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Author: summer.ballentine@chron.com (Summer Ballentine)

House passes bill to increase visas for highly educated immigrants

A bill to increase the number of visas for highly educated immigrants and allow families to stay in the United State while their visas are processed was passed in the House today by a vote of 245-139.

The STEM Jobs Act, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would increase the number of visas available for students who graduated from American universities with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees by 55,000 a year.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, Republicans turn attention to immigration reform

Republicans are in damage-control mode after their rough election and they’re zeroing in on a new goal. It’s immigration, stupid.

Top GOP members are turning to immigration reform as the solution to an image of the party tainted by negative rhetoric toward Latinos that came up this election. Mitt Romney reopened fresh wounds when he said President Barack Obama was reelected because he bribed minority groups with “extraordinary gifts from the government.”

Romney and the Secret Service say goodbye

It’s been a long, trying campaign for Mitt Romney but even when he was under fire by Republicans, one group of guys and gals always had his back.

Since Feb. 1 the Secret Service has shadowed Romney during rallies, fundraisers and even breaks at the beach. They crammed in elevators with him and guarded his hotel door as he slept at night. Now, after nine months of faithful service, they said goodbye and left him on his own.

Romney team accidentally posts victory site

Romney’s eager-beaver team accidentally posted an updated victory site complete with a smiling headshot of the former governor yesterday. Oops.

The new site quickly was taken down but not before Political Wire’s Taegan Goddard snapped a slew more screenshots for posterity.

Check out photos of the transition site here.

Tea party bashes Romney, vows comeback

The tea party was in finger-pointing mode Wednesday, and the digits weren’t aimed at President Barack Obama.

Tea partiers placed the blame of the “epic election failure of 2012” squarely on Mitt Romney and the Republican establishment during a press conference at the National Press Club.

“What we got was a weak, moderate candidate hand-picked by the Beltway elites and country club establishment wing of the Republican Party,” Tea Party Patriots national coordinator Jenny Beth Martin said. “The presidential loss is unequivocally on them.”

From the polls to the president: which presidential polls were the most accurate

Even as votes started rolling in from the polls it was a tight presidential race to call. And with an election this close, major national polls varied by five percent or less.

Some were closer than others, though. Here’s a breakdown of which polls were dead on and which ones were duds.

Does it really pay to spend more?

Millions of dollars are poured into tight Congressional campaigns in the hopes that more money, and in turn more advertising, will help candidates win elections. Although a few financial underdogs managed a win this election, overall the big spenders remained on top.

Here’s a breakdown of the most expensive campaigns and the top Senate and House spenders who won, or didn’t.

Obama wins high school mock election that has picked almost every national winner

They go to prom, hitch rides from their parents and heck, most of them can’t even vote. But since 1988, high school students have accurately picked the president in every election but 2004. And this year, they picked President Barack Obama.