Senate

Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov did not sleep on Thursday night. The Flyers offense did. Bryzgalov was brilliant, but the Flyers were virtually knocked out of the Eastern Conference playoff picture by a team that had lost five straight. Colin Greening scored on a breakaway power-play goal with 5 minutes, 36 seconds left, snapping a 1-1 tie and giving Ottawa a 3-1 win at the Wells Fargo Center. Greening took a pass from Patrick Wiercioch and scored on a high shot while Claude Giroux was serving a four-minute penalty for high-sticking Mika Zibanejad with 6:07 remaining in regulation.

WASHINGTON -- It was a procedural vote, part of the Senate's arcane process, but it brought tears to the eyes of family members of those killed in Newtown in December. The Senate voted Thursday morning to take the first step toward considering the background-check bill sponsored by Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican, and West Virginia's Joe Manchin, a Democrat. While the vote will only allow debate to move ahead, it opens the door to up-or-down votes on the background check bill as well contentious plans to ban assault weapons and high-capacity gun magazines.

A U.S. SENATOR from Connecticut has sent a letter to Rupert Murdoch asking that his Fox network not broadcast Saturday night's NASCAR Sprint Cup race sponsored by the National Rifle Association. Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy wrote to the News Corp. chief that the race is taking place during Senate consideration of legislation to reduce gun violence in the wake of the elementary school shootings last December in Newtown, Conn. Murphy said the race will give national attention "to an organization that has been the face of one side of this heated debate.

WASHINGTON - Congress' most serious gun-control effort in years cleared its first hurdle Thursday as the Senate pushed past conservatives' attempted blockade under the teary gaze of families of victims of December's Connecticut school shootings. The bipartisan 68-31 vote rebuffed an effort to keep debate from even starting, giving an early victory - and perhaps political momentum - to President Obama and his gun-control allies. Even so, few supporters of the legislation are confident of victory.

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan Senate group is likely to announce a proposal to overhaul the nation's immigration system in the next several days, and a committee hearing could be held on the legislation as early as next week, people familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday. Members of the group said they were close to completing an agreement on the comprehensive proposal that is expected to include a path to citizenship for 11 million immigrants and could serve as the template for a deal between Congress and the White House.

WASHINGTON - The Senate is poised to begin the most wide-ranging and ambitious battle over gun control on Capitol Hill in 20 years, with a vote scheduled Thursday that would formally start the debate. News of that vote was a boost for the Obama administration, which has lobbied hard for increased background checks on potential gun buyers, and new limits on assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition magazines. All will face heavy opposition from the National Rifle Association and its Capitol Hill allies in both parties.

NEW YORK - A Democratic state senator conspired with a New York City councilman to buy himself onto the Republican ballot for mayor this year with tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to two Republican leaders, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Malcolm Smith, 56, who has served at times as the state Senate's majority and minority leader since becoming a senator in March 2000, was arrested along with Republican New York City Councilman Dan Halloran, 42, and four other political figures. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara told a news conference that he believed public corruption in New York was "downright pervasive" and "a show-me-the-money culture seems to pervade every level of New York government.

WASHINGTON - President Obama pressed Congress on Thursday not to forget the heartbreak of the Newtown school massacre and "get squishy" on tightened gun laws, though some lawmakers in his own party remain a tough sell on an approaching Senate vote to expand purchasers' background checks. "Shame on us if we've forgotten," Obama said at the White House, standing amid 21 mothers and others who have lost loved ones to shootings. "I haven't forgotten those kids. " More than three months after 20 first graders and six staffers were killed in Newtown, Conn., Obama urged the nation to pressure lawmakers to back what he called the best chance in more than a decade to tame firearms violence.

CUE THE lightning bolts, let the high-octane music raise your heart rate and butter the popcorn, because we're about to speculate on a battle of epic proportions, a potential U.S. Senate race more explosive than Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, right here in the Garden State. In one corner, there's Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a social-media superman who might pay your monthly cable bill if you asked him to, that rare elected official who hasn't been burned by fame's fire yet. If you don't see Cory Booker on television right now, that's because he's probably standing behind you, smiling.