Alaska film 'Big Miracle' premieres in nation's capital

"Big Miracle," the first major production subsidized by a state of Alaska film incentive program among the most generous in the nation, premiered in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday as debate burns in Alaska over whether the program is worth the cost. | 01/26/12 11:32:59 By - Sean Cockerham

Improvements at Arlington Cemetery, but problems remain

Just a year and a half after condemning officials at Arlington National Cemetery for "heartbreakingly incompetent management," Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and members of the Government Accountability Office complimented leaders Wednesday for progress made. | 01/25/12 18:28:00 By - Emily Seagrave Kennedy

Obama's new mortgage-fraud unit met with skepticism

President Barack Obama's State of the Union pledge to create a special unit to punish fraud in mortgage finance met with skepticism Wednesday for coming so late in his term and amid signs that his administration is close to settling with large banks accused of shoddy mortgage-lending practices. | 01/25/12 18:08:00 By - Kevin G. Hall

Obama taps career diplomat Pamela Ann White as Haiti ambassador

President Barack Obama has nominated Ambassador Pamela Ann White, a career diplomat with more than 35 years public service experience mostly in Africa, as the United States’ next ambassador to a quake-ravaged Haiti. | 01/25/12 07:05:13 By - Jacqueline Charles

New consumer bureau chief still under fire from GOP

In his first congressional testimony as the official director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray faced tough questions on Tuesday from Republican lawmakers still seething over his controversial recess appointment. | 01/24/12 19:19:00 By - Tony Pugh

Europe, U.S. impose new Iran sanctions but repeat offer for talks

Even as they tightened the financial screws on Iran with new sanctions on Monday, the United States and its European allies reiterated their readiness to resume talks with Tehran on curbing what they suspect is a secret nuclear weapons development program. | 01/23/12 19:25:00 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Obama to frame re-election themes Tuesday in State of the Union address

President Barack Obama delivers an election-year State of the Union address Tuesday night at a moment when the country is worried about the economy and his own prospects for re-election are mixed at best. | 01/23/12 17:33:00 By - Steven Thomma

Shrinking defense budget worries small businesses

The obstacles small businesses face trying to win their first Defense Department contracts will likely grow, and some existing small defense firms could be driven out of business in the coming years, amid billions in planned defense cuts and the drawdown from two wars. | 01/22/12 00:01:00 By - Franco Ordonez

Court: Juror questionnaires in Chandra Levy trial must be released

The year-old trial of Chandra Levy's killer is still revealing secrets, with an appellate court ruling Thursday that reporters can see juror questionnaires kept locked up by the judge. | 01/20/12 15:17:00 By - Michael Doyle

U.N. asked to probe U.S. efforts to squelch Spain torture probe

Two legal rights groups on Thursday asked the United Nations to investigate allegations that Spanish and U.S. officials collaborated to quash criminal probes into whether the Bush administration authorized illegal killings and torture of terrorism suspects. | 01/19/12 18:54:00 By - Rachel Roubein

Obama rejects oil pipeline from Canada, triggering loud controversy

The Obama administration on Wednesday denied a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada, touching off a torrent of criticism from Republicans — whom the White House blamed for forcing a decision. | 01/18/12 18:57:00 By - Renee Schoof and Lesley Clark

'Recharged' Occupy movement greets lawmakers back from recess

Protesters from across the nation rallied Tuesday on Capitol Hill under the banner of the grassroots Occupy movement, saying they came to Washington to greet Congress as members return to work after a holiday recess. | 01/17/12 19:31:00 By - Emily Seagrave Kennedy and Kelsi Loos

Americans mark King Day with speeches, service

The different colors of their hands intertwined as the fifth-graders raised their arms in solidarity. Their screams of "Free at last!" carried down to the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial's steps. | 01/16/12 19:13:00 By - Rachel Roubein

Despite new mandate, it's not easy to change medical practices

More than two years ago, studies found that injecting medical cement into compression fractures of the spine produced no better pain relief than "sham" injections. Yet doctors continue to perform the $5,000-plus procedure and most insurers, including Medicare, still cover it. | 01/16/12 14:36:00 By - Julie Appleby

Protesters gather to mark Guantanamo anniversary

Chants of "Guantanamo has got to go" echoed down Pennsylvania Avenue on Wednesday as a crowd of rain-dampened protesters marked the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first 20 detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. | 01/11/12 19:16:00 By - Emily Seagrave Kennedy

For Dicks, a new year brings new effort to block automatic spending cuts

As Congress prepares to return to work next week, Washington state U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks offers a bold prediction: Even though a special supercommittee failed to prevent $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts in 2013, members of Congress will get the job done by the end of the year. | 01/11/12 16:24:05 By - Rob Hotakainen

Fed's bond-buying spree sends big profits to Treasury

The Federal Reserve's controversial "quantitative easing" program of buying government bonds to stimulate the economy generated huge profits last year, resulting in the Fed transferring $76.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury in 2011, the bank said Tuesday. | 01/10/12 16:38:03 By - Kevin G. Hall

Supreme Court denies inmate's request for lawsuit over prison injury

In a case arising out of California’s San Joaquin Valley, the Supreme Court on Tuesday limited the ability of inmates to file federal lawsuits for injuries incurred in privately run prisons. | 01/10/12 10:53:42 By - Michael Doyle

Ex-Texas Gov. Ann Richards portrayed in one-woman play 'Ann'

Texas Gov. Ann Richards had hair that defied gravity, a wit that left opponents laughing and a grip on grass-roots politics that made her a legendary figure among women and minorities even after her one-term stint as chief executive of the Lone Star State. All of which makes for pretty entertaining theater in a remarkable performance by veteran actress Holland Taylor in the play "Ann," which Taylor also wrote, now playing at the Kennedy Center before heading to Broadway | 12/30/11 07:35:47 By - Maria Recio

Once again, Speaker Boehner seems a prisoner of his caucus

Is Speaker John Boehner a pragmatic leader adept at keeping renegade Republicans unified — or is he being led by a band of staunch ideologues who are driving the party deep into a political ditch? | 12/20/11 14:27:52 By - David Lightman

House rejects tax-cut plan, making hike more likely Jan. 1

The bitter showdown of Republicans versus the White House and congressional Democrats over a Social Security tax break grew uglier and more tense Tuesday, and the result is that 160 million people face the increasingly likely prospect of a tax increase Jan. 1. | 12/20/11 13:32:49 By - David Lightman and William Douglas

HHS rules, secrecy protect doctors with long histories of problems

Buried deep in a federal database is Practitioner No. 222117, perhaps the most frequently disciplined doctor in America. This doctor has been accused of violating drug laws, prescribing unauthorized medications, providing substandard care and obtaining licenses through fraud. | 12/20/11 07:20:19 By - Alan Bavley

USAID defends $3.4M Cuba grant program

The U.S. Agency for International Development is strongly rejecting complaints of political favoritism in its grant of $3.4 million to a human rights group closely linked to the Cuban American National Foundation. | 12/19/11 07:01:32 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Senate OKs payroll tax cut extension, spending package

The Senate on Saturday approved a measure to assure 160 million people that they'll get a Social Security tax break for two more months. But the big vote was accompanied by misgivings because the badly fractured Congress once again couldn't agree on longer-term economic aid. | 12/17/11 15:06:06 By - David Lightman

SEC sues former Fannie and Freddie execs for fraud

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced a dramatic lawsuit on Friday alleging that six former top executives of mortgage finance titans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac committed fraud by authorizing misleading statements about their balance sheets. | 12/16/11 15:08:41 By - Kevin G. Hall

Feds warn against dangerous toys

In a scene that looked a lot like Christmas morning, a table stacked with toys sat in a room — never to be played with. The problem? All of those toys are either choking hazards, suffocation dangers or have traces of lead. | 12/16/11 06:56:58 By - Jon Silman

Nuclear commission chief 'abusive,' fellow members testify

The chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission blows up in abusive anger, intimidates staff members and withholds information from the rest of the commission, all four of his fellow commissioners testified to Congress on Wednesday. | 12/14/11 18:47:43 By - Renee Schoof

With U.S. awash in dollar coins, Obama to cut production

The federal government has too much money on its hands. That may be surprising, especially since the government is flat broke, with a $15 trillion national debt. But it's also awash in shiny one-dollar coins, with more than a billion of them going unused by the public and piling up at bank vaults across the country. | 12/13/11 16:42:37 By - Rob Hotakainen

F-35s have major component, performance issues, internal Pentagon report finds

Technical and performance problems with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter appear to be more numerous and more serious than anyone in the Department of Defense has been willing to concede publicly, according to a leaked Pentagon report obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. | 12/13/11 14:24:05 By - Bob Cox

S.C. braces for deep federal spending cuts

They may be more than a year away, but looming federal spending cuts, forced by the special deficit-reduction panel’s failure to reach a deal, have folks across South Carolina concerned. | 12/12/11 20:12:29 By - James Rosen

Alaska Sen. Begich tops Murkowski, Young in estimated worth

Sen. Mark Begich appears to be the most affluent among the Alaska congressional delegation, with a net worth estimated by the Center for Responsive Politics at $2.3 million. | 12/12/11 06:43:40 By - Sean Cockerham

Obamas to visit troops returning from Iraq at Fort Bragg, N.C.

