The president's proposed $1 trillion infrastructure investment could heat up the debate around the role of the federal government in local planning and policy.
In a little remarked upon sign of the times, U.S. government health surveys will start asking Americans to check a box about their sexual orientation in 2013.
Washington dumped torrents of stimulus dollars across the American landscape to keep the U.S. economy from dying on the vine, but most of the spending won't bear fruit until 2015.
In an end run around the "Citizens United" Supreme Court decision it disliked, the Obama administration is considering having all federal contractors disclose their political donations.
Earmarks are not a big deal, say political scientists. Most are perfectly justifiable, and they definitely aren't to blame for the "eruption of spending" from Washington.