SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc and its photo sharing subsidiary, Instagram, will delete posts offering to buy or sell guns without background checks, Facebook announced on Wednesday. In an effort to curb what gun control advocates say is the increasing... More »
(Reuters) – Nearly 70 competitors from around the world set off from a frozen lake on Sunday to challenge reigning Iditarod champion Mitch Seavey at the true start of Alaska’s famed and grueling sled-dog race. The nearly 1,000-mile (1,600-km) Iditarod Trail Sl... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will unveil a budget this week that seeks to boost spending on new initiatives such as road repairs, education programs and tax breaks for the working poor while avoiding an increase in U.S. deficits. Obama has mad... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday signed into law a $687 million drought-relief package to deal with a water shortage he has called the worst in the state’s modern history. “This legislation marks a crucial step – but Californ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is making income inequality an issue in midterm elections, and proof of the gap between rich and poor is close at hand right outside the White House. The booming District of Columbia features the wealthiest high-in... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some 9 million poor women and young children who receive federal food assistance under the U.S. government’s so-called WIC program will have greater access to fruits, vegetables and whole grains under an overhaul of the program unveiled ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s ban on discriminatory health insurance practices against the sick has not stopped insurers from increasing up-front charges for the expensive drugs needed to control chronic illnesses from leukemia to multiple sc... More »
OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) – Washington is set to become the fifth state to offer college financial aid to students brought into the country illegally by their parents. Democratic Governor Jay Inslee is expected on Wednesday to sign legislation that provide... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will fly to St. Paul, Minnesota, on Wednesday to propose a four-year, $302 billion plan to create jobs by fixing the nation’s crumbling roads, bridges, rail and transportation infrastructure. Congress faces a Septe... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The next U.S. military budget will include funds to overhaul Boeing Co’s ground-based missile defense system and develop a replacement for an interceptor built by Raytheon Co, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer said Tuesday, citing “bad ... More »
PHOENIX (Reuters) – Arizona Governor Jan Brewer came under mounting pressure on Tuesday from other prominent Republicans and consultants to veto a controversial bill described by critics as a license to discriminate against gays and others in the name of relig... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – The lead singer for the heavy metal Christian rock band As I Lay Dying pleaded guilty in California on Tuesday to a charge of soliciting an undercover detective posing as a hit man to kill his estranged wife. Tim Lambesis, 33, entered the... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – George W. Bush, U.S. president turned painter, will have his artwork featured in an exhibit for the first time in April. More than two dozen portraits painted by the 43rd U.S. president will be part of exhibit called “The Art of Leadersh... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will propose on Monday a reduction in the size of the U.S. Army to its smallest size since before World War Two and scrapping a class of Air Force attack jets, the New York Times reported on Sunday. The plan... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Governors from both U.S. political parties plan to talk to President Barack Obama on Monday about preventing potential cuts to National Guard units, several governors said on Sunday. “In downsizing the military, we want to make sure that... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Washington and Colorado may have blazed the trail by legalizing marijuana, but not all U.S. states are rushing to follow their lead, governors from several states in the Midwest and the East Coast said on Sunday. “I don’t support the leg... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will announce two new manufacturing institutes aimed at attracting and nurturing businesses that will hire workers for highly paid jobs in the United States, a White House official said on Saturday. One institute, ... More »
HARARE (Reuters) – Former congressman Mel Reynolds was due to appear in a Zimbabwe court on Wednesday on charges of possessing pornographic images and of staying in the country without a valid visa, according to legal papers seen by Reuters. Reynolds, 62, a co... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen’s top labor representative threatened on Wednesday to try to block further investments by the German carmaker in the southern United States if its workers there are not unionized. Workers at VW’s factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee,... More »
OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) – Washington state lawmakers have voted to make students brought to the United States illegally by their parents eligible for need-based college financial aid. Passage of the measure, which supporters have labeled the Dream Act af... More »