President Obama will visit Fort Bragg next week to speak to troops returning from Iraq, the White House announced this morning. First Lady Michelle Obama will accompany the president to North Carolina on Wednesday. | 12/08/11 11:16:19 By -

Video: Labor activists 'Occupy Congress'

Demonstrators invade Congressional offices to demand higher taxes on the wealthy and a jobs program. (Video by David Dougherty, Real News Network) | 12/07/11 16:39:52 By -

California choir brings holiday jazz to Washington

A veteran of the Sierra Repertory Theater, Mikayla Murry was one of 18 students from Summerville High School and the Connections Visual and Performing Arts Academy, based on the Summerville campus, to vocally swing in the White House on Tuesday. | 12/06/11 17:22:11 By - Michael Doyle

F-35 fighter program will feel impact of Pentagon budget cuts

The stealth design of the F-35 joint strike fighter is supposed to make it nearly invisible to enemy radar, but the super high-tech combat aircraft may not be able to avoid the bull's-eye of Pentagon budget-cutters. | 12/02/11 07:34:39 By - Bob Cox

Aerojet, GenCorp pay $3.3M to government to settle fraud case

Rancho Cordova-based rocket-maker Aerojet and parent GenCorp Inc. have paid $3.3 million to the federal government to settle an investigation into corporate costs. Benjamin Wagner, the U.S. attorney based in Sacramento, said the payment settled allegations that Aerojet fraudulently included unallowable costs in calculating overhead rates, resulting in overpayments under government contracts. | 12/01/11 06:50:39 By - Mark Glover

White House condemns storming of the British embassy in Tehran

From the Press Secretary: "The United States condemns in the strongest terms the storming of the British Embassy in Tehran. | 11/29/11 13:24:32 By - Lesley Clark

Alaska Rep. Young faces House ethics investigation

Alaska Congressman Don Young is the target of an ethics inquiry into whether he took more contributions than allowed to pay his legal bills. | 11/29/11 06:43:15 By - Sean Cockerham

Shepherd of financial regulation law Barney Frank to retire at crucial time

The surprise announcement Monday by long-serving Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., that he won't seek re-election to the House of Representatives will give opponents of new financial regulation more room to seek a rollback of important curbs on big banks and powerful financial firms. | 11/28/11 19:27:58 By - Kevin G. Hall

Dustup involving Alaska's Young, historian Brinkley quickly got personal

The feud between Alaska Congressman Don Young and prominent historian Douglas Brinkley that started at a House committee hearing last Friday has continued, with Brinkley calling Young a bully and a "low-grade Joseph McCarthy." | 11/25/11 06:53:02 By - Sean Cockerham

Inquiry finds 'significant' misconduct in Ted Stevens case

Federal prosecutors pursuing the late Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens engaged in "significant, widespread and, at times, intentional" misconduct but should not face criminal contempt charges, a special court investigator has concluded. | 11/21/11 13:07:01 By - Michael Doyle

House to vote Friday on a balanced-budget amendment to Constitution

The House of Representatives plans to vote Friday on a constitutional amendment mandating a balanced federal budget — an effort expected ultimately to fail, but one that could have lingering political impact. | 11/18/11 08:40:03 By - David Lightman

Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson aren't optimistic Congress can bite the bullet on debt

Though more optimistic than before, the co-chairmen of the president's deficit reduction panel said Wednesday night that there's a slim chance a congressional committee will "go big" and agree on a long-term solution to America's debt crisis. Erskine Bowles, along with fellow co-chair Alan Simpson, warned of dire consequences if the committee fails to agree on a deficit plan. | 11/17/11 07:18:41 By - Jim Morrill

Fla. Sen. Rubio pushes compromise jobs bill

Looking for what he called “rapid action” on the economy, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio joined Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware in tearing apart the various Republican and Democratic and White House jobs proposals in search of some rare common ground. The two introduced their admittedly modest legislation, known as the “Agree Act,” on Tuesday. | 11/16/11 07:08:24 By - Erika Bolstad

Perry would cut salaries for the U.S. Congress

Hoping that his infamous "oops moment" is old news, Gov. Rick Perry returned to Iowa on Monday with plans to unveil a sweeping federal consolidation that he said would "uproot all three branches of government." | 11/15/11 15:18:06 By - Dave Montgomery

Deficit cutters target upper-income Medicare beneficiaries

In the scramble to come up with a deficit-reduction deal by Thanksgiving, members of Capitol Hill's supercommittee appear to have one group squarely in their crosshairs: high-income Medicare beneficiaries. | 11/15/11 07:24:39 By - Mary Agnes Carey and Marilyn Werber Serafini

New book warns how to avoid Ponzi schemes

A book to be published Tuesday and written by a somewhat obscure federal regulator uses real-world examples of recent financial fraud to help investors protect themselves from those who'd prey upon them. | 11/14/11 19:00:57 By - Kevin G. Hall

Supreme Court will consider health care law challenge in 2012

The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a challenge to the Obama administration's health care law next year, setting the stage for a legal and political blockbuster. | 11/14/11 10:45:20 By - Michael Doyle and David Lightman

Obama administration delays decision on Keystone XL oil pipeline

A decision on whether to build a pipeline from Canada's oil sands to Texas will be delayed, probably until 2013, to allow time to consider rerouting a section in Nebraska, the State Department announced Thursday. | 11/11/11 07:54:02 By - Renee Schoof

Supreme Court skeptical of California's slaughterhouse rule

Supreme Court justices carved into California's ban on the commercial slaughter of lame livestock Wednesday, leaving the state law's future in doubt. | 11/10/11 13:58:57 By - Michael Doyle

Obama orders Federal agencies to cut spending on 'swag'

Government freebies handed out at conferences — T-shirts, mugs, etc. — will be cut back under an executive order President Barack Obama signed Wednesday, looking to cast himself as a frugal steward of taxpayer dollars | 11/10/11 13:58:29 By - Lesley Clark

Despite budget questions, Lockheed Martin pushing F-35 fighter tests

FORT WORTH — Flight testing of the three variants of the F-35 joint strike fighter continues to go well even as the program's future pace is tangled in congressional budget and deficit reduction efforts. | 11/05/11 10:23:27 By - Bob Cox

McCaskill: Arlington Cemetery has improved since scandal

Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri said Friday that Arlington National Cemetery had made improvements since a scandal last year over improperly marked graves and faulty recordkeeping. | 11/04/11 18:29:59 By - David Goldstein

White House protest planned against oil pipeline from Canada

Thousands of people are expected to mass at the White House on Sunday to send an environmental message to President Barack Obama: Say no to a proposed pipeline that would import highly polluting oil from Canada. | 11/04/11 18:28:38 By - Renee Schoof

Iowa Sen. Grassley joins fight to reopen National Practitioner Data Bank

A ranking U.S. senator on Thursday demanded that the government reopen a public website with data on malpractice and disciplinary cases involving thousands of the nation’s doctors. | 11/04/11 07:21:15 By - Dave Helling

Despite label as do-nothing Congress, Boehner boasts of changing debate

House Speaker John Boehner, looking confident and even relaxed, sounded very much like someone ready to compromise on the biggest fiscal issues of the day | 11/03/11 17:54:51 By - David Lightman

Bernanke: Growth outlook slows, jobless rate frustrating

For the third time this year, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday scaled back its economic growth forecasts for the next two years, projecting a slower economy and higher unemployment than it did back in June. | 11/03/11 10:12:39 By - Kevin G. Hall

Congressional debt panel told to be bold or risk economic disaster

Experts from recent bipartisan debt-reduction commissions gave Congress' debt supercommittee stark, sobering warnings Tuesday about imminent economic disaster unless lawmakers act quickly and boldly to cut federal debt sharply. | 11/02/11 08:53:20 By - David Lightman

Alaska air travel, farm subsidies survive Senate appropriations bill

Subsidies for rural Alaska air travel and farmers in the 49th state survived in the $182 billion spending bill the U.S. Senate passed on Tuesday.

It's the first appropriations measure to pass the Senate since the debt limit deal enacted in August under which lawmakers have to cut. Tea party Republicans argued that reductions in discretionary spending in the bill did not go nearly far enough. But challenges to programs including rural air subsidies and the Rural Development Agency failed. | 11/02/11 06:32:46 By - Sean Cockerham

Bank of America derivatives transfer is criticized by Democrats in Congress

Lawmakers are criticizing Bank of America Corp. again, this time over the reported transfer of financial instruments from Merrill Lynch into the bank's deposit-taking arm. It's a move the lawmakers say could put taxpayers on the hook for big losses - three years after the bank received billions in bailouts from the federal government. | 10/28/11 07:15:03 By - Kirsten Valle Pittman

Feds announce plan to speed Everglades restoration

A new fast-track planning effort could shave years off the next phase of Everglades restoration, putting more fresh and clean water into the central and southern portions of Florida’s "River of Grass" more quickly. | 10/27/11 11:50:17 By - Erika Bolstad

Sandra Day O'Connor discusses life as a cowgirl, Supreme Court justice

Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor figured prominently in a number of court cases during her 25 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, often casting the deciding vote in 5-4 decisions involving abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty and First Amendment rights. | 10/27/11 07:35:04 By - Chris Vaughn

Pentagon toughens stance with Lockheed Martin over F-35

After 10 years of paying for huge cost increases on the F-35 joint strike fighter, the Defense Department is taking a tougher line with Lockheed Martin, and company officials aren't happy about it. Top defense officials are insisting that Lockheed and its partners share in the cost of fixing new problems that may arise in the development and testing of the jet. | 10/27/11 07:30:20 By - Bob Cox

Condoleezza Rice warns of an America 'gone bad'

Condoleezza Rice, who monitored global hotspots as U.S. Secretary of State, told a Charlotte audience Tuesday that the greatest challenge to American supremacy is closer to home. | 10/26/11 12:14:00 By - Jim Morrill

McCaskill finally sells private plane at a loss

Sen. Claire McCaskill sold the private plane that caused her so much political heartburn last spring and could come back to haunt her re-election campaign. | 10/25/11 18:50:52 By - David Goldstein

Video: Georgia mother pleads with Congress for anti-bullying bill

October is Anti-Bullying Awareness Month. To raise awareness, several parents traveled to Washington, D.C., for the National Bullying Prevention Summit. Through their tragic stories, they hope Congress will see the need for a federal anti-bullying law. | 10/21/11 15:31:50 By - Shannon Kantner

Obama honors citizens 'who stopped to help'

