In Or Out In Congress? Gyrocopters, Tweets To Iran, Downton Abbey

Netanyahu's address to a joint meeting of Congress caused weeks of controversy after Speaker John Boehner invited him, but didn't tell the White House. Though several Democrats protested the speech, Netanyahu spoke to a packed house.

The Capitol was on lockdown Wednesday as a postman flew a gyrocopter into the Capitol airspace and landed it on the South Lawn to protest money in politics. Douglas Hughes of Florida was taken into custody and charged with violating aircraft registration requirements and violating national defense airspace. He faces a preliminary hearing May 8.

On Thursday, the House approved a long-term resolution to set the way doctors who accept Medicare are paid. It had been a perennial issue. The New York Times calls it "the most significant bipartisan policy legislation to pass through that chamber since Republicans regained a majority in 2011."

The bill means the administration must formally submit to Congress the final Iran nuclear agreement. It's bipartisan, it passed, and the president has agreed to sign it.

Sen. Tom Cotton led 46 other senators in writing a letter to Iran's leaders explaining that they "may not fully understand our constitutional system." He said he didn't actually mail the letter, but he did tweet it to President Rouhani (@hassanrouhani).

Rep. Mia Love is part of the largest class of black Republicans in Congress since Reconstruction. Overall, 17 percent of the 114th Congress is nonwhite, the largest portion ever. Still, that's lower than the 37 percent of the nonwhite population overall in the country.

Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., John McCain, R-Ariz., Ben Cardin, D-Md., and others have called for the glorious return of regular order. Those are the rules and customs of Congress, according to Roll Call, that "constitute an orderly and deliberative policymaking process."

It's a procedural fast track that could allow Republicans to get sweeping legislation through the Senate with a simple majority, as NPR's Ailsa Chang reports. For actual, bipartisan reconciliation, "the restoration of friendly relations," see the Out list.

Rep. Aaron Schock resigned after reports of lavish spending, including $40,000 to decorate his Capitol Hill office like the PBS show. Probably not out: TMI Instagram feeds and fudged mileage reports.

The dreams of restoring regular order were grand, but in the words of George Washington University's Sarah Binder, "It's kind of hard to get back to a Senate where the Senate works in that type of a fluid, collegial place. Because that's just not the world — partisan or ideological — that we live in."

Resistance bands won't be overtaking P90X as the congressional exercise of choice, after one broke and seriously injured Sen. Harry Reid.

He's technically still in, but Menendez is out as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee after he was indicted on federal corruption charges. A majority of New Jersey voters say he should resign, but he is professing his innocence and vowing to fight.

Can't we all just get along? In the first 100 days, the Senate has seen the lowest level of Democratic cosponsorship in 20 years, a New York Times review found. Bill cosponsorship in the House has also dropped compared with previous years.