The administration’s mandate has angered religious groups, especially Catholics, who say the requirement would force them to violate their beliefs against contraception, and congressional Republicans.

Young housewives and older moms who bought assault rifles from Texas gun dealers are among nearly two dozen charged in an alleged weapons smuggling ring that armed Mexican cartels before the scheme was broken up, federal agents said Wednesday.

House Republicans have introduced their version of a bill to ban insider trading by thousands of federal officials, and have added provisions to bar lawmakers convicted of a felony from collecting their government pensions.

Karl Rove claims Clint Eastwood ‘s Super Bowl ad for Chrysler was a devious pitch to promote the Obama reelection campaign.

A majority of Catholics support including birth control in health care plans and back the decision by the Obama administration that requires most employers to include such coverage, according to a new survey released Tuesday.

Handel may be the only one who got what she really wanted This morning, Karen Handel resigned as the vice president of public policy of the Susan G. Komen foundation. Handel had spent the last week at the epicenter of the controversy around Komen’s decision to withdraw support for Planned Parenthood and several progressive groups [...]

By fighting terrorism with covert CIA actions, President Obama deprives us of the ability to meaningfully evaluate American foreign policy. The War in Iraq is mostly over. We’re drawing down forces in Afghanistan. Barring an unexpected terrorist attack or another Libya-style troop deployment, Election 2012 will proceed in a world where the War on Terrorism [...]

At the start of the 21st century, the advertising industry is guiding one of history’s most massive stealth efforts in social profiling. At this point you may hardly notice the results of this trend. You may find you’re getting better or worse discounts on products than your friends. You may notice that some ads seem [...]

In this photo taken in 2007, a backhoe clears debris from Hurricane Katrina, in the Lakeview section of New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Republican-led House is trying Wednesday to give President Barack Obama the line-item veto, a constitutionally questionable power over the purse that has been sought by both Republican and Democratic presidents.

A new passenger screening program to make check-in more convenient for certain travelers is being expanded to 28 more major U.S. airports, the government said Wednesday.

The real story was the magnitude of what happened in this extraordinary vote. Not only did Rick Santorum win the Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado showdowns, but he did so decisively.

The striking down of California’s Proposition 8 voter initiative banning same-sex couples from marrying sets up what may be a quick appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, in a 2-1 decision yesterday, ruled voters couldn’t deprive gay couples of the right to marry. Proposition 8′s only purpose [...]

Accuser had said she was raped after boozy night Manhattan prosecutors cleared the police commissioner’s son of rape Tuesday in a case that gripped the city and threatened his career as host of Fox 5′s “Good Day New York.” Greg Kelly said he was grateful to be exonerated and promised a rapid return to his [...]

The Arizona Supreme Court has upheld an order removing a city council candidate from the ballot in San Luis, Ariz., because of her lack of English fluency. The court’s ruling means Alejandrina Cabrera will not be a candidate in the city’s March primary election.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, who dropped her own bid for the White House in January, said on CNN she was unable to get home because of votes in Congress.

Rick Santorum speaks in St. Charles, Mo., after being declared the winner of the Missouri primary and the Minnesota caucuses.

Johansson, dressed in a black-and-sheer Stella McCartney frock, lent her own glamour quotient Tuesday to a launch party for Runway to Win, a fundraising initiative from the fashion world.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum spoke in St. Charles, Mo., after winning election contests in Missouri and Minnesota.

U.S. drone-fired missiles hit a house in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region near the Afghan border on Wednesday, killing nine people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

Move over, coffee and Red Bull. A Harvard professor thinks the next big thing will be people inhaling their caffeine from a lipstick-sized tube.

If you live next to a member of Congress, you’re in luck. A new Washington Post investigation shows the myriad ways lawmakers “spruce up” their neighborhoods by steering more than $300 million in earmarks to public projects that are “next to or near” their own properties.

earmark ties to lawmakers’ gain A lengthy investigation by The Washington Post finds that 33 members of Congress have directed more than $300 million in earmarks and other spending provisions to dozens of public projects next to or within two miles of their own property.

Catholic women side with Obama on this, a new survey says Pundits and bishops warn President Obama he could lose the white Catholic vote over requiring a contraception option for insurance plans. But Catholic women side with Obama on this, a new survey says. The pivot point is how you see this. Is it a [...]

The mad rush to move client money out of MF Global Inc. after its collapse left two firms with the bulk of customer accounts, while other brokerages emerged with only minor gains from the chaos of carving up a multibillion-dollar business.

Net income for the fourth quarter increased to $514 million, or $4.03 a share, MasterCard Inc., the second-biggest payments network, doubled its quarterly divided to 30 cents a share after reporting fourth-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates.

With a deadline looming on Monday for state officials to sign onto a landmark multibillion-dollar settlement to address foreclosure abuses, the Obama administration is close to winning support from a crucial state that would significantly expand the breadth of the deal.

