WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration and Senate Republicans intensified their push Wednesday to allow oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a measure that has for years been thwarted by fierce opposition, reported the Washington Post.

As oil and gasoline prices neared record highs, Republican lawmakers said opening the refuge would help hold down costs and reduce U.S. reliance on imported oil, said the report. In the Senate, Republicans announced a budget plan that calls for drilling in the refuge. They said chances of approval have improved as a result of the November elections, which added several members to their ranks.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Iowa House on Wednesday passed unanimously, with no debate, a bill that would require Iowans to go to pharmacies to buy cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in the making of methamphetamine, said the Des Moines Register. But the measure is still far from becoming law, the newspaper added.

Legislators said they will have to reconcile significant differences between the House measure and a Senate version that passed last month. The Senate bill would allow stores to sell limited quantities of low-dose products containing pseudoephedrine.