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – California’s drought has put 10 communities at acute risk of running out of drinking water in 60 days, and worsened numerous other health and safety problems, public health officials in the most populous U.S. state said on Tu... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bob Casale, the guitarist and original member of the U.S. New Wave band Devo best known for the 1980 hit “Whip It,” died on Monday from heart failure at the age of 61, his brother and bandmate said. “His sudden death from conditions that l... More »
KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is taking steps it hopes could lead to a resumption of peace talks to end the Afghan conflict, including reviving a proposed swap of Taliban detainees held at Guantanamo Bay in return for a U.S. prisoner of... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Congress approved an increase in the country’s debt limit through March 2015, bowing to President Barack Obama’s demands to extend federal borrowing authority without conditions, but only after a dramatic Senate vote on Wednesda... More »
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Former New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin was found guilty by a federal jury on Wednesday of accepting bribes and trading on the public trust during the critical years of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. A jur... More »
(Reuters) – Shirley Temple Black, who lifted America’s spirits as a bright-eyed, dimpled child movie star during the Great Depression and later became a U.S. diplomat, died late on Monday evening at the age of 85, her family said in a statement. Temple Black, ... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – San Diego voters head to the polls on Tuesday to choose between two city councilmen vying in a race seen as too close to call to succeed disgraced former Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned amid a hail of sexual harassment allegations in Augus... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – The city of San Diego and its disgraced former mayor, Bob Filner, have agreed to pay his ex-press secretary $250,000 to settle the sexual harassment suit she brought against them, with the entire sum coming from municipal coffers, city of... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Monday again delayed a contentious healthcare law requirement that all but the smallest employers provide coverage to full-time workers, this time by giving medium-sized businesses another year to comply. The ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, many political strategists saw it as a triumph of the Obama team’s technological prowess, allowing it to identify likely Democratic voters and get them to the... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employment likely rebounded in January after being held back by cold weather the prior month, which would offer assurance that economic growth was not faltering. Nonfarm payrolls are expected to have increased by 185,000 last month,... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators plan to seek input on how to improve public data used to spot discriminatory lending and other possible abuses in the mortgage market, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Friday. Lenders already must report l... More »
MILWAUKEE (Reuters) – A rare Stradivarius violin worth millions of dollars that was stolen from a concert violinist in an armed robbery last week has been recovered from a Milwaukee residence, law enforcement officials said on Thursday. Authorities discovered ... More »
(Reuters) – Four people were arrested on Tuesday in connection with drugs found at the home of film star Philip Seymour Hoffman following his death of an apparent heroin overdose, the New York Daily News reported, citing unidentified police sources. The arrest... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s healthcare law will reduce the American workforce by the equivalent of 2 million full-time workers in 2017, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday, prompting Republicans to paint the law as bad medicine ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday set up a showdown vote with Republicans on a new bill to extend long-term unemployment benefits for 1.7 million Americans while making millionaires ineligible for such relief. Democrats hold the Senate, 5... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers warned on Tuesday that time is running out to make specific reforms to the National Security Agency’s telephone surveillance program and promised Congress would act if the Obama administration does not. The House Judiciary... More »
ADELPHI, Maryland (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has a pen. He has a phone. And on Tuesday, he wielded an iPad to help make a point about how he hopes to do more for schools without more funding from Congress. Obama toured Buck Lodge Middle School in Adelp... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The HealthCare.gov website is not yet equipped to handle appeals by thousands of people seeking to correct errors the system made when they were signing up for the new federal healthcare law, the Washington Post reported on Sunday. The n... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New Jersey Democrat leading a probe of the bridge traffic scandal that has engulfed Governor Chris Christie said on Sunday he has seen no evidence to support claims that the governor had been aware of the apparently politically motivated... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New Jersey Democrat leading a probe of a bridge traffic scandal that has engulfed Governor Chris Christie said on Sunday he had seen no evidence to support claims that the governor had been aware of the politically motivated traffic jams... More »
