DETROIT (Reuters) – Detroit’s bankruptcy filing has made it harder for Michigan’s municipalities to tap America’s municipal bond market but it is difficult to say exactly how much impact it has had, the state’s governor said in an interview Tuesday. “I think i... More »
SACRAMENTO (Reuters) – New sales of semi-automatic rifles with removable magazines would be banned in California under a bill passed by the Democratic-led state legislature on Tuesday, and those who already own such weapons would have to register them. The mea... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge threw out a lawsuit accusing Bloomberg LP of discriminating against dozens of pregnant employees, saying the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s mishandling of the case effectively cost the plaintiffs their day in cou... More »
RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The U.S. government tapped into computer networks of companies including Google Inc. and Brazilian state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA, according to leaked U.S. documents aired by Globo, Brazil’s biggest television ne... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The president of the NAACP, Benjamin Jealous, will step down on December 31 after five years in the post, the civil rights group said on Sunday in a statement posted on its web site. In an interview with the Washington Post, Jealous said... More »
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – It is an uncommon sight in American politics – a governor barnstorming his state to rail against tax cuts. But Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is on a campaign-style crusade to win public support for his veto of an income tax cut ... More »
(Reuters) – IBM plans to move U.S. retirees off its company-sponsored health plan and shift them into new private insurance exchanges as a way of lowering costs for retirees. IBM had selected Extend Health, which is owned by Towers Watson & Co, to provide reti... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Two politicians viewed as potential front-runners to replace disgraced former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned in the face of a sexual harassment lawsuit, said Tuesday they would not run, leaving the race wide open. At least 16 ca... More »
SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) – Republican lawmakers in New Mexico lined up on Tuesday to join the legal fight against gay marriage in the state, arguing that a county clerk who voluntarily began issuing licenses to same-sex couples last month overstepped his... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has failed so far to convince most Americans that the United States should launch a limited military strike against Syria in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government, a Reuters/Ipsos... More »
JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) – Mississippi hunters smashed back-to-back records on the opening weekend of the state’s 10-day alligator season by bagging some of the biggest critters on the books. Within hours of the August 30 opener, one hunting party caught... More »
(Reuters) – CBS Corp won large increases in the fees it will receive from Time Warner Cable Inc in its agreement with the cable operator that ended a month-long blackout of CBS, Showtime and other channels in key cities, analysts said. CBS was asking for as mu... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. law enforcement officials investigating drug crimes have had access, using subpoenas, to a large AT&T Inc database that contains the records of phone calls dating back to 1987, according to a New York Times report. The report, published on Sun... More »
(Reuters) – CBS Corp said it has reached an agreement with Time Warner Cable Inc to end a month-long blackout of its stations in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. The two sides had been at odds since August 2, when talks broke down over CBS’s demand that the s... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama should return the naval base at Guantanamo Bay to Cuba, and some detainees could stay on at a U.S.-run jail there, a former U.S. envoy to Cuba said. Obama, by negotiating a deal with Cuban leader Raul Castro about... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier and four other ships in its strike group moved into the Red Sea early on Monday, U.S. defense officials said, describing the move as “prudent planning” in case the ships are needed for military action agai... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and his top aides launched a full-scale political offensive on Sunday to persuade a skeptical Congress to approve a military strike against Syria, but faced a struggle to win over lawmakers from both parties and a ... More »
MIAMI (Reuters) – American long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad had passed the three-quarter mark on her swim across the Florida Straits on Monday, attempting to become the first person to swim from Cuba without a shark cage. Nyad, 64, was “swimming strongly” more... More »
(Reuters) – Mary Cheney, the younger daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney who married her long-time partner Heather Poe last year, chastised her older sister, a Republican who is running for the Senate, for her opposition to same-sex marriage in a pos... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The British government has asked the New York Times to destroy copies of documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden related to the operations of the U.S. spy agency and its British partner, Government C... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. intelligence community has pledged to disclose more data about government surveillance programs by reporting annually how many secret court orders are issued to telecommunications companies under certain legal rules. Director of... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – All legally wed gay couples, no matter which state they live in, are entitled to the same U.S. federal tax benefits as married heterosexual couples, the Obama administration said on Thursday. The U.S. Treasury ruling, following a landmar... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Detroit, which made the largest Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy filing in U.S. history, on Thursday filed a request for proposals for $350 million in unprecedented financing, the city emergency manager’s office said. Detroit is the first lar... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An unmanned Delta 4-Heavy rocket, the largest in the U.S. fleet, blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Wednesday to put a classified spy satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office, officials said W... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration has delayed a step crucial to the launch of the new healthcare law, the signing of final agreements with insurance plans to be sold on federal health insurance exchanges starting October 1. The U.S. Department of... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California Governor Jerry Brown, facing a federal court order to ease overcrowding in the state’s prison system, proposed a $315 million plan on Tuesday to expand inmate capacity by leasing space from county jails and other facilities. ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama met on Tuesday with a five-member panel he appointed to review the privacy issues involved with U.S. government surveillance programs, the White House said, part of an effort to rebuild public trust after leaks by ... More »