President Barack Obama on Thursday personally thanked what he called "a remarkable group of Americans" for answering the call of service to their fellow citizens. | 10/20/11 18:21:33 By - Curtis Tate

Video: Inspirational drunk driving victim urges teens to drive sober

Hollywood Ruch, a 15-year-old from Mechanicsburg, Pa., was the victim of multiple drunk driving accidents before he reached middle school. Now, he's traveling to high schools and colleges across the country to share his story and urge other kids to drive sober. | 10/20/11 15:55:00 By - Whitney Wild

Video: Senators call for update of 1986 privacy law

Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Kirk support a bipartisan privacy bill that, among other things, would prevent police from tracking your cell phone or GPS without a warrant. | 10/18/11 19:21:08 By - Ashley Cullins

Idaho's Labrador pitches his own immigration solution

With Congress unable to agree on a comprehensive immigration overhaul, and with states taking immigration matters into their own hands, Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho thinks he has an idea that can draw bipartisan support. | 10/18/11 18:31:15 By - Curtis Tate

Video: Four fire safety tips that could save your life

About 2,500 people die from fires in their own homes each year. Here are four tips from the experts that may save your life. | 10/18/11 15:25:21 By - Shannon Kantner

Video: Advocates want changes in 25-year-old privacy law

Advocacy groups like TechFreedom and the Center for Democracy and Technology want the 25-year-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act to reflect new changes in technology. | 10/17/11 20:27:38 By -

Nation’s ‘poet laureate’, Philip Levine, welcomes new role

Rest assured. Philip Levine readied himself for his inaugural Monday night gig as the poet laureate of the United States. “I bought a suit,” Levine said. “It almost fits.” Monday night marked the formal beginning of Levine’s yearlong stint as what's technically called the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Congress, in the 1986 bill establishing the title, explained that “this position is equivalent to that of Poet Laureate of the United States.” | 10/17/11 17:34:53 By - Michael Doyle

Treasury officials testify on controversial Solyndra loan

Congressional Republicans who question whether the Energy Department broke the law in the way it handled a loan for the California solar company Solyndra called in two senior Treasury Department officials Friday, but the officials didn't provide any evidence of illegal doings. | 10/14/11 19:19:04 By - Renee Schoof

Want an apple this year? Washington state governor to Congress: Help

While much of the talk on Capitol Hill is tough, with opponents of illegal immigration vowing to seal the borders, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire said Congress should instead focus on a way to get more foreign workers to help with harvesting in Washington state, the nation's top producer of apples. | 10/14/11 18:46:14 By - Rob Hotakainen

Christmas book brings the White House to life

“Christmas With the First Ladies” is an attractive addition to the plethora of books on the history of the White House. Drawing on the materials from presidential libraries, Coleen Christian Burke has delved into history to put a human face on presidential Christmases as presented by our presidents and their wives. | 10/12/11 12:07:07 By - Tish Wells

Alaska Sen. Begich warns against 'showboat' politics in Native contract hearing

Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey on Wednesday called for hearing to investigate Alaska Native corporation federal contracting in the wake of a massive bribery and kickback scandal involving an executive at a subsidiary of the Eyak Corporation. | 10/06/11 06:40:49 By - Sean Cockerham

John Katz, Alaska's top lobbyist in D.C., resigns

John Katz is resigning after directing the Alaska governor's office in Washington, D.C., for almost three decades, citing "the polarization and deterioration of the public policy process at the federal level." | 10/05/11 06:48:33 By - Sean Cockerham

Judge Henry Floyd elevated to 4th Circuit

The Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed U.S. District Judge Henry F. Floyd to serve on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, promoting the South Carolinian to the five-state appellate bench. | 10/04/11 06:20:13 By - James Rosen

Supreme Court about to start most interesting term in years

California health-care conflicts will kick off a Supreme Court term that will, in time, turn toward the truly dramatic. | 09/29/11 15:56:23 By - Michael Doyle

Pentagon launches war court website

The Pentagon on Wednesday morning went live with a new, slicker interactive military commissions website, then used it to announce the first death penalty war crimes prosecution of the Obama administration. | 09/28/11 11:53:17 By - Carol Rosenberg

Specter of big defense cuts prompts big worries

After more than doubling in the past 10 years, Pentagon budgets are in for big cuts from Congress in coming years. No one yet knows exactly what will be cut or how deeply the cuts will go, but everyone knows they’re coming. | 09/25/11 00:01:48 By - Rob Hotakainen, Adam Ashton and Curtis Tate

Medical device makers push Congress to repeal excise tax

In 2013, the Affordable Care Act will begin to levy a 2.3 percent excise tax on U.S. sales of certain medical devices, ranging from stents and defibrillators to artificial hips and bedpans. The tax is supposed to raise $20 billion over 10 years to help fund universal health care. It will cost Cook, the world's largest privately owned medical-device company, about $17 million of its $1 billion in annual U.S. sales | 09/22/11 17:01:35 By - Tony Pugh

Fed twists, markets shout about unorthodox policy move

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday afternoon that it would attempt to drive down long-term lending rates in the economy by selling $400 billion of short-term government bonds that it holds and replacing them with long-term bonds of equal value | 09/22/11 08:04:24 By - Kevin G. Hall

Amid Boeing flap, House approves bill to rein in labor agency

The House on Thursday passed along party lines Republican legislation to place new limits on the chief federal labor agency in response to its bid to prevent Boeing from running a jet-manufacturing plant in South Carolina. | 09/15/11 15:46:10 By - James Rosen

D.C. pols turn to old familiar standby: 'Waste, fraud and abuse'

As the government grapples with runaway deficits and soaring debt, American politics this week is embracing one of its time-honored, wished-for solutions — cutting waste, fraud and abuse. | 09/14/11 17:31:10 By - Steven Thomma

Texas Sen. Cornyn to approve Ashton Carter for Pentagon post

Texas Sen. John Cornyn says he will vote to approve the nomination of a top Pentagon official whom he criticized just three weeks ago for not supporting the F-35 joint strike fighter strongly enough. | 09/14/11 07:32:00 By - Bob Cox

Navy fights to keep explosives data secret from residents

It's been eight years since Glen Milner first asked the Navy just how big an explosion could be triggered by an accident or an attack at its munitions depot on Indian Island, Wash. | 09/13/11 17:44:59 By - Kyung M. Song

The men behind the Constitutional convention in 1787

built? Who were the men who signed it? What was really important to them in that steamy summer of 1787 in Philadelphia where they gathered to debate a new Constitution | 09/09/11 13:55:39 By - Tish Wells

U.S. Consulate in Fresno to assist Mexican workers

The federal government on Thursday signed an agreement with the Mexican Consulate in Fresno to help local Mexican nationals understand their workplace rights. | 09/09/11 12:24:16 By - John Ellis

Texas homeland security grants pay for latrine on wheels

In the years after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Texas has grabbed at least $1.7 billion in federal Homeland Security grants, with large chunks of the money spent to beef up law enforcement communication and border security. But a Star-Telegram examination of thousands of purchases also found a hodgepodge of spending, some of which might have taxpayers scratching their heads: a $21 fish tank in Seguin, a $24,000 latrine on wheels in Fort Worth, and a real pork project — a hog catcher in Liberty County. | 09/04/11 17:49:27 By - Darren Barbee

Haley Barbour relative defrauded FEMA after Katrina, judge rules

Six years after Hurricane Katrina, a relative of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was found by a federal court to have masterminded a massive fraud against the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the inspection of the legendary trailers that housed storm refugees along the Gulf Coast. | 08/31/11 19:05:26 By - Maria Recio

Obama, GOP skirmish over federal rules' economic impact

President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are launching their next pitched battle over government and the economy, this one over whether the Obama administration’s regulation of American business is killing jobs. | 08/30/11 19:39:51 By - Steven Thomma

Napolitano's deportation statistic displeases both sides

Now in her third year as the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano has experience battling simultaneous criticism that the Obama administration deports both too many and too few undocumented immigrants. | 08/30/11 18:38:55 By - Adam Sege

For Washington, first earthquake, now Irene, but experts urge calm

Hurricane Irene already was threatening the East Coast when a rare 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Virginia on Tuesday, so it didn't take long for many property owners to call in an expert. | 08/25/11 18:54:01 By - Adam Sege

Summer's almost over, and still no solar panels on White House roof

In October, Energy Secretary Steven Chu pledged that solar panels and a solar hot water heater would be installed on the White House roof before the start of summer. Now, summer is almost over, the 2012 election campaign is well under way, and there are still no solar panels on the White House roof. Why? That's a mystery. | 08/25/11 15:10:08 By - Lauren Biron

Left, right agree: For big debt cut, end subsidies that harm environment

Budget-slashers in Washington could get a jump-start toward their goal by eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies, an unusual coalition of conservative and liberal groups advised Wednesday. | 08/24/11 17:53:53 By - Renee Schoof

FAA center works to keep your flight on time, or close

Past rolling hills and grazing horses in this quiet corner of Virginia sits an ultramodern command center that's a pulsating mix of NASA Mission Control, the Counter Terrorist Unit set on the TV show "24" and a stock market trading floor. | 08/23/11 16:19:38 By - Daniel Lippman

The day Washington shook: 5.8 earthquake hits capital

A magnitude 5.8 earthquake rattled nerves and jolted buildings in the nation’s capital Tuesday, a rare geological event that was felt up and down the U.S. East Coast from Georgia to Massachusetts. | 08/23/11 15:39:25 By - Adam Sege, Renee Schoof and Kevin G. Hall

House is in session for minutes a day, to thwart Obama

Rep. Jeff Denham, a California Republican, will briefly sit in a very special chair Tuesday for a several-minute skirmish in a long-running war. By presiding over a ridiculously short House session, Denham is helping his fellow Republicans block President Barack Obama from making appointments while most of Congress is away. | 08/22/11 18:00:37 By - Mike Doyle