It’s called GJ 667Cc and it’s just 22 light years from Earth – virtually a next door neighbor in our little corner of the galaxy. Most compelling to astronomers is that the planet is smack dab in the middle of its parent star’s habitable zone, the circumstellar region within which liquid water can be sustained [...]

The U.S. mainstream news media does not seem to have the foggiest idea how serious the climate crisis is (or at least many journalists pretend not to). That is the only conclusion one can infer based on the abysmal track record of climate-related news reporting. A recent eight-paragraph story in The Hill, a Capitol Hill [...]

A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, clearing the way for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on gay marriage as early as next year.

Glenn Beck has promoted a conspiracy that the United Nations is plotting to centrally control local communities through green initiatives.

The generally bipartisan, if wonky, surface transportation issue got a major dose of political (and partisan) medicine last week when House Republicans unveiled their American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. The measure combines elements of a highway bill constructed by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica, R-Fla., with several hot-button energy proposals that [...]

A federal appeals court has rejected arguments from a former counselor at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who claims her religious rights were violated because she was fired for refusing to counsel a gay woman.

The prospects for an extension of President Barack Obama’s signature payroll tax cut, once considered a slam dunk on Capitol Hill, now seem far less certain as House-Senate talks have deadlocked over finding ways to pay for it.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney gestures during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb.

A small group of Marines trudged onto the beach sands in pitch-black night with an armada of U.S. Navy warships sailing just off the shore.

With the city of Homs reported under renewed bombardment, a senior Russian envoy opened talks with President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, news reports said, a day after the United States closed its embassy in Syria in the face of escalating mayhem blamed by Washington on the Syrian government’s unbridled repression of an 11-month-old uprising.

Five killer whales have been named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit which argues they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans.

Texas is all but certain to have an even later say in choosing the Republican presidential nominee after what at first looked like a breakthrough deal in a bitter dispute over redistricting maps ended with wide rejection of the proposal.

Republicans in Congress seem to have forgotten the embarrassment they suffered late last year for trying to block a payroll tax cut for millions of wage-earners. The two-month extension they reluctantly approved will run out in three weeks, yet, again, they are stalling a full-year’s tax cut with extraneous issues and political ploys.

More than one in three Americans lived in households that received Medicaid, food stamps or other means-based government assistance, according to a new report.

A political adviser to President Barack Obama said Tuesday the administration didn’t intend to “abridge anyone’s religious freedom” with its regulation requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control for their workers.

In this Oct. 9, 2008 file photo, former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey speaks during a healthcare debate in Lincoln, Neb.

In a Tuesday Aug. 10, 2010 file photo, Georgia gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel speaks to reporters after casting her ballot in the Georgia runoff election in Roswell, Ga.

The Ugandan parliamentarian who first introduced an anti-gay bill that carried the death penalty for some homosexual acts reintroduced the bill on Tuesday, raising concerns among rights activists who have been fighting the legislation.

A delegation had been scheduled to meet with Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin on Monday and the panel’s top Republican, John McCain, on Tuesday.

The Obama campaign’s announcement late Monday that it plans to publicly support fundraising for an allied outside political group is the final, stark admission that the president can no longer afford to keep the lightly regulated but increasingly influential political organizations at arm’s length.

In 1985, Xi Jinping led a delegation to Muscatine, Iowa, to study advanced hog-raising techniques.

In 1985, Xi Jinping led a delegation to Muscatine, Iowa, to study advanced hog-raising techniques.

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the execution of a Mississippi inmate who killed two men in a 1995 robbery spree.

Mitt Romney’s five sons — Matt, Tagg, Craig, Ben and Josh — are sitting pretty with a trust fund worth $100 million.

Sensing a possible threat, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney criticized rival Rick Santorum’s time in the Senate as “not effective” because of his past support for spending on pork-barrel projects as he worked to fend off an unexpected challenge in the next states to vote.Santorum countered that Romney “should not be our nominee” … (more)

President Barack Obama’s campaign is returning about $200,000 in contributions collected by family members of a Mexican casino owner who fled the U.S. after facing drug and fraud charges.

President Barack Obama’s campaign is returning about $200,000 in contributions collected by family members of a Mexican casino owner who fled the U.S. after facing drug and fraud charges.

Only 29 percent of voters nationwide believe the United States is heading in the right direction, while 64 percent believe the nation has gotten off on the wrong track.

Tax reform sounds like a good idea to lots of people, but where to start? Eliminate the popular deduction for home mortgages? End the write-off for charitable contributions? How about expanding the Social Security payroll tax? Politicians of all stripes in this presidential election year are clamoring for simplifying the tax code and closing … [...]

an “ahmazing” and “pretty enjoyable” experience A Missouri teenager who admitted stabbing, strangling and slitting the throat of a young neighbor girl wrote in her journal on the night of the killing that it was an “ahmazing” and “pretty enjoyable” experience – then headed off to church with a laugh.

Same-sex couple Amber Weiss and Sharon Papo stand in line to receive their marriage license before getting married at San Francisco City Hall June 17, 2008 in San Francisco.

