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The average US worker would pay $679 more in taxes this year under the fiscal cliff deal passed by the Senate early Tuesday morning, while the average member of the top 1 percent of earners would pay $73,633 more, according to Tax Policy Center analysis.

Take a look at a congressional district map, and it can look like a madman's jigsaw puzzle. The reason is, in part, that the district lines are drawn by state legislators seeking to maximize partisan advantage. It's a process that critics say is responsible for much that's wrong with Washington.

That's why some states have tried setting up independent commissions to draw the map.

It is endlessly suspicious when politicians control the process by which they and their allies are elected. Yet Arizona lawmakers had been battling their own citizens for precisely this power, in a lawsuit that culminated Monday in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding the right of voters — not legislators — to control how electoral districts are drawn.

In 2000, Arizonans voted to take

Sen. Marco Rubio issued an Easter morning statement saying he is ldquoencouragedrdquo by progress in talks on immigration reform but added ldquoReports that the bipartisan group of eight senators have agreed on a legislative proposal are premature.rdquo The headline of his statement timed for release just before the Sunday talk shows ldquoRubio...