More Bay of Pigs documents declassified by CIA

Freshly released CIA documents on the Bay of Pigs invasion provide new details on the confusion, mixed messages and last-minute changes in plans that ultimately doomed the mission. | 08/16/11 06:36:46 By - Mimi Whitefield

Supercommittee co-chair Hensarling has reputation as fiscal conservative

Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the Dallas Republican appointed Wednesday as co-chairman of the deficit reduction supercommittee, has earned a reputation as one of the most avowed fiscal conservatives in Congress. | 08/11/11 07:40:43 By - Maria Recio

S&P cuts U.S. debt rating, cites 'weakening' of policy making

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the AAA credit rating the United States has enjoyed for 70 years late Friday night in a move that had been expected, but still left the Obama administration angry and combative. S&P said the debt-ceiling deal didn't do enough to trim the deficit and showed that U.S. political institutions were not effective in dealing with the economy and the deficit. | 08/05/11 23:07:58 By - Kevin G. Hall and Lesley Clark

Sen. Hutchison only Republican who backed Democrats on FAA

In the impasse over funding the Federal Aviation Administration, which had idled more than 4,000 FAA employees and 70,000 construction workers for nearly two weeks, only one Republican sided with the Democrats: Texas' Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. | 08/05/11 06:33:00 By - Maria Recio

Homeland Security to regulate sale of fertilizer used in bombings

The Department of Homeland Security announced it plans to regulate the sale of ammonium nitrate, 16 years after the fertilizer was used to kill 168 people in the 1995 bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City. | 08/03/11 13:43:00 By - Amdrew Seidman

Who gains from debt deal? The Pentagon, for one

The last-minute deal that Congress is considering to raise the federal debt limit probably will mean trillions of dollars in government spending reductions for most agencies. But one department stands to gain: the Pentagon. | 08/01/11 19:23:42 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Don't pop any champagne corks: Debt deal shows broken system

The politicians will pat themselves on the back if and when they finally reach an agreement to ward off a looming budget crisis. But after taking the country to the brink of a potentially cataclysmic default, Washington politicians look more like a dysfunctional reality TV family than sober stewards of the government. | 07/31/11 19:53:58 By - Steven Thomma

House probes policies on counterfeit military electronics

Lawmakers from both parties are challenging the Department of Homeland Security over policies that they say impede efforts to stop imports of counterfeit electronics used in military devices. | 07/28/11 16:12:35 By - Michelle M. Stein

Business groups say new smog rule will hurt Obama in 2012

Within weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to tighten the national standard for ozone, the main ingredient in smog. In last-minute lobbying, business groups are warning that the country can't afford cleaner air in an economic downturn and that President Barack Obama can't afford it politically, either. | 07/21/11 18:21:08 By - Renee Schoof

Chambliss' long quest for debt pact starts to pay off

Sen. Saxby Chambliss always knew the Gang of Six was close to breaking major ground on a plan to help solve the nation's debt crisis, if only he could get his friend, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, back to the table. | 07/21/11 14:22:57 By - Halimah Abdullah

Future of U.S. manned spaceflight looks bleak

When Atlantis takes off from Kennedy Space Center, it will be the last time NASA launches astronauts aboard a government-built spacecraft for perhaps the rest of this decade. A country once willing to put 4 cents out of every federal dollar into NASA now spends about half a cent, as America struggles with more-earthbound concerns such as unemployment and health care. | 07/08/11 07:17:15 By - Mark K. Matthews

Supreme Court strikes down violent video game ban

In a ruling closely watched by other states and the entertainment industry, the court in what amounts to a 7-2 ruling determined that California's 2005 violent video game restrictions violated free speech rights protected by the First Amendment. The much-anticipated ruling in Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association is a defeat for current Gov. Jerry Brown. | 06/27/11 10:39:34 By - Michael Doyle

Supreme Court rules against California on Holocaust art

The Supreme Court on Monday left intact a decision that California strayed too far into foreign affairs with a state law extending the statute of limitations for recovery of Holocaust-era art. The decision is a victory for the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena, which wants to hold on to a pair of 16th century oil paintings entitled "Adam and Eve." | 06/27/11 10:18:25 By - Michael Doyle

Supeme Court declines California appeal on Indian casinos

The Supreme Court on Monday undercut California's negotiating clout with tribes, as the justices effectively upheld a decision that the state overreached when it compelled general fund payments in exchange for casino approvals. The decision is an immediate victory for the San Diego-area Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians. | 06/27/11 10:12:17 By - Michael Doyle

Does FEMA have enough money to make it through the year?

FEMA has declared 45 major disasters this year and is assisting recovery for past disasters, including some of the 81 declared in 2010. This year, the agency also declared seven emergencies and awarded dozens of fire management assistance grants, including 33 in Texas. The pace has raised worries that the agency will run out of relief money. | 06/24/11 12:00:30 By - Alex Branch

FDA unveils new cigarette warning labels with graphic images

The nine images chosen by the FDA — the first update to cigarette-package warnings in a quarter century — are stark and often disturbing, and each is accompanied by simple text informing cigarette buyers of the known consequences of their habit. | 06/22/11 07:18:53 By - Melissa Healy

Supreme Court rules for Wal-Mart in sex bias lawsuit

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled a massive class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart goes too far, handing business a major legal victory. The ruling will constrain future class-action suits as well. | 06/20/11 10:46:09 By - Michael Doyle

Supreme Court rules against N.C. in juvenile Miranda rights

The Supreme Court ruled against North Carolina today in the case of a juvenile questioned in a Chapel Hill school conference room without being read his Miranda rights. | 06/16/11 11:29:06 By - Barbara Barrett

Weiner’s resignation suggests social media, politics a risky mix

Rep. Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress Thursday in the wake of a sexting scandal, abruptly halting a once-promising political career and serving as a somber warning to lawmakers about how to handle such incidents — tell the truth from the start. | 06/16/11 10:46:15 By - David Lightman and William Douglas

Austan Goolsbee to leave Obama's economic team

For the second time in less than a year, the White House is looking for a new head of the Council of Economic Advisers after Austan Goolsbee said late Monday that he's leaving the post to return to academia. His departure was announced just days after a dismal government jobs report and other indications that the recovery is faltering. | 06/06/11 21:50:16 By - Kevin G. Hall

Romney takes 2012 plunge with hard pitch to the right

Mitt Romney, declaring "Barack Obama has failed America," announced his candidacy for president Thursday by painting himself as a staunch conservative deeply committed to creating private-sector jobs and slashing the size of government. | 06/02/11 14:28:12 By - David Lightman

Supreme Court rules Ashcroft can't be sued in al Kidd case

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that former Attorney General John Ashcroft couldn't be sued for his role in jailing a supposed anti-terrorism witness. In a case that united the Bush and Obama administrations, the court concluded that Ashcroft deserved immunity because he hadn't clearly violated any laws in the jailing of U.S. citizen Abdullah al Kidd. | 05/31/11 10:34:56 By - Michael Doyle

VA Secretary Shinseki learns of Alaska veterans' challenges

The nation's top official for veterans affairs told reporters in Anchorage on Memorial Day that his agency can and must do a better job of reaching military veterans. | 05/31/11 06:44:27 By - Lisa Demer

Obama names Dempsey as chairman of Joint Chiefs

President Barack Obama on Monday announced that a four-star Army general who commanded troops in Iraq through much of the war, Gen. Martin Dempsey, is his choice to be the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president’s top military adviser. Obama also named Adm. James Winnefield as vice chairman and said Army Gen. Ray Odierno would replace Dempsey as chief of staff of the Army. | 05/30/11 13:27:53 By - Renee Schoof

Legal battle still hangs over Armenian Genocide museum

An Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial may someday arise from the ashes of an excruciating legal fight that's estranged one-time allies and shows no sign of abating. But for now the unrealized potential lingers, like a ghost, inside a glorious wreck of a building near the White House. | 05/27/11 16:55:14 By - Michael Doyle

Supreme Court upholds Arizona law punishing hiring of illegal immigrants

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld an Arizona law that severely penalizes businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. In a ruling that's likely to embolden Congress and other states, the court declared that Arizona's law fits comfortably within the state's powers. | 05/26/11 10:57:55 By - Michael Doyle

Senators tell VA to reduce veteran suicides

With veterans now accounting for one of every five suicides in the nation, the Department of Veterans Affairs is under pressure from the courts and Congress to fix its mental health services in an attempt to curb the death toll. | 05/25/11 17:15:13 By - Rob Hotakainen

Gates: Spending cuts will force tough choices for military

The outgoing defense secretary, Robert Gates, said Tuesday that the U.S. military would become smaller and service members' pay and benefits could be reduced as the Pentagon struggles to meet President Barack Obama's stringent cost-cutting targets. Americans would face tough choices over whether to eliminate some weapons programs, shrink the size of fighting units, and overhaul health care and retirement packages. | 05/24/11 19:12:23 By - Shashank Bengali

Supreme Court declines to hear case involving Army crime lab

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to scrutinize how a discredited military lab analyst helped convict men like former Navy hospital corpsman Ivor Luke. The court's decision leaves intact Luke's 1999 court martial conviction, secured with the help of U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory analyst Phillip Mills. Mills' own career subsequently collapsed amid revelations that he had falsified a report. | 05/23/11 15:02:11 By - Michael Doyle

Supreme Court: California must reduce prison population

A closely divided Supreme Court on Monday cited "serious constitutional violations" in California's overcrowded prisons and ordered the state to abide by aggressive plans to fix the problem. In a decision closely watched by other states, the court concluded by 5-4 that the prison overcrowding violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. | 05/23/11 10:36:24 By - Michael Doyle

Netanyahu rebukes Obama's idea on Israel's '67 borders

In a public rebuke, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a White House appearance with President Barack Obama on Friday to flatly reject any suggestion that Israel might even consider withdrawing from territories it seized in the 1967 Six-Day War. | 05/20/11 14:49:17 By - Steven Thomma and William Douglas