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Punxsutawney Phil, a famed U.S. groundhog with an even more famous shadow, emerged from his burrow on Sunday and predicted six more weeks of winter, much to the chagrin of those hoping for an early spring. The rotund rode... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was greeted with audible boos and a few loud cheers during a Super Bowl-related appearance in New York City on Saturday, a day after a former appointee said the popular Republican knew about politically m... More »
(Reuters) – Detroit on Friday filed a lawsuit in U.S. bankruptcy court seeking to invalidate $1.44 billion of debt sold to fund public worker pensions – a move that also could void the ill-fated interest-rate swaps contracts that were a factor leading Detroit ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – At least two U.S. states running their own Obamacare health insurance exchanges expect new insurers to enter their marketplaces and bolster competition in 2015, officials said on Friday. Kynect, which is Kentucky’s marketplace, and the R... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Detroit has circulated a financial plan that requires significant concessions from its pension funds and bondholders and declares that an interest-rate obligation that helped drive the city into bankruptcy is a disputed claim that is not pa... More »
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – For-profit space explorers who make California their headquarters would not have to pay property taxes on their rockets and space stations under a bill that advanced in the state legislature on Wednesday. The move is aimed at... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. women’s paychecks will not catch up to men’s for another 40 years at the current rate of improvement, experts say, a situation U.S. president Barack Obama highlighted in his State of the Union address, calling for policy changes he ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Michael Grimm, a former Marine who threatened to throw a television reporter over a balcony after an interview in the Capitol, apologized on Wednesday and said he had overreacted. “I will break you in half,” Grimm tol... More »
WEST MIFFLIN, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – President Barack Obama set in motion a plan to help middle-income Americans save for retirement on Wednesday on a road trip to highlight themes from a State of the Union speech devoted to narrowing the gap between the ric... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will lay out a strategy for getting around a divided Congress and boosting middle-class prosperity on Tuesday in a State of the Union speech that reflects some scaled-back legislative ambitions after a difficult ye... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – House and Senate negotiators on Monday reached a bipartisan agreement on the long-overdue U.S. farm bill that ends a pricy direct subsidy to farmers while expanding government-backed crop insurance programs, and trims spending on food st... More »
MIAMI (Reuters) – A November ballot measure to legalize marijuana for medicinal use in Florida could have a decidedly political side effect. The ballot proposal, which was approved by Florida’s Supreme Court on Monday, is so popular it could help Democrats uns... More »
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – Florida voters will decide in November whether to legalize medical marijuana after the state Supreme Court on Monday approved an initiative to put the measure on the ballot. Florida’s Republican Party leadership had opposed the... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – An unmanned rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday to put the newest member of NASA’s space communications network into orbit. The 19-story tall Atlas 5 rocket, built and launched by United Laun... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. online lender Western Sky Financial LLC has agreed to pay a $1.5 million penalty and provide refunds to New York borrowers on loans for which it charged interest rates as high as 355 percent, the New York attorney general said on Thur... More »
(Reuters) – The Justice Department has accused United States Investigations Services (USIS), the private firm that also vetted Edward Snowden before he leaked documents about U.S. spying efforts, of bilking millions of dollars through improper background check... More »
DALLAS (Reuters) – A Texas jury found former Dallas Cowboys player Josh Brent guilty on Wednesday of intoxication manslaughter for drinking heavily at a club, getting behind the wheel and causing a fiery car crash that killed teammate Jerry Brown Jr. in Decemb... More »
The company behind a chemical spill that left about 300,000 people in West Virginia without tap water failed to disclose a second chemical in the leak, state officials said on Wednesday. The company, Freedom Industries, had previously said that only one chemic... More »
SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – California Governor Jerry Brown took credit for his state’s fiscal rebound in a state of the state address on Wednesday that also urged continued restraint by lawmakers seeking to rebuild a social safety net tattered by years... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – More than 6.3 million Americans were deemed eligible for government healthcare plans for the poor since the October 1 launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law through December, federal officials reported on Wednesday. The swelling... More »
