Republican Joe Miller said he won't stand in the way of Sen. Lisa Murkowski being certified the winner of Alaska's U.S. Senate race, but he vowed to not end his legal fight over the state's handling of the vote count.

Miller's announcement late Sunday paves the way for Murkowski, the incumbent and a write-in candidate, to be officially named winner of the race.

He said he wants to ensure Alaska has full representation when senators are sworn in for the new term of Congress on Jan. 5.

U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline last month said the state courts were in a better position, at least initially, to decide who had won. He barred the state from certifying the results until the "serious" legal issues raised by Miller were addressed and said he'd remain available for Miller to argue any outstanding claims once the state courts had their say.

On Wednesday, the Alaska Supreme Court refused to overturn election results favoring Murkowski, saying it found "no remaining issues raised by Miller that prevent this election from being certified."

Earlier this month, Beistline said Alaska should have a senator in place when Congress' new term begins, even if that means later having to replace that person when all legal disputes are eventually resolved.

The population continues to shift from Democratic-leaning Rust Belt states to Republican-leaning Sun Belt states, a trend the Census Bureau will detail in its once-a-decade report to the president. Political clout shifts, too, because the nation must reapportion the 435 House districts to make them roughly equal in population, based on the latest census figures.

The biggest gainer will be Texas, a GOP-dominated state expected to gain up to four new House seats, for a total of 36. The chief losers — New York and Ohio, each projected by nongovernment analysts to lose two seats — were carried by Obama in 2008 and are typical of states in the Northeast and Midwest that are declining in political influence.

Democrats' problems don't end there.

November's elections put Republicans in control of dozens of state legislatures and governorships, just as states prepare to redraw their congressional and legislative district maps. It's often a brutally partisan process, and Republicans' control in those states will enable them to create new districts to their liking.

A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments on whether California's same-sex marriage ban is constitutional in a hearing to be televised nationally.

The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco will hear arguments Monday on Proposition 8. A trial court judge overturned the voter-approved ban as a violation of gay Californians' civil rights in August.

The panel will first consider if the group that put the measure on the ballot is eligible to appeal since its members aren't responsible for enforcing marriage laws. Outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to challenge the ruling.

The panel will then hear arguments on the proposition's constitutionality.

The Justice Department reviewed newly found e-mails sent by a Bush administration lawyer and stands by a conclusion that the attorney did not commit professional misconduct in authorizing CIA interrogators to use waterboarding and other harsh tactics, a department letter shows.

The review of the additional e-mails did not alter the earlier assessment that the lawyer, John Yoo, merely had exhibited poor judgment, according to the letter to the House and Senate judiciary committees. The letter was obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The content of the newly found e-mails was not described in the letter. Department officials, however, briefed congressional staffers on the matter last Friday after making the recovered e-mails available to the two congressional committees for review, the letter said.

The issue of Yoo and missing e-mails arose in one of the major lingering investigations into the counterterrorism policies of former President George W. Bush's administration.

Liberal Democrats had pressed for action against the former Justice Department lawyers who wrote the so-called torture memos — Yoo and Jay Bybee.

An initial examination by the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility found that Bybee, now a federal appellate judge, and Yoo, now a law professor, had committed professional misconduct. However, the Justice Department's top career lawyer reviewed the matter and disagreed.

President Barack Obama heads to California and Washington state this week to drum up support for endangered incumbents Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray in the last days of a campaign that finds his Democrats playing defense around the country.

Wins in those two Democratic-leaning states -- most polls show Boxer and Murray with slight leads -- likely would be enough to ensure Democrats retain narrow control of the Senate even if Republicans sweep the other competitive races.

"Right now, Democrats have their best chances on the West Coast. They are in relatively good shape out there compared with the rest of the country," said Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Minnesota.

Public discontent with Obama and the economy has sparked widespread predictions of a Democratic election defeat, with Republicans favored to gain more than the 39 seats they need to seize control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the 10 seats needed for a Senate majority.

It’s yet another of case of discrimination within the United States Capitol Police (USCP).  This time, the victim is a female Special Agent assigned to protect one the nation’s most powerful politicians. Special Agent Luanne Moran, who was assigned to the USCP’s Dignitary Protection Division (DPD) for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has filed a sex discrimination and retaliation complaint that is now pending in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Moran v. U.S. Capitol Police.  Special Agent Moran’s complaint is based on discrimination and retaliation that she has suffered since 2008 for opposing sexual harassment by a male Capitol Police supervisor, specifically sexist and degrading comments he made toward other female agents.  

Special Agent Moran has worked for USCP for 15 years without a single blemish on her record.  It wasn’t until she opposed the alleged sexual harassment that the USCP began to make retaliatory and inaccurate misconduct allegations against her, which were aimed at tarnishing her reputation and removing her from the Capitol Police force. Since she filed her complaint, she has been on paid administrative leave pending USCP’s decision whether to fire her. 

This isn’t the first time the USCP has been embroiled in this type of claim.  The agency has a long and infamous history of employment discrimination complaints that that date back decades.  The most notable case involved more than 200 African American members of Capitol Police who filed a class action suit in 2001 that accused the agency of widespread harassment, retaliation and even vandalism.

In fact, Special Agent Moran had to file a previous discrimination complaint in 2007, which sought her assignment to the Speaker’s Protection Detail, in an effort to break through the glass ceiling for female agents at USCP.  That complaint was settled in a satisfactory manner, but has contributed to the discrimination and retaliation she has faced at the USCP since then.  “This time, maybe Speaker Pelosi will step in and do the right thing to protect Luanne Moran, a dedicated female Agent who puts her life on the line to protect the Speaker every day she comes to work,” says Agent Moran’s attorney, John P. Mahoney, Esq., a Partner and the Head of the Labor & Employment Law Practice Area at the Law Firm of Tully Rinckey, PLLC in Washington, D.C.  

The United States District Court Complaint in Agent Moran’s current case is captioned as Moran v. Capitol Police Bd., Civil Action No. 09-1819 (RMC) (DDC 2010).

For more information about the case, or to speak with Special Agent Moran and/or her attorney, John P. Mahoney, please contact Ali Skinner at (202) 787-1900 or at askinner@1888law4life.com.