Justice Department is pushed to release phone records memo

The Justice Department should publicly release its legal opinion that allows the FBI to obtain telephone records of international calls made from the U.S. without any formal legal process, a watchdog group asserts. The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation alleges DOJ violated federal open-records laws. | 05/19/11 19:23:14 By - Marisa Taylor

Senate panel blasts Pentagon, Lockheed Martin over F-35

The Pentagon's signature aircraft for all military services, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, came under blistering criticism Thursday at a Senate hearing for cost overruns that have nearly doubled the cost of each plane, ongoing technical problems and schedule delays that have kept contractor Lockheed Martin from increasing production. | 05/19/11 19:07:34 By - Maria Recio

Obama will call for billions in aid to Egypt and Tunisia

President Barack Obama will use his speech to the Arab world Thursday to call for billions of dollars in financial assistance to Egypt and Tunisia as part of a comprehensive approach to the "Arab Spring" movement that he hopes will boost democratic reforms and America's reputation in the region. | 05/18/11 21:00:59 By - Margaret Talev

Homeland Security extends protected status for Haitians

In a move that affects thousands of lives across two nations, the Department of Homeland Security will extend and expand Temporary Protected Status for Haitians living in the United States. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano on Tuesday announced an 18-month extension of the protected status allowing 48,000 Haitian nationals to remain in the U.S. until Jan. 22, 2013. | 05/18/11 06:58:31 By - Melissa Sanchez

Surplus federal property for sale; call Obama if interested

The Obama administration recently asked Congress to set up a special commission that would make it easier to get rid of those surplus federal properties. The White House would like a nonpartisan panel resembling those that closed military bases, a move federal officials believe would cut red tape and other impediments to disposing of surplus property. | 05/13/11 14:26:30 By - Halimah Abdullah

Fla. Sen. Rubio calls for more sanctions on Syria

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Wednesday called for the Obama administration to ratchet up the pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime has attacked anti-government protestors. | 05/12/11 07:08:39 By - Lesley Clark

Northeast, Midwest, California get more high-speed rail funds

The Obama administration parceled out $2 billion Monday for high-speed rail projects in the Northeast, Midwest and California, repurposing a pot of funds rejected in February by Florida's new Republican governor. | 05/09/11 19:20:32 By - Curtis Tate

Bin Laden down, 29 more to go on FBI most wanted list

Osama bin Laden may have been the most wanted man in the world until Monday, but the FBI still has a list of 29 other men it considers the "most wanted" terrorists in the world, including three facing charges in California. | 05/05/11 21:29:49 By - Sam Stanton

Across from the White House, a time-capsule moment

The Fourth of July came early on a cool spring night in the nation's capital on Sunday. There were people entrenched in front of the White House joyously waving the American flag; there were people across the street perched in trees and draped with Old Glory at Lafayette Park in a scene of immense pride. One guy shouted, "We killed the (blankety-blank)." That "blankety-blank" was Osama bin Laden. | 05/02/11 03:20:13 By - Gregory Clay

Was FBI too quick to judge anthrax suspect the killer?

Scouring the anthrax-laced mail that took five lives and terrorized the East Coast in 2001, laboratory scientists discovered a unique contaminant — a tiny scientific fingerprint that they hoped would help unmask the killer. Yet once FBI agents concluded that the likely culprit was Bruce Ivins, they stopped looking for the contaminant. That decision could reignite the debate over whether its agents found the real killer. | 04/20/11 17:25:07 By - Greg Gordon

Drug czar unveils plan to attack prescription drug abuse

The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled a plan to fight prescription drug abuse, noting that accidental overdose deaths now exceed those of the crack epidemic of the 1980s and black tar heroin in the 1970s combined. | 04/19/11 20:18:59 By - Halimah Abdullah and Lesley Clark

Why S&P's warning on U.S. debt matters

A surprise warning about U.S. debt by credit rating agency Standard & Poor's sent stocks plunging on Monday and crystallized the threat that mounting federal budget deficits and national debt pose to the U.S. financial system and the American way of life. | 04/18/11 17:58:29 By - Kevin G. Hall

Navy chief Ray Mabus' next job: Defense Secretary?

Is Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus moving up? Mabus, given high grades for the job, is believed to be on the short list of candidates to replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who has said he is leaving. | 04/13/11 15:07:25 By - Maria Recio

National campaign aims to give military families a hand

The Obama administration on Tuesday launched a national campaign for U.S. military families that calls on companies, individuals, civic and religious groups and schools to find ways help veterans, reservists and their families navigate work, school, psychological stress and day-to-day life. | 04/12/11 18:57:12 By - Margaret Talev and Erika Bolstad

Warren: Consumer protection bureau will work with states

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau architect Elizabeth Warren Monday announced an agreement that promotes cooperation between the federal agency and state attorneys general in enforcing financial laws. | 04/11/11 17:03:49 By - Rick Rothacker

If the government shuts down, here's how it would work

There are some of the services that would continue even if the federal government runs out of money at 12:01 a.m. Saturday with no agreement between Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the White House to extend the budget. But much of the government would shut down. | 04/06/11 12:31:14 By - Steven Thomma

White House announces trade deal with Colombia

The White House on Wednesday is announcing a deal to ratify the long-stalled free trade agreement with Colombia — a move that backers say will boost the U.S. economy and improve the U.S. standing in Latin America. | 04/06/11 11:51:06 By - Lesley Clark

N.C. U.S. Rep. Price: Boehner listened too closely to 'tea party types' on budget

Although tea party influence has waned in recent negotiations to prevent a government shutdown, GOP leaders still want the support of most of the House freshmen Republicans that the movement supported. | 04/05/11 07:32:32 By - Barbara Barrett

How Jack Valenti got buried at Arlington, but others didn't

Jack Valenti won his final and most heartfelt lobbying victory when he was lowered into the ground at Arlington National Cemetery. | 04/01/11 15:33:04 By - Michael Doyle

Strong corporate profits amid weak economy - What's up with that?

U.S. corporations continue to post strong profits quarter after quarter, even as the unemployment rate remains high and the U.S. economic recovery plods along in fits and starts. What gives? | 03/27/11 18:36:49 By - Kevin G. Hall

FBI's anthrax suspect is likely killer, panel concludes

The late Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins engaged in a decades-long pattern of "concealment and deceit," pretending to be a comical juggler who played the organ in church on Sundays, while his dark side drove him to mail anthrax-laced letters that killed five people, according to an analysis of his psychiatric records. | 03/23/11 20:07:29 By - Greg Gordon

Libya assault sets up battle between Obama, Congress

Sparked by the U.S. military assault on Libya, the historic struggle between the president and Congress over whether and how America should enter war is raging again. | 03/23/11 19:24:38 By - David Lightman and William Douglas

Earthquake science advances - does nuclear safety keep up?

The 104 nuclear reactors providing 20 percent of America's electric power were designed and built in the 1960s and '70s, an era when seismologists knew much less about earthquakes than they do today. | 03/23/11 19:22:23 By - Renee Schoof and Greg Gordon

Justices weigh Miranda warnings for juvenile suspects

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday on whether police officers ought to consider a young suspect's age before deciding to tell him or her about the right to remain silent and to have an attorney. | 03/23/11 19:22:06 By - Barbara Barrett

Panel supports FBI's findings in anthrax letters case

An expert panel’s posthumous review of Army microbiologist Bruce Ivins’ psychiatric records lent new support Wednesday to the FBI’s controversial finding that Ivins mailed the anthrax-laced letters in 2001 that killed five people, sickened 17 others and paralyzed Congress. | 03/23/11 15:01:43 By - Greg Gordon

Obama: Gadhafi must restore water, phones or face assault

Prsident Barack Obama said Friday that the United States will assist if international force is needed to stop Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi from killing his people, but will not send American ground troops to Libya or take over the effort. Any ceasefire must include an end to pro-Gadhafi troops marching on rebel-held cities. | 03/18/11 15:27:05 By - Margaret Talev

Obama chooses S.C. attorney for federal bench

President Barack Obama’s nomination of a prominent Columbia lawyer to be a U.S. district judge was the South Carolinian he’s chosen for the federal bench. Obama said Mary Geiger Lewis, 52, “will serve the American people with integrity and an unwavering commitment to justice.” | 03/18/11 11:05:29 By - James Rosen

Pentagon is dividing up Guantanamo detainees for trials

The Obama administration is still deciding where to stage the 9/11 mass murder trials of five alleged co-conspirators now held at Guantánamo, the Defense Department’s top lawyer told Congress on Thursday. | 03/18/11 07:10:47 By - Carol Rosenberg

State Dept. official's comments about WikiLeaks suspect touch off furor

Public criticism by a State Department spokesman about the treatment of an Army private accused of giving classified U.S. material to WikiLeaks has sparked speculation of a rift within the U.S. government over the handling of the prisoner. | 03/11/11 21:02:10 By - James Oliphant

Rare color photos show 1906 San Francisco quake damage

The Smithsonian has recently discovered three-dimensional color photographs of the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco. When the magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck at 5:12 a.m. on April 18, shaking violently for 40 seconds, damage was widespread: 3,000 people were killed and 225,000 left homeless. | 03/11/11 15:01:27 By - Bill Lindelof

Former Obama 'pay czar' Feinberg discusses limited role

Ken Feinberg, who once headed the Obama administration's mission to rein in the pay of executives at bailed-out firms, said Thursday that he has always thought the government's role in private-sector compensation should be limited. | 03/11/11 07:34:57 By - Christina Rexrode

Sen. McCaskill repays $89,000 for chartered flights

Sen. Claire McCaskill sent the U.S. Treasury a personal check Wednesday for nearly $89,000 to cover the costs of chartered flights on a plane that she co-owns and has used for Senate business. | 03/10/11 07:19:22 By - David Goldstein

NPR in hot water again over Ron Schiller's tea party remarks

NPR is distancing itself from remarks made by a fundraising executive who said the American "tea party" movement is a composed of "white, middle-America gun-toting" and "seriously racist, racist" people. The comments, apparently made by Ron Schiller, NPR's exiting vice president for development, were recorded in a "sting" set up by conservative activist James O'Keefe, best known for mounting a similar prank on ACORN. | 03/08/11 20:56:21 By - James Oliphant

Boeing beats out EADS to win air tanker contract

Boeing won a $35 billion aerial tanker contract from the U.S. Air Force, defeating its European rival EADS, the parent company of Airbus. The nearly decade-long tanker competition has been marked by a major Pentagon procurement scandal and political maneuverings on Capitol Hill. | 02/25/11 21:52:24 By - Rob Hotakainen

Obama to stop defending federal gay marriage ban

In a significant change of course, President Barack Obama has decided that a federal law against gay marriage is unconstitutional and will no longer defend it in court, the White House announced Wednesday. | 02/23/11 21:10:55 By - Steven Thomma

Is Obama failing to lead, or leading in a new, crafty way?

