Senate

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** FILE ** French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira (right) attends the debate in the French Senate on the legalization of same-sex marriage and adoption for same-sex couples, in Paris on Thursday, April 4, 2013. (AP Photo/ Jacques Brinon)

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Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, who represents Newtown, Conn., right, and Senate President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, shake hands after the passage of a gun-control bill in the Senate chamber at the Capitol in Hartford, Conn., Wednesday, April 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

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A gun control bill proposed by Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley has cleared the Senate but is stuck in a House committee over the issue of assault weapons. Zero tolerance policies in some schools have gone overboard, according to critics. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Sen. Jason Rapert, Conway Republican, waits to be interviewed near the senate chamber at the Arkansas state Capitol in Little Rock on March 5, 2013. The Senate voted to override Gov. Mike Beebe's veto of Rapert's legislation that would ban most abortions from the 12th week of pregnancy onward. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio Republican, wraps up a news conference Feb. 26, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington, where he and GOP leaders challenged President Obama and the Senate to avoid the automatic spending cuts set to take effect four days later. (Associated Press)