A day before a Senate committee was to take up a bill, a 2009 dissertation by a Heritage Foundation analyst added fuel to the debate.    

The measure passed in a Legislature controlled by Democrats and buoyed by an influx of young Latino lawmakers.    

A Census Bureau survey also found that Hispanics and Asians continue to turn out at much lower rates than other groups, and that women turn out at higher rates than men.    

Senators have proposed an immigration bill that could give a legal second chance to tens of thousands of deportees.    

The Times’s Serge F. Kovaleski talks about the decisions made by bystanders like Angel Cordero to help the release of three women held against their will in Cleveland.    

Prudence in using your phone can help thwart thieves, and there are ways to protect your information in the event the phone is stolen.    

Data being released for the first time shows that hospitals charge Medicare vastly differing amounts for the same procedures, often far above what the program typically reimburses.    

Harold H. Koh, a former legal adviser to the State Department, said the lack of transparency was unnecessary and had backfired.    

A provision in a bill before the Senate could allow immigrants who have been expelled to return to the United States.    

Universities are working to diversify their student bodies in states like California, which has eliminated race-conscious admissions.    

Mark Sanford, as the newly elected congressman from South Carolina’s First District, has become a symbol of political rehabilitation few thought could happen.    

Three young women, who disappeared about a decade ago and who friends and relatives feared were gone forever, were found on Monday after a frantic 911 call made by one of the abductees.    

The Obama administration is on the verge of backing an F.B.I. plan for an overhaul of surveillance laws that would make it easier to wiretap people who communicate by Internet rather than phone.    

An endangered-species murder mystery.    

This year’s high school freshmen may be among the first students to sit for the digital version of the exam, if they take the test during the spring of their junior year.    

Four people will share the $1 million reward for the capture of Christopher Dorner, the former Los Angeles police officer became the subject of a manhunt across Southern California this year, the police said Tuesday.    

Universities in states that have banned affirmative action reach out to disadvantaged communities to identify promising teenagers and get more of them into college.    

States that have outlawed affirmative action in college admissions, like California, are giving potential applicants a leg up for overcoming disadvantages.    

Congressional Republicans say their hearing, featuring a witness from the State Department, will yield a damning indictment of the Obama administration’s response to the attacks in Libya.    

The former governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, whose political career seemed over after an extramarital affair, was elected to the same Congressional seat he previously held.