AUGUSTA, Maine (Reuters) – A Maine man who lived in the woods with nearly no human contact for 27 years, supporting himself by stealing food and supplies, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to seven counts of burglary and six of theft. Christopher Knight, 47, was c... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Eight Democratic senators and congressmen have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to answer questions about a Reuters report that the National Security Agency supplies the Drug Enforcement Administration with intelligence information use... More »
(Reuters) – Another sports team owner is eyeing the possibility of becoming a newspaper publisher. Mark Walter, the controlling partner of the group that owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he could be interested in buying the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Guardian has agreed with the New York Times to give the U.S. newspaper access to some classified documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, both papers said on Friday. In a brief story posted on it... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. businesses are hiring at a robust rate. The only problem is that three out of four of the nearly 1 million hires this year are part-time and many of the jobs are low-paid. Faltering economic growth at home and abroad and concern tha... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – They clambered gingerly up the riser behind President Barack Obama in the East Room of the White House, white-haired, bespectacled, their coach in a motorized chair, former athletes there to receive an accolade 40 years late. Members of ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The British government, accused of abusing media freedom, said on Tuesday police were right to detain a journalist’s partner if they thought lives might be at risk from data he was carrying from fugitive U.S. intelligence contractor Edward S... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a gun-control measure into law on Sunday that expands background checks to cover all firearms purchases in the state, closing what he said was a loophole that exempted gun sales between private parties. Th... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Friday that fingerprint technology should be used to admit residents to city-run housing projects as a way of increasing security. “What we really should have is fingerprinting to get in,” Bloo... More »
ATLANTA (Reuters) – Bert Lance, a Georgia banker and long-time friend of former President Jimmy Carter who served as Carter’s budget chief until being forced to resign in 1977 amid bank fraud allegations over which he was later cleared, has died at age 82. Lan... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Obesity levels among adults appear to be holding steady across the United States, adding to recent evidence that the growth rate for U.S. waistlines is slowing, according to an analysis released on Friday. But within the holding pattern ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since 2008, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing an internal audit and other top-secret documents. Most of ... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – A 67-year-old great-grandmother became the latest of 16 women to publicly accuse San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment, as city officials calling for him to resign sought to turn up the pressure on the embattled politician. Pegg... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. securities regulator on Thursday banned former press baron Conrad Black from acting as a director of a U.S. company and said he must pay $4.1 million in restitution in a settlement that ends a long-standing lawsuit over Black’s dealings as... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Detroit’s two public pension funds will file an objection on Monday to the city’s bankruptcy filing on Michigan constitutional grounds, a representative of the pension boards said on Thursday. The challenge expected from the pension funds i... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Defense Department on Thursday unveiled steps to combat sexual assaults in the armed forces by increasing protection for victims, beefing up oversight of investigations, and making responses to such crimes more consistent across... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The long-tailed, orange-furred, big-eyed olinguito – said to resemble a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear – is the newest mammal and the first carnivore discovered in the Americas in 35 years, the Smithsonian Institution announc... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kurt is a 32-year-old IT systems administrator from Des Moines, Iowa. He has a colleague who had been prescribed “ridiculous amounts” of Vicodin for a chronic back problem. His colleague offered him some of the pills. Soon Kurt was taking ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., once one of the most promising black politicians in the United States, was sentenced on Wednesday to 2-1/2 years in prison for misuse of campaign funds. Jackson, a former Democratic represen... More »
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin on Wednesday stepped up pressure on the biological father of “Baby Veronica,” a 3-year-old Native American girl caught in a protracted adoption custody battle, warning him to cooperate with the girl’s ado... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Jack Germond, the gruff and rumpled “fat man” of American political journalism best known for his coverage of presidential campaigns, died on Wednesday at the age of 85. He died “peacefully and quickly” early in the morning at his home i... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hit by years of budget cuts, some U.S. public school boards are looking to avoid providing health benefits to substitute teachers and supporting staff under President Barack Obama’s reform law, education officials say. According to the l... More »
(Reuters) – Heidi Fleiss, nicknamed the “Hollywood Madam” in the 1990s after she was accused of running a high-priced Southern California call-girl ring, may face charges after 392 pot plants were found at her Nevada desert home, a county sheriff said on Tuesd... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Renting billboards to tout Detroit’s upcoming election was a good idea until the wrong date was put on 14 of them over this past weekend, city officials said. Detroit, which has filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, chooses a ne... More »
