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Washington -- The latest skirmish over what Democrats call "the war against women" has broken out over a domestic violence law.

The Republican-led House will consider a bill Wednesday that would extend the Violence Against Women Act without expanding protections to undocumented immigrants and the gay and transgender community.

Democrats favor a bill that would pull those groups under the law's umbrella.

Washington -- Big money is already being spent in the race for retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman's seat, but this is just the beginning of the expected blowout.

Republicans need only four more seats to win the majority in the Senate; Democrats are at a disadvantage because 22 of their seats are up for re-election, compared with 10 Republican seats.

"Democrats have to hold Connecticut if they have any chance of retaining control of the Senate this year, so the stakes both locally and nationally are very high," Moscardelli said.

Washington -- With federal student loan interest rates set to double, the Senate failed Tuesday to move forward on a bill that would extend low 3.4 percent rates for another year.

The student loan bill failed to win 60 votes needed to break a Republican filibuster. The party line vote was 52-45, with Sens. Joe Lieberman and Richard Blumenthal voting "yes" to officially start debate on the bill.

Colt Defense LLC of West Hartford has lost an $84 million Army contract to a competitor and, like an increasing number of federal contractors, it's not taking rejection sitting down. The loss of a contract for at least 70,000 rifles prompted Colt to file a protest, a common response as federal dollars shrink.

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Washington -- Although lawmakers wanted information on what is wrong with New England's aging electric power grid, they heard from a Connecticut utility Thursday about what that utility is doing right.

John Bilda, general manager of Norwich Public Utilities, said that while the rest of New England was in the dark after Tropical Storm Irene and last fall's surprise snowstorm, his customers had electricity.

Yet, he said, the energy management system ISO-New England, is blocking the expansion of his utility.

Washington -- Sen. Joe Lieberman does not plan to go quietly into retirement.

He put himself at the center of two high-profile scandals this weekend by saying he would initiate investigations into the Government Services  Administration, whose employees had a expensive romp in Las Vegas, and the hiring of prostitutes by Secret Service agents and military officers in Colombia.

Washington -- Democratic state Rep William Tong may not be as well-known to Connecticut voters as his rivals in the U.S. Senate race are -- but he's a big name in the nation's Asian community.

According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, about one-third of the donations to Tong's campaign have come from Asian donors. Many, like Tong, are Chinese American, and most live out-of-state.

Washington -- The so-called Buffett Rule, President Obama's name for his plan to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, would have a greater impact in Connecticut than almost anywhere else.

Connecticut has more millionaires and billionaires per capita than all other states except New Jersey, Maryland and Hawaii, according to a 2009 study by Phoenix Marketing International.

But Connecticut's rich needn't worry, at least for now.

Under the current political map, a minority candidate needs to draw a majority of white votes to win. That would be tough, said William Dyson, the retired state lawmaker from New Haven.

"A candidate has to be liberal enough to win the central city, but that would lose votes in the surrounding (suburbs)," he said.