
Despite disapproval, someone will win Obama-Romney
Never have American voters re-elected a president whose work they disapprove of as much as Barack Obama's. Not that Mitt Romney can take much comfort ...

Local governments try to cut costs via efficiency
In some places, it's as simple as pulling the plug on thousands of unused telephone lines or installing software that automatically shuts off idle ...
German group slams Catholic 'pay to pray' decree
A Catholic reform group in Germany criticized the country's bishops Monday for declaring that believers who refuse to pay religious taxes won't be ...

ND Senate: Booming economy, close race
Off a dirt road a mile-and-a-half from the nearest town, Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp is standing in the loft of a barn, giving a ...
DSCC ups spending in Nev., Ind. Senate battles
Democrats are splitting roughly $1.2 million in new spending between tight races in Indiana and Nevada as they try to maintain control of the Senate.

AP IMPACT: Tragedy meant big money for NY minister
Before the Sept. 11 attacks, the Rev. Carl Keyes was a little-known pastor of a small New York City congregation searching for members and money.

Decades of federal dollars helped fuel gas boom
It sounds like a free-market success story: a natural gas boom created by drilling company innovation, delivering a vast new source of cheap energy ...

Texas inmate prepares for 3rd trip death house
What Cleve Foster remembers most about his recent brushes with death is the steel door, the last one condemned Texas inmates typically walk through ...

Tom DeLay still waiting to learn legal fate
Former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay — still waiting to learn his legal fate since being convicted nearly two years ago for his role in a ...

Bond at risk for Ohio Amish hate-crime defendants
Nine of 16 Amish convicted in beard- and hair-cutting attacks on fellow Amish in Ohio have remained free, but the government asked Friday to have them ...

Corruption trial opens for former Detroit mayor
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick repeatedly stuffed his bank account and paid off credit cards with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, the ...

THE RACE: Romney running into some GOP headwinds
Republicans expected the Nov. 6 presidential election to be a national referendum on Barack Obama's presidency and economic stewardship. But some GOP ...

Business groups protest Calif. carbon market
A key component of California's landmark greenhouse gas emissions law would impose enormous costs on businesses at a time when the state's economy is ...
Pawlenty resigns from Romney campaign to lobby
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has resigned as a national co-chairman of Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign to lobby for Wall Street.

Obama boosted by upbeat housing reports, new polls
Fresh signs of a national housing rebound and growing support in public opinion polls boosted President Barack Obama's bid for a new term in the White ...

Romney's comments ripple across battleground map
Mitt Romney's offhanded comment that as a candidate he doesn't worry about the 47 percent of Americans who pay no income taxes has quickly entered the ...

In Virginia, rivals for Senate talk up cooperation
Democrat Tim Kaine talks a lot about Republicans — the ones in his family, the ones he's worked with and the ones he hopes will help him bridge the ...
High court won't stop Texas voting map
The Supreme Court is allowing Texas to use congressional districts that were drawn by a lower federal court for the November election. The court ...

Analysis: Romney sharpens differences with Obama
Republican Mitt Romney, in describing nearly half of Americans as being docile dependents of the state, and saying it's a "foreign concept" for ...

With Alaska's higher costs, dividends won't go far
This is the day Alaskans crow about to their brethren in the Lower 48, trying to make them jealous that the government gives them money to just live ...
Pa. high court wants review of voter ID access
Pennsylvania's highest court on Tuesday told a lower court that it should stop a tough new voter photo identification law from taking effect in this ...
Syrian war looms over UN meeting of world leaders
Hovering over this month's annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations is the international community's failure to end the escalating war ...

AP Exclusive: Mass. inmate lauds sex-change ruling
A convicted murderer in Massachusetts says a judge's decision to grant her request for sex-reassignment surgery is "the right thing to do." U.S.

Free speech, religion clash over anti-Muslim film
While the man behind an anti-Islam movie that ignited violence across the Middle East would likely face swift punishment in his native Egypt for ...

French small business faces job-creation hurdles
Europe needs jobs, and French entrepreneur Daniel Joutard wants to create them, hiring more employees for his skin-care products company. Yet he can't ...