding Fathers and the framers of our United States Constitution. And we are proud of it."

LaPierre reiterated what he and other NRA officials have said publicly in recent weeks: that major changes to gun...

WASHINGTON – House Republicans appear confident they have the votes to pass a short-term debt ceiling increase as they attempt to dispatch with this fiscal battle to focus on bigger ones ahead.

The bill, coming up for a vote Wednesday, would be an early test of Speaker John A. Boehner’s latest approach after the Ohio Republican has struggled to rally his restive majority to a unified position.

The legislation would suspend the $16.4 trillion debt limit to allow the nation to continue to borrow money to pay its bills for another three months and then increase the legal limit to that new debt level.

Republicans have at least temporarily abandoned their demand for matching dollar-per-dollar spending cuts that had been a key component of the so-called Boehner Principle in past debates.

Instead, the House GOP will require that the Senate pass a budget by spring – something Democrats who run the upper chamber have declined to tackle in past years, but now signal they want...

WASHINGTON -- After a messy fight that highlighted strains with the White House, the Democratic National Committee completed what should have been the routine election of a new slate of officers Tuesday.

As expected, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida was given another term as national party chairwoman. But below that level, chaos reigned for a time as DNC members balked at rubber-stamping a White House-approved list of replacements for several veterans of the pre-Obama era.

Among the incoming DNC leaders are vice chairwomen Maria Elena Durazo, a Los Angeles labor official, and Tulsi Gabbard, the newly elected congresswoman from Hawaii. Henry R. Muñoz III of San Antonio was named finance chairman, the first Latino in that post.

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But many on the DNC strongly resisted the forced removal of longtime activist Alice Travis Germond as DNC secretary. Highly popular with the membership, Germond, who calls the roll of the states at presidential...

Forty years after the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision struck down laws forbidding abortions, support for a legal right to end a pregnancy has grown, according to new polls released this week.

The shift has come largely from increased support for legal abortion among Latinos and blacks, according to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal survey. The survey for the first time found a majority of Americans supporting legal abortion in all or most cases.

The shift among African Americans and Latinos could indicate that both population groups, which have strongly supported the Democratic Party in recent years, have begun taking on the party’s views on social issues.

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The survey showed 31% of Americans saying abortion should always be legal and an additional 23% saying they should be “legal most of the time.” The combined 54% support for legal abortion in most cases has moved upward from 44% a decade ago and 49% five years...