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Chanting antiwar slogans and holding up newspaper photos of dead soldiers, members of the activist group Code Pink protested outside the Capitol Hill office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, urging the San Francisco Democrat to oppose legislation that would provide an additional $124 billion to fund the Iraq war.

Legislation to give the District of Columbia a full vote in the U.S. House stalled Thursday when Republicans unexpectedly injected the volatile issue of gun control. Apparently fearful they might lose control of the proceedings, Democrats decided to put off action indefinitely on the voting rights measure, which had appeared to be moving toward passage. Republicans protested the delay and sought a quick vote on their attempt to repeal the capital city's ban on handguns.

When former Vice President Al Gore testified before Congress last week, his appearance was viewed as the triumph of environmentalists over doubters in the debate over global warming. Fresh from Hollywood, where his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" won an Oscar, Gore imbued Democrats now in power on Capitol Hill with a sense of mission, urging them to "rise to the occasion and present meaningful solutions to this crisis." Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.

The House approved a bill Thursday giving the District of Columbia its first voting U.S. representative, a step hailed as a moral victory and denounced as a constitutional travesty. Race and disenfranchisement permeated the unusually feisty debate, with lawmakers snapping at each other on the floor.

John and Ken, the Los Angeles-area radio talk-show hosts, were on the air. They discussed claims by the Homeland Security secretary that more guards had been stationed along the Mexico border. "Outright blatant lies!" John said. They trashed the Border Patrol chief. "A cardboard bureaucrat," he added. From the back of a crowded hotel conference room here, where the pair was broadcasting on KFI-AM, one listener couldn't contain himself. "You betcha!"

Two fires ravaged historic sites in the nation's capital, one gutting part of a 134-year-old market and the other destroying irreplaceable documents and art at the Georgetown public library branch. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin said the fires were unrelated. The first blaze tore through the Eastern Market, a Capitol Hill landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The city-owned building was empty at the time and there were no injuries, Rubin said.

A missing pair of pants has led to one big suit. A customer got so steamed when a dry cleaner lost his trousers that he sued for $65 million. Two years later, he is still pressing the suit. The case has demoralized the owners of the mom-and-pop business and brought demands that the customer -- an administrative law judge in Washington -- be disbarred and removed from office for pursuing a claim that critics call frivolous and abusive.

A woman accused of running a Washington-area prostitution ring detailed her business in a TV interview Friday night but identified no new high-profile clients. Deborah Jeane Palfrey supplied the ABC newsmagazine "20/20" with 46 pounds of phone records from her escort service, Pamela Martin & Associates, in hopes that its investigation would ferret out clients who would testify that they did not have sex with the women Palfrey employed.

Even though they returned last month with no immediate tangible rewards from their annual trip to Capitol Hill, Los Angeles County supervisors think the warm reception they got from a new congressional majority will pay future dividends. The five supervisors found a predominantly Democratic California delegation slowly beginning to flex new power. Similar to past efforts, the supervisors lobbied for more federal money for hospitals, emergency communications and jails.

For actor Joe Mantegna, co-hosting the annual National Memorial Day Concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol "has changed my perspective of this whole holiday." "It's a part of the process of what the day should be about, a coming together in remembrance and healing," said Mantegna, who has been involved with the concert since 2002. It airs on PBS at 8 p.m.