President Barack Obama's proposed budget this week raised a key question about how he governs: Can he lead without getting out in front? | 02/18/11 15:19:04 By - Steven Thomma

California hopes to cash in on high-speed rail funds Florida rejected

Florida on Wednesday spurned $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funds, giving California a chance to scoop up more for itself. | 02/16/11 16:59:43 By - Michael Doyle

Obama says he'd stop adding to debt, but that's not true

President Barack Obama's claim Tuesday that his proposed budget would stop adding to the national debt is wrong — and is proved wrong in his own budget. | 02/16/11 13:29:01 By - Steven Thomma

'Financial Crisis Inquiry Report' book is a best-seller

"The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report" – the book version of the study produced by the federal commission led by Sacramento politician and developer Phil Angelides – has become a modest if unlikely best-seller. However, the Angelides book isn't likely to overtake the all-time best-seller among government-inquiry books. "The 9/11 Commission Report," released in 2004, sold more than 1 million copies. | 02/16/11 06:53:43 By - Dale Kasler

Obama's budget would add $13 trillion to national debt

President Barack Obama proposed a $3.73 trillion budget Monday for fiscal 2012 that he said will start reining in runaway budget deficits, but his plan envisions the gross national debt swelling by almost $13 trillion over a decade. | 02/15/11 11:03:01 By - Steven Thomma and David Lightman

FBI files offer glimpse of Alaska's long-time Sen. Ted Stevens

The FBI released thousands of pages of its files Friday on U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, some six months after his death in a plane crash in Alaska. But anyone hoping for new insights into the Justice Department's corruption investigation that netted Stevens and almost a dozen other Alaska political and business figures will be disappointed. | 02/14/11 20:35:42 By - Erika Bolstad and Richard Mauer

Obama's budget will add $7 trillion to national debt

President Barack Obama will propose a federal budget for fiscal 2012 that would pare back record budget deficits, but still add nearly $7 trillion to the nation's debt over the next decade, White House officials said Sunday. That falls far short of the recommendations from his own bipartisan budget deficit commission, which in November urged cutting deficits over the coming decade by $4 trillion. | 02/14/11 06:00:00 By - Steven Thomma

U.S. gave firm low rating for Afghan work — and more business

A U.S. contractor who's continued to receive government contracts despite criticism of its work in Afghanistan got low ratings for its performance on two more high-profile projects in the war-torn country than had been disclosed previously. McClatchy has learned that the U.S. government criticized Black & Veatch for poor oversight and delays on a Kabul power plant project and for a study of the viability of developing a natural gas field in the Sheberghan region in northern Afghanistan. | 02/14/11 09:30:00 By - Marisa Taylor

Obama assertion: FBI can get phone records without oversight

The Obama administration's Justice Department has asserted that the FBI can obtain telephone records of international calls made from the U.S. without any formal legal process or court oversight, according to a document obtained by McClatchy. | 02/11/11 17:08:55 By - Marisa Taylor

Pentagon budget largest ever as security threat list grows

Despite calls on Capitol Hill for major defense budget cuts, the Pentagon next week will unveil the largest budget in its history — driven by an expanding list of what defines national security. | 02/10/11 16:45:58 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Al Qaida affiliates still at fore of threats to U.S.: Clapper

Terrorism, the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and espionage, especially cyber attacks and the theft of U.S. technology, are the leading U.S. national security threats, the top U.S. intelligence official said Thursday. | 02/10/11 11:33:35 By - Jonathan S. Landay

Guantanamo detainee gets 2-year sentence in Pentagon deal

A former al Qaeda cook who pleaded guilty to war crimes at Guantánamo could go home to Sudan in the summer of 2012, under a secret deal just approved by a senior Pentagon official and made public Wednesday by the Defense Department. Ibrahim al Qosi, 50, is the first Guantánamo captive to reach a war court settlement during the Obama administration. | 02/09/11 21:28:47 By - Carol Rosenberg

Poll: Obama has public's support on his handling of Egypt

The poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that 57 percent of the respondents said the Obama administration is handling the situation in Egypt about right. | 02/08/11 17:11:40 By - Michael Muskal

Toyota electronics cleared in sudden acceleration incidents

A NASA report on Toyota's sudden acceleration found "no electronic flaws" could create the kind of high-speed, unintended acceleration incidents that captured America's attention a year ago. The report hat mechanical safety defects including sticky accelerator pedals and pedals trapped by floor mats remain the only known cause for the incidents. | 02/08/11 17:06:40 By - Jim Puzzanghera

Bush trip to Switzerland axed over torture protest fears

The United Israel Appeal scrapped a plan to showcase President George W. Bush at a Feb. 12 gala in Geneva amid reports that human rights groups were poised to protest and file a torture complaint. Protest organizers had told participants to bring an extra shoe, prompting fears that someone might re-enact an Iraqi journalist's 2008 assault on President Bush in Baghdad. | 02/05/11 19:17:58 By - Carol Rosenberg

Geomagic CEO is becoming Obama's small business initiatives resource

Ping Fu continues to reinforce her role as the local entrepreneur who has become a small business resource for the Obama administration. The CEO and founder of Geomagic, a 3-D software company in Research Triangle Park, was among the speakers Monday in Washington who helped kick off Obama's campaign to increase investment in start-up companies. The appearance follows several visits to Washington last year, including as Michelle Obama's guest at the State of the Union. | 02/01/11 07:40:53 By - Alan Wolf

Obama sends veteran diplomat to meet with Mubarak regime

The Obama administration Monday dispatched a retired top U.S. diplomat to Egypt to deliver a U.S. call for the embattled government to open talks with the political opposition on holding "free and fair" elections. | 01/31/11 20:04:38 By - Jonathan S. Landay

F-35 joint strike fighter started with recipe for trouble

There are numerous reasons for the F-35 debacle, say longtime defense observers, and most of them were predictable: Pentagon officials and military officers cobble together unrealistic goals, timetables and budgets, and defense contractors sign on knowing that once a big program is launched, it's seldom canceled and the money keeps flowing. | 01/30/11 12:02:12 By -

FBI serves 40 warrants in search of WikiLeaks 'hacktivists'

The FBI statement announcing the search warrants was the first indication that the U.S. intends to prosecute the so-called "hacktivists" for a series of computer attacks on websites of businesses that stopped providing services to WikiLeaks last month. Such distributed denial of service attacks are punishable by 10 years in prison. | 01/28/11 23:39:33 By - Mark Seibel

Phil Angelides: Financial crisis 'didn't need to happen'

Sacramento, California's Phil Angelides, appointed by Congress to investigate the financial crisis of 2008, declared Thursday that the entire mess could have been avoided. In a blistering report that followed 18 months of testimony and fact-gathering, Angelides and his Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission blamed a wide cast of characters for the epic meltdown. The report said human error created the crisis. | 01/28/11 06:53:42 By - Dale Kasler

WikiLeaks probe: Army commanders were told not to send Manning to Iraq

Investigators have concluded that Army commanders ignored advice not to send to Iraq an Army private who's now accused of downloading hundreds of thousands of sensitive reports and diplomatic cables that ended up on the WikiLeaks website in the largest single security breach in American history, McClatchy has learned | 01/27/11 16:31:27 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Obama nominates S.C. federal judge to appellate court

President Obama has nominated U.S. District Judge Henry F. Floyd to serve on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in a rare promotion of a Republican-appointed federal judge by a Democratic president. | 01/27/11 11:06:34 By - James Rosen

Michelle Obama brings 'Let's Move!' campaign to Fort Jackson

Traffic around Fort Jackson — always heavy on basic training graduation days — will be even more challenging today as first lady Michelle Obama attends the ceremony. Obama also will meet at the fort with Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, who said the city is prepared to adopt the “Let’s Move!” program. | 01/27/11 07:36:19 By - Jeff Wilkinson

Ethics groups requests investigation documents on Alaska Rep. Young

Washington, D.C.,-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Wednesday that it is asking the Justice Department to release its files in at least two closed corruption investigations of U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska. | 01/27/11 06:50:14 By - Richard Mauer

Boeing awarded $1.6 billion contract to build Navy aircraft

Boeing has received a $1.6 billion contract from the U.S. Navy for initial low-rate production of the P-8A Poseidon aircraft. The Navy plans to buy 117 of the aircraft, which is a derivative of Boeing's 737-800 single-aisle commercial aircraft. Initial operational capacity is planned for 2013. | 01/26/11 20:19:17 By - Molly McMillin

Report: Bush White House violated Hatch Act

Scott Jennings, a former political aide to George W. Bush with deep Kentucky ties, figures prominently in a new federal report that says the Bush White House violated a federal law that prohibits public money from being used to influence elections. | 01/26/11 07:12:50 By - Jack Brammer

Former Marine sues over Camp Lejeune water contamination

A man who served at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune for nearly two years in the 1950s has sued the federal government for $16 million, saying poisonous water at the base caused his cancer. | 01/25/11 23:13:42 By - Barbara Barrett

