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Updated at 12:15 p.m. ET.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who has served in the Senate and in Congress longer than any other woman, says she will not seek a sixth term in 2016.

Mikulski, 78, announced her decision Monday in Baltimore.

" 'Do I spend my time raising money, or do I spend my time raising hell?' " she said she asked herself, according to The Associated Press.

Mikulski was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1976 and has served in the Senate since 1987. She was the first woman to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee. Known as the "Dean" of women in the Senate, Mikulski had a reputation for taking female senators under her wing.

The Baltimore native was a social worker before she was a politician.

The Washington Post, which broke the news of Mikulski's retirement, notes that she is "a forceful presence on many pieces of legislation, passionately liberal on certain issues but also committed to working closely with Republicans."

She's considered to be one of the more liberal members of Congress. She has been a fierce champion of environmental issues and equal pay for women.

In 2012, when NASA discovered an exploding star, they named it "Supernova Mikulski" in her honor.

Her retirement will spark a heated Democratic primary. Potential candidates to replace her include U.S. Reps. Chris Van Hollen and Donna Edwards, and former Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is said to be considering a White House bid in 2016.

Barbara Mikulski

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Maryland

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Here's a story about that blue dress. No – not that blue dress.

Artist Nelson Shanks, who has painted royalty, popes and world leaders, tells the Philadelphia Daily News that his portrait of President Clinton for the National Portrait Gallery has a not-so-obvious reference to the infamous blue dress worn by Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern with whom Clinton had an affair.

Here's the excerpt:

Q: Who did you find was the hardest to capture?

Clinton was hard. I'll tell you why. The reality is he's probably the most famous liar of all time. He and his administration did some very good things, of course, but I could never get this Monica thing completely out of my mind and it is subtly incorporated in the painting.

If you look at the left-hand side of it there's a mantle in the Oval Office and I put a shadow coming into the painting and it does two things. It actually literally represents a shadow from a blue dress that I had on a mannequin, that I had there while I was painting it, but not when he was there. It is also a bit of a metaphor in that it represents a shadow on the office he held, or on him.

And so the Clintons hate the portrait. They want it removed from the National Portrait Gallery. They're putting a lot of pressure on them. [Reached by phone Thursday, a spokeswoman from the National Portrait Gallery denied that.]

The portrait, which was unveiled in 2006, is also notable for not depicting Clinton's wedding ring.

blue dress

nelson shanks

Monica Lewinsky

President Clinton

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington, D.C., where he'll deliver a speech to Congress Tuesday — an event that's causing debate both in the U.S. and Israel. The leader's plans were made without consulting the White House; he will not meet with President Obama during the visit.

Netanyahu will appear Monday morning at the annual conference of AIPAC, a powerful pro-Israeli lobby, where he's expected to urge the U.S. to impose sanctions on Iran instead of making a deal over the country's nuclear ambitions.

"Normally the AIPAC conference is an opportunity for the White House to publicly support Israel and its leaders," NPR's Jackie Northam reports for Morning Edition. "But this year, it wasn't clear it was going to send anyone. It was only at the last minute, that it was announced two administration officials would attend."

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Those officials include National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who said last week that Netanyahu's speech is "destructive to the fabric of U.S.-Israeli ties."

The Israeli leader's U.S. visit comes as two important dates approach:

March 17 — Israel will hold parliament elections, in a tight campaign year.

March 31 — A deadline arrives in the U.S.-led negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

Netanyahu was invited to address Congress by House Speaker John Boehner, in a move that didn't include Democrats. The plan has also rankled the Obama administration because it breaks with a U.S. policy of not hosting foreign leaders who are about to face an election.

"The move has created bad blood between Netanyahu and Obama, and relations between the two countries have suffered," Jackie reports.

Here are some quotes that show where things stand:

— "According to the signs, in most of the U.S., there is support for Israel. So I can have differences with the U.S. president, that is legitimate, so what is not legitimate about us speaking our minds? Especially when the majority supports us," Netanyahu said Friday, according to Jerusalem Post.

— "We don't want to see this turned into some great political football," Secretary of State John Kerry said on ABC's Sunday program This Week.

— In Israel, a group called the Commanders for Israel's Security "warned that Netanyahu's upcoming speech to Congress is a clear and present danger to the strategic alliance between the U.S. and Israel, and actually helps Iran," reports Israel's Ynet News.

— "The more the White House criticizes Netanyahu, the more votes he gets from the right, and to a certain extent, from the center." Israeli professor Eytan Gilboa, quoted by Politico.

"More than two dozen Democratic members of Congress, in addition to GOP Rep. Walter Jones (N.C.), have publicly pledged to skip the speech," The Hill reports.

"Don't lose focus. The bad guy is Iran," Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told an AIPAC audience Sunday. "We can never allow Israel to become a political wedge issue."

Benjamin Netanyahu

House Speaker John Boehner

Congress

On-air challenge: Rearrange the letters in a four-letter word and a five-letter word to get a pair of synonyms. For example, given "time" and "night," you would say "item" and "thing."

Last week's challenge: The challenge came from listener Smatt Read of Somerville, Mass. Actor Tom Arnold goes by two first names — Tom and Arnold, both male, of course. And actress Grace Kelly went by two first names — Grace and Kelly, both female. Name a famous living actress who goes by three first names, all of them considered male. The lengths of the names are 5, 3 and 6 letters long, respectively.

Answer: Jamie Lee Curtis

Winner: Alan Winson of Oakland, Calif.

Next week's challenge: Name a city whose name ends in a long-A sound in which that sound is not spelled with an "A." Change the sound to a long-O and phonetically you'll name a famous person whose name does not contain the letter "O." What city and famous person are these?

Submit Your Answer

If you know the answer to next week's challenge, submit it here. Listeners who submit correct answers win a chance to play the on-air puzzle. Important: Include a phone number where we can reach you Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern.