Houston, Texas - A former congressional staffer was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $800,000 in restitution, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for participating in a multi-year scheme to defraud charitable donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars and secretly to funnel the proceeds to pay for personal expenses and to illegally finance campaigns for federal office.

Miami, Florida - A federal court in Florida sentenced Eugene Marotta, 49, to 46 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for his role in a mail fraud scheme that victimized seniors and other vulnerable victims, the Department of Justice announced.  The court also ordered restitution to victims.  Marotta is due to surrender to authorities to begin his sentence on January 28, 2019.

Washington, DC - The former president of a Texas-based non-profit pleaded guilty last week for his role in a scheme to conceal the fact that a 2013 Congressional trip to Azerbaijan was funded by the Azerbaijan government.

Washington, DC - Remarks by President Trump at Congressional Ball:

Washington, DC - The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will fund a series of collaborations with medical research institutions in the southern United States to test new ways of implementing HIV treatment and prevention tools in counties with some of the highest rates of new HIV cases nationwide. The U.S. South overall has the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses, people living with HIV, and HIV-related deaths of any U.S. region.

Washington, DC - On December 17, 1903, two American brothers from Dayton, Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright, launched the first manned, powered flight on a windy beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  Their handcrafted biplane, though aloft a mere 12 seconds, ushered in the age of aviation and changed the course of history.  On Wright Brothers Day, we commemorate this monumental achievement and look ahead to new chapters of American aviation in which new scientists, inventors, dreamers, and entrepreneurs will change history, fulfilling the human spirit’s relentless quest for exploration and discovery.