
'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 ...

Senate legislation targets cyberstalking software
For around $50, a jealous wife or husband can download software that can continuously track the whereabouts of a spouse better than any private ...

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 ...

Honduran congress dismisses Supreme Court justices
Honduras' political standoff escalated Wednesday as legal officials debated whether a congressional vote to remove four Supreme Court justices ...

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 ...

Lawmaker: NFL players 'trying to back out' on HGH
Accusing the NFL players' union of "trying to back out" of an August 2011 agreement to start checking for human growth hormone, a congressman worried ...

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 ...
Congress ends second bag checks on some flights
Passengers arriving in the U.S. from international airports who miss connecting flights because their checked bags have to be rescreened could get ...
Sawyer interviews women senators, to air Jan. 3
With a record-breaking 20 female senators elected to serve in the next Congress, ABC News' Diane Sawyer gathered 19 of them for an interview that will ...

Leading Democrat calls foreign aid system outmoded
The Soviet Union was the Cold War threat, Ian Fleming's creation James Bond was headed to the screen as Sean Connery in "Dr. No" and the U.S.

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 ...

Lawmakers seek to rekindle mining reform efforts
While the U.S. government reaps billions of dollars in royalties each year from fossil fuels extracted from federal lands and waters, it does not ...
House GOP press Obama for balanced fiscal deal
House Republican leaders are pressing President Barack Obama to come up with plan they can accept for spending cuts and tax revenue to avoid the ...

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 ...

Uruguay's lower house approves gay marriage law
Lawmakers in taboo-breaking Uruguay voted to legalize gay marriage late Tuesday night, approving a single law governing marriage for heterosexuals and ...

'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 ...
Congress looks into science of HGH test for NFL
Nearly two full seasons since signing a labor deal that paved the way for HGH testing in the NFL, the league and the players' union still haven't ...
Senator: Rock removal on Mississippi to start soon
Crews might be allowed to begin destroying two rock pinnacles impeding barge traffic on the Mississippi River as early as next week, more than a month ...

Michigan lawmakers approve right-to-work bills
Over the chants of thousands of angry protesters, Republican lawmakers made Michigan a right-to-work state Tuesday, dealing a devastating and ...

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 ...

THE RESET: Debt limit looms as next fiscal cliff
We now know what's on the other side of that menacing year-end "fiscal cliff." Another cliff. While White House and Republican congressional leaders ...