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – A Florida time-share resort where a sinkhole devoured a building Sunday night said that it is open for business and next week’s guests should “come on down.” Paul Caldwell, the general manager of Summer Bay Resorts, which is locate... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Billionaire U.S. entrepreneur Elon Musk unveiled plans on Monday for a futuristic “Hyperloop” transportation system to whisk passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under half an hour. The highly anticipated announcement p... More »
(Reuters) – Celebrity chef Paula Deen won a partial victory on Monday when a U.S. judge dismissed the racial discrimination portion of a lawsuit that has already cost the Southern culinary star a big chunk of her multimillion-dollar enterprise. The lawsuit was... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration unveiled steps on Monday to fix what it considers the longstanding unjust treatment of many nonviolent drug offenders, aiming to bypass tough mandatory prison terms while reducing America’s huge pri... More »
CLERMONT, Florida (Reuters) – Dozens of guests at a Florida resort near Walt Disney World were safely evacuated in the middle of the night on Monday when a large sinkhole opened on the property, swallowing a three-story building. “I was hearing popping noises ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday said he would appeal a federal judge’s ruling that the police department’s “stop and frisk” crime-fighting tactics violate constitutional rights. Bloomberg remained firm in his argument that the p... More »
SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California, whose green ambitions helped the solar and wind industries take root, is taking an essential next step by proposing a sharp rise in energy storage to better integrate renewable power with the rest of the grid. ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Justice Department plans to change how it prosecutes some non-violent drug offenders, so they would no longer face mandatory minimum prison sentences, in an overhaul of federal prison policy that Attorney General Eric Holder will unv... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California judge gave Amanda Bynes’ mother legal control of the troubled actress’s affairs on Friday, according to court documents. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Glen Reiser granted a temporary conservatorship motion brought by ... More »
(Reuters) – A group of 16 maintenance workers from a county government garage in New Jersey share one of three winning tickets in the $448 million Powerball lottery jackpot, their boss said on Friday. “Yes, we have 16 county workers from the Vehicle Maintenanc... More »
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – A Minnesota engineer was introduced on Thursday as one of three winners of a $448 million Powerball lottery, and said he was so excited to discover he had a lucky ticket that he ran around the office at a Minneapolis contracting firm wh... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. and Russian officials will seek to maintain a working relationship when they meet in Washington on Friday, even though the political mood between their countries has hit one of its lowest points since the end of the Cold War. Presid... More »
JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) – Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott is being treated in a Mississippi hospital for a ruptured appendix, a former aide said on Thursday. Mississippi radio station WLOX said Lott, 71, was in fair condition. Supervisor Chris ... More »
(Reuters) – The National Security Agency, hit by disclosures of classified data by former contractor Edward Snowden, said Thursday it intends to eliminate about 90 percent of its system administrators to reduce the number of people with access to secret inform... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Criminal defense lawyers are challenging a U.S. government practice of hiding the tips that led to some drug investigations, information that the lawyers say is essential to fair trials in U.S. courts. The practice of creating an alterna... More »
MIAMI (Reuters) – Strong ticket sales have boosted the jackpot for Wednesday’s Powerball lottery drawing to an estimated $425 million, the fourth-biggest jackpot in U.S. history. As word of the big payout spread, vendors faced a crush of buyers lining up for t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Details of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration program that feeds tips to federal agents and then instructs them to alter the investigative trail were published in a manual used by agents of the Internal Revenue Service for two years.... More »
(Reuters) – Two left-leaning Democrats appeared poised to advance from a crowded non-partisan primary in the race for Seattle mayor on Wednesday, setting up a likely November showdown between an activist-minded incumbent and a challenger promising a more inclu... More »
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama used a stop at a military base in California on Wednesday to speak out against sexual assault within the U.S. armed services. Finishing a two-day trip to Arizona and California during which he promo... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – A former hospital executive and a county sheriff appear to be the top two contenders advancing to the general election in November that will produce a new mayor of debt-laden Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month, accord... More »
BURBANK, California (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama confirmed on Tuesday that he would go to Russia this fall for a G20 summit but said he was “disappointed” that Russia granted temporary asylum to former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. Spea... More »
