Orlando

President Barack Obama ’s pledge Friday to send “whatever” federal help Dallas officials might need after an attack that left five police officers dead could send a wave of agents and experts to Texas, but it doesn’t guarantee that local officials will get everything they ask for.  

Obama, speaking from Poland where he is attending a NATO summit , said he spoke with Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings to “convey the deepest condolences of the American people.” The president said he also conveyed that “the federal government will provide whatever assistance Dallas may need as it deals with this tremendous tragedy.”  

To honor the Orlando nightclub shooting victims, LGBT activists created a nightclub of their own outside the Capitol on Thursday.  

The newly formed group, Werk For Peace, organized the flash mob-style group dance for its first event.  

This is the week when the American people decide if the extraordinary House sit-in is remembered as the sound of gridlock breaking, or the latest evidence of gridlock calcifying.  

Energized advocates for gun control predict it will prove to be the former. Experience says it will be the latter.  

As many as 80 House Democrats staged a sit-in on the chamber floor Wednesday, demanding Republican leaders allow votes on legislation to combat gun violence before heading home for district work.  

The Democrats' move triggered Republicans to call the chamber into recess, but the protest continued into the late afternoon.  

Sen. Rand Paul thinks the current debate over blocking terror suspects from buying guns is missing the mark, since the man behind the mass shooting in Orlando wasn't even on the federal watch list.  

"I do think that there's one answer here that if we put it up, everybody could vote for it. That's the idea that if you have been investigated by the FBI, that your file remains open for five years," the Kentucky Republican said in an interview. "And that you would remain on the terror watch list."  

Hours after Senate Republicans defeated four gun measures, the White House hit back hard by accusing them of “cowardice” and being “scared” of the National Rifle Association.  

The four measures, two Republican-crafted and two Democrat-written, would have tied gun purchases to various federal terrorism watchlists , increased funding, and closed the so-called “guns show loophole.” None received the requisite 60 votes needed to end debate.  

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney met his husband at a New York club known for its gay dance nights.   

It was the early 1990s. The New York Democrat was still in the closet at the time. The club was a place where he could be himself.  

Sen. Christopher S. Murphy stepped off the Senate floor early Thursday morning after talking about gun violence for almost 15 hours. But he's not finished.  

The Connecticut Democrat said he wants to build an "outside political movement" to work for legislation that will keep weapons from falling into the wrong hands. And he pledged to use any increased fundraising and organizing clout he may have gained from this week's filibuster to help elect candidates who think like him.