Updated: 11:50 AM President Barack Obama says he is "ready and willing" to get a big package done to deal with the "fiscal cliff" and says there's no reason not to protect middle-class Americans from tax increases.
Updated: 11:50 AM President Barack Obama is meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to discuss a way to avoid the fiscal cliff. The president plans to make remarks at the White House following their meeting.
Posted: 1:01 PM President Barack Obama has nominated Sen. John Kerry as his next secretary of state, saying Kerry's entire life "has prepared him for this role."
Updated: 12:21 PM The most powerful gun-rights lobby in the U.S. said Friday it wants to address gun violence by having an armed police officer in every school in the country.
Updated: 11:11 AM President Barack Obama on Friday will nominate Sen. John Kerry as his next secretary of state, a senior administration official said, making the first move in a sweeping overhaul of his national security team heading into a second term.
Updated: 10:34 AM One week after the mass shootings that killed 26 people at a Connecticut elementary school – 20 of them children – the nation's largest gun-rights lobby is returning to the spotlight as Congress prepares to consider tighter restrictions on firearms in the new year.
Updated: 11:36 PM Unable to round up enough support, House Republicans abruptly put off a vote Thursday night on legislation allowing tax rates to rise for households earning $1 million and up, complicating attempts to avoid a year-end fiscal cliff that threatens to send the economy into recession.
Updated: 11:45 AM America's population is increasing a bit faster thanks to an improving economy, but not enough to lift growth above its lowest level since the Great Depression.
Updated: 11:51 AM WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent over the summer as consumers spent more and state and local governments added to growth for the first time in nearly three years. But the economy is likely slowing in the current quarter.
Updated: 11:51 AM WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week by 17,000, reversing four weeks of declines.
Updated: 9:47 AM LAS VEGAS (AP) - A 20-year-old beauty queen from Rhode Island has been crowned the new Miss Universe.
Updated: 9:48 AM The debate about possible gun control measures has caused a run on guns at gun stores in the Houston area but it is not the gun stores that some lawmakers are concerned about; rather, they are worried about loopholes in current law.
Posted: 11:05 PM A storm that has dumped more than a foot of snow in the Rocky Mountains is causing problems for travelers as it spreads across the Plains.
Updated: 9:24 AM An independent panel charged with investigating the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Libya that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans has concluded that systematic management failures at the State Department led to inadequate security that left the diplomatic mission vulnerable.
Posted: 8:39 PM The State Department has begun to implement recommendations to improve security at U.S. diplomatic missions called for by an independent panel set up to investigate the Sept. 11 attack in Libya that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Updated: 11:39 PM Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Tuesday ordered a worldwide review of hiring practices at all U.S. military day care centers after the Army revealed that it discovered problems with security background checks of workers at a Washington-area center.
Posted: 8:12 PM The University of Connecticut is creating a scholarship fund for students from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where 20 students and six staff members were gunned down last week.
Posted: 7:40 PM The National Rifle Association is breaking its silence four days after a school shooting in Newtown, Conn., where 26 were killed, including 20 children.
Posted: 6:13 PM Two inmates who escaped downtown Chicago's high-rise federal jail by climbing down a rope may have fled hours before police swarmed the area.
Updated: 4:19 PM The White House says President Barack Obama is "actively supportive" of efforts on Capitol Hill to reinstate an assault weapons ban.
Updated: 9:07 AM New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leading a push for tougher gun laws in the wake of Friday's mass killing at a Connecticut elementary school.
Updated: 9:44 AM Democratic lawmakers said Sunday that military-style assault weapons should be banned and that a national commission should be established to examine mass shootings in the United States.
Updated: 6:30 PM For President Barack Obama, it was another sorrowful visit to another grieving community full of broken hearts from unimaginable violence.
Posted: 4:25 PM Connecticut state police say multiple 30-round magazines and hundreds of bullets found at elementary school where 26 were killed.
Updated: 4:26 PM Friends, family, and teammates filled a St. Louis, Missouri church to say goodbye to former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jerry Brown Junior.
