From Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello comes news that last night's plot twist on House -- Kutner's (Kal Penn) seemingly unprovoked suicide -- was hardly the result of cast infighting or creative conflicts.

Rather, as the EW blogger unveiled during an interview published this morning, Kutner's death was purely... political?

"Yes. I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House," said Penn, still famous for his role in the "Harold and Kumar" films. "I got to know the President and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I'm going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison." [sic]

Specifically, Penn will reprise his role as an Obama spokesperson and coordinate the administration's outreach efforts with the "Asian-American and arts communities," the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Tuesday. He'll serve directly under Valerie Jarrett, chief of the Office of Public Liaison.

Penn, however, gave no indication of when he will officially assume his new position -- and, most important to the Hollywood types, whether it signifies an end to his acting career.

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats postponed on Wednesday a bill that would seat the District's first voting representative in Congress because of threats by chamber Republicans to attach to it a gun rights amendment.

According to The Hill, "Republicans want to add a provision to the voting rights bill that would wipe out most of the gun laws that remain in the District after the Supreme Court tossed out its handgun ban last year." House Democrats, by contrast, largely oppose the amendment, which the Senate permitted and passed earlier last week.

Although the majority party currently possesses the votes required to override the provision and approve the original bill, Democratic leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., hinted on Wednesday morning that such an outcome would not come without its consequences. Recent threats by the National Rifle Association to "score" -- or rank and note publicly -- the procedural votes of House lawmakers have forced some moderate- and conservative-leaning Democrats to support the amendment, contrary to the rest of the party's wishes. For that reason, House Democratic leaders have opted to postpone debate while they devise a way to satisfy the party's two equally important fractions.

For the second time in two years, lawmakers have introduced a controversial bill that would provide qualified protection to journalists facing federal subpoenas to disclose their sources.

The Free Flow of Information Act of 2009, revealed on Wednesday by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN), returns at the beckoning of journalists who have long criticized the federal government for the absence of any source protections. Under current law, reporters are at the mercy of federal grand juries and civil proceedings; when formally requested, they must share their evidence or risk being held in contempt of court. The proposed law, by contrast, would mimic similar state "shield laws" and create a federal "reporter's privilege, with exceptions for national security, terrorism, the prevention of bodily harm, and eyewitness testimony from a crime scene," according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

The new bill, however, is not without its vocal opposition.