A bill to speed the update the U.S. air traffic control system from radar to one based on GPS technology and to open U.S. skies to unmanned drone flights within four years received final congressional approval Monday.

But Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” ad featuring quintessential tough guy Clint Eastwood has generated fierce debate about whether it accurately portrays the country’s most economically distressed city or amounts to a campaign ad for President Barack Obama and the auto bailouts.

From North Texas to Austin to D.C., our insiders take you beyond the usual rhetoric on government and politics Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott agreed today to a temporary voting map that could keep Texas’ primary election on April 3. “The proposed maps minimize changes to the redistricting plan passed by the Legislature and, as [...]

President Barack Obama on Saturday pressed lawmakers to pass his proposal to provide up to $10 billion in aid to struggling homeowners, saying a failure to address the housing crisis would put the rest of the economy at risk.

Days after a judge ruled against him in a child custody hearing, a father and his two young sons were killed Sunday when police said he appeared to intentionally blow up a house with all three inside – a tragic ending to a bizarre case that began more than two years ago when the man’s [...]

A group aligned with the Tea Party has funneled more than $1.3 million in anonymous contributions to a super PAC working aggressively to unseat Utah Sen.

‘Shieldcrocs’ mingled with dinosaurs Bone-bothering US boffins have identified a new species of prehistoric crocodile, nicknamed “Shieldcroc” because of a flat ornamental skin shield on its ginormous head. The hard-headed Aegisuchus witmeri is one of modern-day crocs’ earliest ancestors found in Africa, the researchers claim. “Along with other discoveries, we are finding that crocodile ancestors [...]

The current favorite argument of those who argue that climate changes isn’t happening, or a problem, or worth dealing with, is that global warming has stopped.

One of NASA’s twin Grail spacecraft has returned its first unique picture of the far side of the moon, an image that shows shadowed craters at the moon’s south pole.

Man claiming that he was living with zombies Maskandi singer Khulekani Mseleku, popularly known as Mgqumeni, who was believed to be dead and buried in 2009, has suddenly made a shocking reappearance The man claiming to be KwaZulu-Natal maskandi musician, Khulekani Mseleku, will appear in court tomorrow on a charge of fraud.

In this June 27, 2011, file photo Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., with her husband Marcus signs autographs after her formal announcement to seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in Waterloo, Iowa.

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice speaks to reporters after the Security Council voted on a resolution backing an Arab League peace plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down , Saturday.

Lawmakers who came to Washington demanding budget cuts face a tough test now that President Barack Obama and military leaders want to shrink the force, shut down bases and cancel weapons to achieve them.

In 1952 Folkways Records released a set of very strange, very powerful old recordings under the title Anthology of American Folk Music . Essentially, the Anthology was comprised of dozens of blues, folk, gospel, and jazz songs, divided into three two-LP sets labeled — eccentrically and inconsistently — “Ballads,” “Social Music,” and “Songs.” Accompanying the [...]

For the past several years, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan has complained that the U.S. economy has been growing at too slow a rate. Now, as unemployment rates drop and job creation seems finally to be accelerating, Ryan is suddenly fretting about the prospect that the economy might grow too quickly.

Speaking from the Bulgarian capital of Sofia today, where she’s visiting on a diplomatic mission, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed yesterday’s dark day for Syria, when hundreds of Syrians were massacred just hours before Russia and China blocked a U.N. action that sought to end the violence in that country.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius argued Monday that a new rule that requires many religious employers to cover birth control in employee health plans respects those with “deeply held beliefs opposing the use of birth control.” “We specifically carved out from the policy religious organizations that primarily employ people of … (more)

The Minnesota Republican caucus is set to be a highly competitive race, with all the four candidates in the fray engaging in a close fight. Minnesota caucuses on Feb 7 at 7pm and the state has 40 delegates, in its non-binding caucus. The latest poll results by the Public Policy Polling (PPP) are surprising as [...]

A Yuma County Superior Court judge touched off a furor last week when he disqualified Alejandrina Cabrera, a candidate for city council in San Luis, Arizona, from running for office over what he called a “large gap” between her English proficiency and that required to serve as a public official.

With the government reporting that the unemployment rate and the number of jobless fell in January to their lowest levels since early 2009, the recovery seems finally to be reaching U.S. workers The Labor Department’s latest snapshot of the job market, released Friday, makes clear that employers have been hiring more in recent months, with [...]

“I’ve been very clear that we’re going to do everything we can to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” the president said. President Obama said Sunday he believed Israel has not yet decided whether to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. “I don’t think that Israel has made a decision,” Obama said in an interview with [...]

The portrayal of a young Asian woman speaking broken English in a Super Bowl ad being run by U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra against Michigan incumbent Debbie Stabenow is bringing charges of racial insensitivity.

The 2012 presidential campaign is like no other with nearly half of the TV ads being funded not by the campaigns, but by political action committees formed to support the candidates.