'Don't ask, don't tell' policy was costly, GAO concludes

The U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving openly in the military cost the Pentagon more than $193 million over six years, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday. | 01/21/11 19:30:51 By - Nancy A. Youssef

With health care 'repealed,' GOP turns to climate change

Now that the House of Representatives has voted to repeal the health care law, Republicans say they're likely to move soon to another target — a rewrite of the Clean Air Act so that it can't be used to fight climate change. | 01/21/11 14:50:09 By - Renee Schoof

Duvalier's return to Haiti worries Obama officials

The Obama administration expressed surprise and worry Monday at former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier's sudden reappearance in Haiti, the country he fled 25 years ago with help from the U.S. | 01/17/11 19:49:22 By - Lesley Clark

With Obama's Tucson speech, his presidency turns a corner

There are moments that define a presidency, and Barack Obama's speech Wednesday night to a memorial service for Arizona shooting victims may be one. | 01/13/11 20:08:23 By - Steven Thomma

EPA vetoes mountaintop coal mine in West Virginia

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday blocked what would have been one of the largest mountaintop coal mines in Appalachia. The decision reverses a previously granted permit for the Spruce No. 1 mine in the already heavily mined Coal River basin. | 01/13/11 17:22:54 By - Renee Schoof

Environmentalists fear Hastings will take care of business

Republican Rep. Doc Hastings says any criticism of his environmental record is off base for one reason: He's spent his entire career in Congress trying to clean up a massive nuclear dump in his central Washington state district. | 01/09/11 18:31:59 By - Rob Hotakainen

In WikiLeaks fight, U.S. journalists take a pass

Just three years after a major court confrontation that saw many of America's most important journalism organizations file briefs on WikiLeaks' behalf, much of the U.S. journalistic community has shunned founder Julian Assange — even as reporters write scores, if not hundreds, of stories based on WikiLeaks' trove of leaked State Department cables. | 01/09/11 15:12:18 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Obama's remarks on Arizona shooting

The White House released this transcript of President Obama's remarks on Saturday's shooting in Tucson, Ariz. | 01/08/11 19:46:35 By -

Graham, DeMint: Bring nuclear waste to South Carolina

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint said Friday the nation should recycle its used nuclear fuel, a move that could bring jobs to the state's Savannah River Site. Recycling is one option for handling the nation's waste now that the Obama administration has decided not to dispose of the waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. | 01/07/11 21:47:48 By - Sammy Fretwell

Health care spending increase is smallest in 50 years

U.S. health care spending in 2009 grew at the slowest rate in 50 years, as the recession and high unemployment caused outlays for nearly all medical goods and services to slow or decline, according to a new government report released Wednesday. | 01/06/11 15:55:38 By - Tony Pugh

F-35 orders likely cut in Gates' Pentagon spending plan

Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to cut orders for the F-35 joint strike fighter over the next three to five years as part of broader plan to reduce Pentagon spending by $100 billion, analysts say. Gates will brief Congress today on a five-year spending plan for the Defense Department, including yet another restructuring of the F-35 program to compensate for repeated delays in development and testing. | 01/06/11 07:29:32 By - Bob Cox

Gibbs' departure begins retooling of Obama's staff

President Barack Obama's departing chief spokesman said Wednesday that a "pretty major retooling" of White House staff will unfold over the next several weeks, giving Obama needed "different and fresh perspectives" as he enters the second half of his four-year term. | 01/05/11 19:48:25 By - Margaret Talev

Military bans 2 U.S. firms from Afghan contracting

Nearly a year after two American construction companies abruptly shuttered their operations in Afghanistan and left the country allegedly owing their Afghan partners more than $2 million, the U.S. military announced Wednesday that it's temporarily blacklisting the firms. | 01/05/11 16:51:36 By - Dion Nissenbaum

Boehner pleads for civility, but it doesn't last long

Even as the House of Representatives' newly elected leaders, including Speaker John Boehner, made lofty calls for civility and bipartisanship on Wednesday, the rank and file members engaged in sharp political warfare over the federal budget and health care. | 01/05/11 10:01:34 By - David Lightman

Mystery continues over death of ex Pentagon official

A witness came forward, saying John Parsons Wheeler III had been spotted alive in downtown Wilmington, Del., on Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours before his body was found in a Newark, Del., landfill. But what happened then to the former Air Force official who was working on cyber security issues for a defense contractor remains a mystery. | 01/05/11 09:42:31 By - John Shiffman and Kathleen Brady Shea

House ethics panel drops Joe Wilson probe

The House ethics committee has ended its investigation of Rep. Joe Wilson after its staff found insufficient evidence that he’d misused taxpayer-funded expense money during official travel abroad. | 01/03/11 19:46:52 By - James Rosen

California to cut its D.C. lobbying crew from six to two

The downsizing comes as Governor-elect Jerry Brown seeks quick budget savings in an effort to shrink the state's looming deficit. | 12/23/10 17:00:23 By - Mike Doyle

Burr, Hagan moved against defense bill over Lejeune water

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr this week quietly blocked a massive defense authorization bill after he discovered that someone had inserted 38 words into a bill that Burr feared would hurt victims of water contamination at Marines Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. | 12/22/10 19:54:53 By - Barbara Barrett

Raucous crowd cheers as Obama ends 'don't ask, don't tell'

President Barack Obama signed the repeal of the military's prohibition against gays serving openly in the armed force on Wednesday at a ceremony that was packed with 500 advocates, lawmakers, members of the military and former soldiers who'd been discharged for their sexual orientation. The crowd was jovial and a little rowdy, chanting "Yes, we did!" and "U-S-A, U-S-A." Many shouted out, "Enlist us now." | 12/22/10 13:46:01 By - Margaret Talev

Obama wins: 67-28 Senate vote ensures START ratification

The Senate voted 67-28 to cut off debate on the pact, a majority strong enough to ensure that the New START treaty will get the two-thirds majority it needs for approval from the 100-member Senate. A final vote is expected Wednesday. Eleven Republicans voted with the Democrats. | 12/21/10 13:26:05 By - David Lightman and William Douglas

Black S.C. GOP congressman's unlikely foe: the Census

Rep.-elect Tim Scott hasn't even taken office, yet the North Charleston Republican knows that he's already a marked man. An expected new U.S. House seat for South Carolina as a result of the 2010 Census could come largely at Scott's expense. | 12/20/10 14:41:43 By - James Rosen

Latest Florida recount: State may gain 2 House seats

Florida may pick up as many as two more seats in the U.S. House -- further boosting the state's influence in Congress and making it an even bigger prize in the race for the White House. Though the actual increase in seats won't be known until the U.S. Census Bureau makes it official Tuesday, early projections suggest Florida is a lock for one seat, and in contention for a second. | 12/20/10 14:41:22 By - Lesley Clark

Congress repeals 'don't ask, don't tell' policy on gays in military

The Senate voted 65-31 Saturday to end the Pentagon’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy on gays and lesbians in the military, as President Barack Obama declared “it is time to close this chapter in our history.” | 12/18/10 17:31:00 By - David Lightman

Gates statement hailing 'don't ask, don't tell' repeal

The Department of Defense issued the following statement from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." | 12/18/10 16:19:41 By -

Why the Census may be bad news for Missouri Democrats

The Census will make clear on Tuesday what has been speculated about in Missouri political circles for a while: The state could lose a congressional seat effective the 2012 elections. Democrats could be most at risk. | 12/17/10 19:23:23 By - David Goldstein and Les Blumenthal

Air Force officials overturn Osprey crash findings

Senior Air Force generals overturned the findings of their own investigation team and ruled that the fatal crash of a CV-22 Osprey in Afghanistan in April was largely due to flight crew mistakes and not a mechanical problem. | 12/17/10 07:31:55 By - Bob Cox

South, West expected to pick up House seats after census

Sun Belt states and those in the West are expected to gain even more political clout when the Census Bureau announces on Tuesday which states will gain congressional seats and which will lose them | 12/16/10 18:55:10 By - Les Blumenthal

New try at 'don't ask don't tell' repeal passes House

The House of Representatives Wednesday approved new legislation repealing the law banning gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military — a move that gives to momentum to efforts to overturn the 17-year-old ban. | 12/15/10 20:14:14 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Senate approves tax cut plan by overwhelming 81-19 vote

The $858 billion tax-cut deal faces one more hurdle — passing the House of Representatives, where Democrats are angry about its estate tax and Republicans are upset about its mammoth deficit spending. A House vote could come as soon as Wednesday night, though Thursday is more likely. | 12/15/10 13:31:00 By - David Lightman and Kevin G. Hall

U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, known for Dayton Accords, dies

Richard C. Holbrooke, the hard-charging diplomat who brokered peace in the Balkans and then took on an even tougher task as the Obama administration’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, died Monday night at age 69. | 12/13/10 22:31:09 By - Warren P. Strobel

BP oil spill victims will get 3 options for compensation

Kenneth Feinberg, the head of the Gulf oil spill fund, said Monday that victims of the BP oil spill will have three options for final compensation from the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and all but one of them requires claimants to give up their right to sue. | 12/13/10 19:03:46 By - Maria Recio

Virginia federal judge rules health care law unconstitutional

A federal judge on Monday ruled unconstitutional a key provision of President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul law, moving its mandate that Americans buy health insurance coverage one step closer to a Supreme Court showdown. | 12/13/10 12:32:40 By - Margaret Talev and Michael Doyle

Murkowski wants to know why feds dropped Allen sex case

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she plans to continue her effort to hold top Justice Department officials accountable for dropping the teen sexual exploitation prosecution of former Veco Corp. chairman Bill Allen, a key prosecution witness in the failed case against the late Sen. Ted Stevens. One possible target of her questions: Attorney General Eric Holder. | 12/12/10 23:53:52 By - Richard Mauer

Obama decision to close Yucca nuclear dump back in court

The lawsuits had been on hold while the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals waited for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide whether DOE had the authority to withdraw its license application for Yucca Mountain. But the NRC hasn't made its decision, so on Friday the court said the lawsuits by the state of Washington and others can go forward. | 12/12/10 21:12:10 By - Annette Cary