(Reuters) – CBS Corp Chief Executive Leslie Moonves on Tuesday rejected the latest proposal by Time Warner Cable Inc to end its blackout of the network and dismissed the cable company’s offer as a “public relations gesture.” Even though both sides urged each o... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For years, the Graham family, owners of the Washington Post, would fly two dozen senior editors to a luxury resort in Puerto Rico, where they would mingle with then-chairwoman Katharine Graham and listen to her son, Donald Graham, talk a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Intercepted communication between al Qaeda leaders was one component of a broader pool of intelligence that prompted a threat alert closing numerous U.S. embassies in the Middle East and Africa, U.S. sources said on Monday. The New York ... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – San Diego’s mayor, facing mounting pressure to resign over sexual harassment allegations from nearly a dozen women, entered an intensive therapy program on Monday, a spokeswoman said. As Mayor Bob Filner, a Democrat, prepared over the wee... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Justice Department is reviewing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit that passes tips culled from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a large telephone database to field agents, White House Press Secretary Jay Ca... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Detroit will begin to assess the value of its assets, including parking meters, real estate, and a portion of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) collection, in what the city called a “necessary part” of its restructuring efforts. The city ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States extended embassy closures by a week in the Middle East and Africa as a precaution on Sunday after an al Qaeda threat that U.S. lawmakers said was the most serious in years. The State Department said 19 U.S. embassies an... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States extended the closures of some embassies and consulates in the Middle East – which had been closed Sunday due to an al Qaeda threat – through August 10 due to caution but not the emergence of any new threat, the State De... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s top national security advisers met at the White House on Saturday to discuss the potential threat of terrorist attacks that caused Washington and its allies to issue travel warnings and close embassies throughout... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – At Cubbyhole, a popular New York lesbian bar, for every two revelers who praised City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, in her race to become the city’s first woman and first openly gay mayor, one complained about her style and political p... More »
CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – The first female graduate of The Citadel military college said on Saturday she will run in the Republican primary against South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who is one of several Republican incumbents facing challenge... More »
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s efforts to recruit talented hackers could suffer from the recent revelations about its vast domestic surveillance programs, as many private researchers express disillusionment with the National Security Agency. Thoug... More »
NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) – A gun-rights group in the bellwether presidential primary state of New Hampshire has warned New Jersey Governor Chris Christie that signing gun control bills passed by his state’s Legislature could have consequences if he runs fo... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. broadcaster CBS went dark for millions of Time Warner Cable subscribers on Friday in the nation’s two largest markets and other cities after the cable operator and CBS Corp failed to reach an agreement over fees following weeks of contentious ... More »
(Reuters) – CBS went dark for millions of Time Warner Cable subscribers on Friday after the cable operator and the network’s parent company CBS Corp failed to reach an agreement over fees after weeks of contentious negotiations. The blackout of the No. 1 rated... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – For nearly six decades Detroit’s story has been one of relentless erosion of its once mighty manufacturing base, but even as the Motor City faces a long bankruptcy a clutch of small producers has moved in to rekindle the “Made in Detroit” b... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr has a long list of things to fix in the city and among them is one that may sound surprising: there are not enough skilled workers to fill job openings as they become available. “Every problem in this cit... More »
(Reuters) – A court hearing on Friday may provide a roadmap for how Detroit’s historic bankruptcy filing will unfold as the judge overseeing the case could set a speedy schedule, appoint a mediator and rule on other matters. The hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Cour... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After causing weeks of embarrassment for the U.S. intelligence community, the Edward Snowden saga has now cast a shadow over international efforts to end the Syrian civil war and deal with Iran, and could also undermine White House hopes... More »
MIAMI (Reuters) – The Florida anti-aging clinic at the center of a doping scandal involving Major League Baseball players, including New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez, is under federal investigation for selling controlled substances to high school studen... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Thursday told lawmakers he is open to changing controversial surveillance programs in order to restore public confidence and provide assurance the government is not violating citizens’ privacy, participants at t... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. state and local governments have about $1 trillion of unfunded retiree healthcare liabilities, a shortfall that is expected to pressure budgets in the near future even more than pension costs, two Federal Reserve Board of Governors senior econ... More »
(Reuters) – A top officer at the Detroit Institute of Arts predicts near-certain closure for the museum if Detroit sells major pieces from the 60,000 works in the institute’s art collection as a way to address the city’s dire financial situation. In an intervi... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Twitter is under increasing pressure from governments around the world to release user’s private information, with requests rising 40 percent in the first six months of the year, the microblogging company said Wednesday in its semi-an... More »
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – George Zimmerman, a volunteer watchman whose acquittal in the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin led to protests, was pulled over by police in Texas on Sunday for speeding, officials said on Wednesday. Zimmerman t... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, under mounting pressure to resign over sexual harassment accusations, deserves to have the city pay for his defense because he never received workplace behavior training, his lawyer has told the city attorney. ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. college students will likely pay a reduced interest rate of 3.86 percent on their student loans for the new school year, after lawmakers on Wednesday finally passed a compromise bill that would reverse a recent rate hike. The House ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New revelations from former security contractor Edward Snowden that U.S. intelligence agencies have access to a vast online tracking tool came to light on Wednesday, as lawmakers put the secret surveillance programs under greater scrutin... More »
