
Election over, administration unleashes new rules
While the "fiscal cliff" of looming tax increases and spending cuts dominates political conversation in Washington, some Republicans and business ...

'Fiscal cliff' talks vexing official Washington
Five weeks after President Barack Obama won re-election and gained more leverage to make GOP conservatives bend on taxes, the new balance of power is ...

NKorea policy in Seoul to soften despite rocket
It is not too early to predict one sure winner of South Korea's presidential election next week: North Korea. President Lee Myung-bak's hardline ...

Joe Allbritton, 87, DC media, banking giant dies
Joe L. Allbritton, who became one of Washington's most influential men through a media conglomerate of newspapers and television stations and a ...

US hesitant in condemning North Korean launch
The Obama administration is drawing no "red line" for North Korea after a successful long-range rocket test, tempering the public condemnation to ...

No budging as fiscal cliff talks appear stalled
Republicans aren't budging on tax rates, and Democrats are resisting steps like raising the eligibility age for Medicare. Negotiations on averting a ...
Senate Dems offer Sandy disaster aid package
Senate Democrats on Wednesday finished cobbling together a $60.4 billion disaster aid package for New York, New Jersey and other states hit by ...

Why it's so hard to step back from 'fiscal cliff'
The "fiscal cliff" crisis bundles together some of Washington's toughest decisions — the ones lawmakers have dodged for years — and says settle them ...

Senate intern, a sex offender, faces deportation
Sen. Robert Menendez employed as an unpaid intern in his Senate office an illegal immigrant who was a registered sex offender, now under arrest by ...

Lieberman urges compromise in final Senate speech
Retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman on Wednesday used his final Senate floor speech to urge Congress to put partisan rancor aside to break Washington's ...
Fiscal cliff threatens federal aid for home heat
Poor and elderly Americans who rely on aid from the federal government to heat their homes stand to get less help this year if Congress and the White ...

Obama's fiscal cliff strategy is tricky balance
Playing both sides, President Barack Obama is trying to balance his public pressure campaign on Republicans over the looming "fiscal cliff" with his ...

Panetta in Afghanistan to meet with Karzai
President Barack Obama will decide shortly how many U.S. troops he wants to keep in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led coalition military mission ends in ...

US economy could withstand brief fall off 'cliff'
It's the scenario that's been spooking employers and investors and slowing the U.S. economy: Congress and the White House fail to strike a budget deal ...

'Cliff' movement? Obama, Boehner trade proposals
In a test of divided government, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner sought an elusive compromise Tuesday to prevent ...

Fiscal cliff: Private bargaining, public wrangling
In a test of divided government, the White House and congressional Republicans bargained in secret and sparred in public Tuesday over a deal to ...

As 'fiscal cliff' looms, voter angst is palpable
Five hundred miles from Washington, the lunch crowd at Robie's Country Store and Deli is filled with angst over America's elected leaders and their ...

GOP throws Obama's old deficit stands back at him
Some of the best Republican arguments against President Barack Obama's proposals to avoid a "fiscal cliff" come from the president himself, in ...

Meeting delay a sign of cooling US-Vietnam ties
The U.S. and Vietnam, former enemies who share concerns about China's rise, are finding that one issue — human rights — is keeping them from becoming ...

No one retreating; cliff talks seem at standstill
A year-end deadline approaching, quiet negotiations to avoid an economy-rattling "fiscal cliff" yielded no tangible signs of progress on Monday as ...

Fiscal cliff stalemate spurs anxiety in states
A plunge over the federal "fiscal cliff" may sound like a terrifying risk for many state officials anxiously watching as Washington struggles to avert ...

End may be sight for FBI's unloved Hoover building
Just six blocks from the White House, the FBI's hulking headquarters overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue has long been the government building everyone ...

Gay couples in Wash. start taking wedding vows
Keith Bacon and Corianton Hale wore dress shirts as they recited their vows at Seattle City Hall, as the city hosted more than 100 weddings on the ...

Same-sex couples in Wash. state start wedding vows
Scores of same-sex couples crowded Seattle City Hall for a day of wedding ceremonies on Sunday, the first day they could marry after the state's ...