Levin urges Obama to let GOP bear blame for tax increases

Democrats, led by President Barack Obama, should force a New Year's Eve showdown with Republicans over tax cuts, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Sunday. The Bush-era income tax cuts expire Dec. 31. Levin said Obama should insist that tax cuts for the wealthy be allowed to expire and if the Republicans don't go along, then he should make sure the country understands that it's the Republicans who are to be blamed for the expiration of middle class tax cuts too. | 12/12/10 14:47:02 By - David Lightman

New rules would limit U.S. aid to new Cuban immigrants

A change in the way that some Cubans' applications for U.S. entry are handled could deny them a broad range of benefits when they arrive in the United States, according to Florida officials. The shift would deny those Cubans the right to health screenings and immunizations, Medicaid and Refugee Medical Assistance as well as employment services, English language and vocational training and help with child care. | 12/12/10 11:09:16 By - Juan O. Tamayo

Holder blasts attempt to block 9/11 domestic trials

The Obama administration Thursday urged Senate leaders to reject a legislative ban on the transfer of any Guantánamo prisoner to U.S. soil, a move meant to corner the White House into staging a Sept. 11 mass murder trial at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba. The House included the clause in a catchall spending bill Wednesday that passed by a 212-206 vote. The Senate has yet to vote on it. | 12/10/10 19:53:37 By - Carol Rosenberg

FBI seeks delay in outside review of its anthrax probe

The FBI has asked the National Academy of Sciences to delay the release of its review of the bureau's highly controversial, seven-year investigation into the deadly 2001 anthrax mail attacks that killed five people and panicked the nation. A New Jersey congressman has called the request "disturbing" and asked the FBI for an explanation. | 12/09/10 21:21:21 By - Greg Gordon

California to get high-speed rail funds 2 states rejected

California's high-speed rail plan will receive up to $624 million in additional federal funds, Transportation Department officials announced Thursday. The new funding adds to the $715 million in federal funds previously awarded to California. It arrives courtesy of Ohio and Wisconsin, two states where recently elected Republican governors decided not to accept their own allotment of high-speed rail dollars. | 12/09/10 20:25:29 By - Michael Doyle

Obama's pick to lead Fannie, Freddie promises leadership

President Barack Obama's nominee to lead Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pledged to Congress Thursday to offer not just management, but leadership, if he becomes the new chief of the troubled housing agencies. | 12/09/10 16:00:35 By - Barbara Barrett

Alaska's Murkowski will vote to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell'

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she'll vote to repeal the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy that bars openly gay service members from the military. Democrats need her support and that of other Republicans to get the 60 votes they need to take up a defense re-authorization bill that will include the repeal. | 12/08/10 16:02:42 By - Erika Bolstad

Bank of America settles with states, feds in fraud probe

Bank of America has agreed to a sweeping $137 million settlement with state and federal authorities to resolve its role in an alleged bid-rigging scheme that has been under investigation since 2006. The settlement resolves allegations that the Charlotte bank defrauded state agencies, cities and towns, and non-profits that bought a type of investment called municipal bond derivatives. | 12/07/10 15:00:58 By - Rick Rothacker

11 votes for deficit report not enough to send it to Congress

A majority of President Barack Obama’s bipartisan federal debt commission members on Friday endorsed their leaders’ sweeping blueprint for slashing nearly $4 trillion from budget deficits over the next 10 years. But the 11 supporters of the 18-member National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform “Moment of Truth” plan were short of the 14 needed to send the package to Congress for votes. | 12/03/10 11:03:39 By - David Lightman

Oil spill commission examines Arctic drilling

The presidential commission that's looking at the Gulf of Mexico oil spill zeroed in Thursday on the future of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, and specifically on how to address possible spills. | 12/03/10 06:47:20 By - Erika Bolstad

Food safety bill stumbles over small-farm exemption

The future of a big food safety bill fell into doubt one day after the Senate approved it, as farm organizations began withdrawing their support and new technical hurdles arose. | 12/01/10 17:03:26 By - Michael Doyle and Les Blumenthal

Gulf of Mexico shrimp on White House menu

White House Executive Chef Cris Comerford weighed in on yummy Gulf seafood on her blog today as the country celebrates Gulf shrimp, oysters, crawfish and other seafood in a national restaurant promotion “America’s Night Out for Gulf Seafood” – which apparently extends to the nation’s premier house. | 12/01/10 13:35:08 By - Maria Recio

Officials may be overstating the danger from WikiLeaks

American officials in recent days have warned repeatedly that the release of documents by WikiLeaks could put people's lives in danger. But despite similar warnings ahead of the previous two massive releases of classified U.S. intelligence reports by the website, U.S. officials concede that they have no evidence to date that the documents led to anyone's death. | 11/28/10 21:03:00 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Meet Bruce Reed, Obama's point man on cutting deficit

It's going to require sacrifice, it might not be pretty, and people across the political spectrum will have to come together to get it done, warns Bruce Reed, an Idaho Democrat who's the executive director of the presidential commission that's finding ways to stem the red ink of the nation's deficit. | 11/28/10 19:53:06 By - Erika Bolstad

WikiLeaks release reveals embarrassing diplomatic details

The initial leak Sunday of hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables by the WikiLeaks website contained no explosive revelations, but their blunt language and unvarnished statements of U.S. positions on a wide range of issues could prove highly embarrassing, hurt ties with allies and other countries and diminish trust in Washington's ability to safeguard secrets. | 11/28/10 19:35:40 By - Jonathan S. Landay

U.S. officials: New WikiLeaks release will do most harm yet

U.S. diplomats and officials said they're bracing Sunday for at least three newspapers and WikiLeaks to publish hundreds of thousands classified State Department cables that could drastically alter U.S. relations with top allies and reveal embarrassing secrets about U.S. foreign policy. | 11/27/10 20:12:35 By - Nancy A. Youssef

Did prison change Levy trial's star witness for the better?

Armando Morales is a man in transit, destination unknown. The 49-year-old Fresno native provided the key testimony that helped convict Ingmar Guandique of killing Chandra Levy. Implicitly, jurors also believed Morales when he testified he was turning his life around. He'd left the gang life, he said. | 11/27/10 16:50:46 By - Michael Doyle

Earmarks are still in demand despite ban

House Republicans are spurning earmarks. Their Republican counterparts in the Senate, including a yet-to-be-sworn-in Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, also are swearing off pet projects. But the voluntary bans may do little to discourage those seeking federal dollars. | 11/26/10 14:54:34 By - Lesley Clark

Chandra Levy's mom battles news media over evidence

Chandra Levy's mother is now hoping to lock up some of the trial evidence used to convict killer Ingmar Guandique. Specifically, Mrs. Levy objects to the release of photographs that contain Chandra Levy's skeletal remains and trial exhibit photographs of Chandra Levy's clothes and shoes." | 11/24/10 19:51:59 By - Michael Doyle

DEA takes steps to curb synthetic marijuana

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Wednesday took steps to effectively ban synthetic marijuana products. So far, 15 states ban products such as "spice" or "K2" and marketed under a variety of names, which is a collection of herbs treated with a compound that produces effects similar to smoking marijuana. | 11/24/10 19:48:35 By - Beth Burger

Debt panel's Social Security fix: Raise taxes, cut benefits

Social Security taxes would rise and benefits would fall under proposals from the co-chairmen of the special deficit-reduction panel that's due to report to Congress by Dec. 1. | 11/23/10 18:53:19 By - Kevin G. Hall

Alaska faces tough road if Congress really cuts earmarks

Long the reigning champion of earmarks and never a state to turn down federal money, Alaska may have to change its ways as Congress reconsiders a practice that's come to symbolize runaway government spending. Still, its three representatives in Congress are looking for ways around the Republican pledges to end the practice. | 11/22/10 00:01:00 By - Erika Bolstad

TSA could have chosen a less intrusive screening machine

After 23-year-old Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a flight from the Netherlands to Detroit last Christmas with enough explosives to bring down the plane, officials at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport decided to build a better mousetrap. In the 11 months since, Schiphol largely has avoided the privacy uproar that's roiling U.S. airports. | 11/18/10 16:45:44 By - Tony Pugh

Senator blasts VA over handling of Lejeune veterans' claims

The top Republican on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee blasted the Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday for not communicating about how it's handling medical claims from Marines who were once stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C. | 11/18/10 16:20:45 By - Barbara Barrett

Former aide to Alaska Rep. Young tipped off FBI in probe

Federal prosecutors in Washington revealed this week that a former aide to Rep. Don Young provided substantial help to the FBI in criminal investigations of two congressmen, including one in which he secretly recorded a conversation at the request of agents. | 11/18/10 15:19:24 By - Richard Mauer

Congressman didn't tell fellow Dems of his Guantanamo role

It's one of the Pentagon's most sensitive and carefully guarded secrets: Who interrogated the prisoners at Guantánamo? So it came as a surprise last month when a Pennsylvania congressman seeking reelection campaigned as the only member of the U.S. Congress to have interrogated a Guantánamo detainee. | 11/18/10 07:04:53 By - Carol Rosenberg

Debt experts: Let's make Medicare beneficiaries pay more

Offering the latest tough-love strategy to reduce the nation's debt, a panel of high-profile Republicans and Democrats is scheduled on Wednesday to recommend that Medicare beneficiaries pick up far more of their health care costs and that the government substantially curb the amount both Medicare and Medicaid programs can grow in future years. | 11/16/10 20:26:36 By - Phil Galewitz and Jordan Rau, Kaiser Health News

Levy trial prosecutors, defense attorneys make final arguments

Prosecutors and defense attorneys on Tuesday pressed their closing arguments in the trial of the man accused of killing Chandra Levy, casting the pros and cons in starkly different terms. | 11/16/10 18:39:41 By - Michael Doyle