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Police departments must be involved in investigating sexual assaults on campuses to ensure colleges dont minimize the crime to protect their image, a U.S. senator said at a hearing today.

I am concerned that law enforcement is being marginalized when it comes to the crime of campus sexual assault, said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who leads a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.

A lack of law enforcement response sends the message that what happened to the victim didnt matter, he said. This message fits too neatly with the pressure school administrators may feel to downplay campus sexual violence.

Lawmakers at the federal and state level are seeking more prosecutions of sexual assaults and tougher penalties for educational institutions that fail to pursue cases. While many rape victims have been reluctant to report crimes to police, a wave of assaults has fueled calls to direct more complaints to the justice system.

The hearing took place weeks after the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville was tossed into turmoil by a now-discredited Rolling Stone magazine article about an alleged gang rape of a woman at a fraternity that wasnt reported to police.

The publication has since [bn:URL=http:\www.rollingstone.comculturenewsa-note-to-our-readers-20141205

k] backtracked [] from the Nov. 19 article, saying last week there were discrepancies in the supposed victims account. Local law enforcement is investigating the allegations.

Senator Claire McCaskill said at the hearing she is saddened and angry about the bad journalism in the Rolling Stone article.

The article was a setback for survivors in this country, said McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat. This is not a crime where you have rampant false reporting and embellishment.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, echoed McCaskills concerns.

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Campus Sexual Assault Response Criticized by U.S. Senators

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo

Texas Democrat Gene Green appears poised to take the top Democratic slot on the House Energy and Commerce panel that handles health legislation next year after current ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. takes the top Democrat spot on the full committee.

The move would put Green currently seventh in seniority among committee Democrats parrying Republican attacks against the 2010 health care law with many of the GOPs legislative and oversight efforts likely to surface in the Health Subcommittee.

Green said the role would not be a problem for him, noting hes long worked to expand access to care, as the law was designed to do. But he acknowledged that the role he's assuming could be more difficult for other Democrats, because the overhaul has become such a political issue.

He said hell be looking for opportunities in the new Congress to fix some of the laws flaws, noting that the House ended up having to accept the Senate's version of an overhaul bill without going to conference.

I wouldnt mind sitting down with Democrats or Republicans and saying, Okay, what can we do to make the act work better, Green said. Hes particularly concerned that states including his own have not opted to expand their Medicaid programs.

Born, raised and educated in Houston, Green served for roughly two decades in the Texas legislature before winning a seat in the House in 1992. He crosses party lines on some issues, supporting the Keystone XL pipeline, for example. But Green continues to back the health law. Hes also worked with Republicans on other health matters, including a provision designed to provide incentives for developing new antibiotics to treat drug-resistant infections that was included in a five-year reauthorization of the Food and Drug Administrations user fee programs.

Next in Line

New Jerseys Pallone won a tight race last month to succeed Henry A. Waxman of California as the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, opening up his current position as the top Democrat on the Health panel. Pennsylvania Republican Joe Pitts chairs the subcommittee and will continue in that role next Congress.

The Energy and Commerce panel handles the lion's share of health policy, sharing jurisdiction with the Ways and Means and Education and the Workforce committees.

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Texas Democrat Seeks Top House Health Committee Post

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Republican Joel Abelove won the Rensselaer County district attorney office in November, but spent less on his campaign than Democrat Carmelo Laquidara did.

According to the most recent election finance filings at the state Board of Elections, Laquidara's campaign spent at least $116,976 while the Friends of Joel Abelove shelled out around $84,000.

"I'm fiscally conservative," Abelove joked Monday. "We spent what we thought we had to and I guess we were right."

Abelove defeated Laquidara by 492 votes, winning 22,981 to 22,489. The results were finalized after the board spent three days counting absentee ballots.

Laquidara and his campaign manager, Cohoes Councilman Ralph Signoracci, spent more than $40,000 on campaign literature and postage and $38,000 on television advertisements. The Democrat also spent $9,000 for direct mail and consulting from Blue State Strategies in Albany. Signoracci was paid $11,622 for his work.

Abelove, who had no specific manager, spent at least $32,000 on television and radio spots, literature and postage, according to the filings. His campaign likely spent more than that as the last days of the campaign wound down but Abelove has yet to file an updated itemized list of expenditures.

Abelove and his family loaned his campaign $40,000.

Laquidara took out a $15,000 loan to help his campaign, according to the filings.

Republicans believed the backlash over Gov. Andrew Cuomo's SAFE Act boosted their appeal with voters, especially in rural areas.

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Democrat top spender in losing bid

Southern Democrats: They've had a good run, but now they're a dying breed.

Louisiana's Mary Landrieu lost her runoff election Saturday, meaning the U.S. Senate's last remaining Democrat in the Deep South is on the way out.

Last week, The Atlantic compared her to Martha, the last passenger pigeon.

And the term "mass extinction" seems pretty appropriate here.With Landrieu out, Louisiana will be without astatewide elected Democratic official for the first time since 1876. And from the Carolinas to Texas, Democrats control not a single governor's seat, legislature or U.S. Senate seat. Next year, Democrats will control only 39 of the South's 149 congressional seats. That's fewer than at any time since Reconstruction.

So, really, just the fact that "House of Cards"'central figure is a Southern Democrat might bethe least realistic thing about the show. Sorry, Frank.

"As we used to say in Gaffney, never slap a man when he's chewing tobacco."

Really, this is the result of a trend that started with the Great Depression. FDR'sNew Deal widened the Democratic Party and moved its economicpolicy to the left. But it also gave an opening to Republicans in the South.

During the civil rights movement of the '60s, many wealthy Southerners and social conservatives left the Democratic Party. White Southernersespecially left the party in droves during the rise of the religious right in the '70s and '80s.

Today in the South, you'll find very few white voters supporting Democrats. In Georgia, Senate candidate Michelle Nunn got less than 1 in 4 white votes. In Louisiana, Mary Landrieu got just 18 percent.

This video includes images from Getty Images, the U.S. Library of Congress and U.S. National Archives.

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The Southern Democrat is a thing of the past

What would you ask a Black Republican?

By: robert lalonde

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What would you ask a Black Republican? - Video