DALLAS (Reuters) – A Texas jury found former Dallas Cowboys player Josh Brent guilty on Wednesday of intoxication manslaughter for drinking heavily at a club, getting behind the wheel and causing a car crash that killed teammate Jerry Brown Jr. in December 201... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thousands of U.S. anti-abortion activists braved frigid temperatures to rally at the annual March for Life on Wednesday, and a top Republican lawmaker vowed that the House of Representatives would vote soon to end taxpayer-funded abortio... More »
(Reuters) – Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is set to announce “significant state participation” in a plan to aid Detroit’s art museum and public pensions, mediators said Wednesday, as the city works through its historic bankruptcy. The move by the state’s Repub... More »
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Outspoken real estate magnate Donald Trump said on Tuesday he may seek the Republican presidential nomination for 2016, adding that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s prospects for a White House run have dimmed since a s... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Jersey’s lieutenant governor on Monday denied a claim by the mayor of Hoboken that Governor Chris Christie’s administration linked release of Superstorm Sandy relief funds to approval of a Hoboken development project. Hoboken Mayor Daw... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee objected on Sunday to President Barack Obama’s proposal for the government to give up control of the storage of the telephone records of millions of Americans it holds as part of its cou... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New Jersey mayor who added to Governor Chris Christie’s woes with fresh claims that his office punishes uncooperative local officials stuck to her story on Sunday, overshadowing the governor’s fundraising trip in Florida. Widely seen a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is delaying enforcement of a provision of the new healthcare law that prohibits employers from providing better health benefits to top executives than to other employees, the New York Times reported on Saturday. ... More »
(Reuters) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration threatened to withhold Superstorm Sandy relief funds from a flooded town unless a redevelopment plan Christie favored was quickly approved, the mayor of Hoboken said on Saturday. The claim by Mayo... More »
JACKSON, Mississippi (Reuters) – A Mississippi man accused of sending poisoned letters to President Barack Obama and two other public officials, and then pinning them on an Elvis impersonator, pleaded guilty in U.S. court and agreed to a 25-year jail sentence,... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Offering a twist on the learn-from-anywhere convenience of Internet classes, a new university is asking freshmen to take a large leap of faith. Minerva Schools of KGI, a radically experimental university in San Francisco, is sifting t... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Relations between Germany and the United States are worse now than during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a decade ago, a leading ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday, in a sign of mounting anger in Berlin over American spying tac... More »
BOSTON (Reuters) – A group of cyber security professionals is warning that the U.S. government has failed to implement fixes to protect the HealthCare.gov website from hackers, some three months after experts first pointed out the problem. David Kennedy, head ... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – Despite forecasts that Michigan will have a budget surplus, a top state legislator on Wednesday warned that Detroit should not expect a state bailout for the struggling city that has filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. M... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday that the deadly September 11, 2012, attack by militants on U.S. government posts in Benghazi, Libya, was preventable and faulted the State Department for inadequate security precautions... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The billionaire creator of Beanie Babies, Ty Warner, will serve two years of probation, including mentoring high school students, following his guilty plea on a tax evasion charge, but no jail time, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. Warner,... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The management of the Empire State Building on Monday filed a $1 million lawsuit against a photographer who shot topless pictures of model atop its iconic 86th floor observatory. Last August, a model climbed to the crowded observation deck... More »
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines suspended two pilots from flying on Monday after their jetliner with 124 passengers landed at the wrong airport near Branson, Missouri, late on Sunday, a spokeswoman said. A Southwest captain, who has worked... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. philanthropic foundations have pledged more than $330 million to help preserve the Detroit Institute of Art’s collection and assist in shoring up the cash-strapped city’s employee pensions, the mediators overseeing Detroit’s bankruptcy negotia... More »
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – When the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on Monday in a case involving soda bottler Noel Canning Corp., presidential appointment power will be the main dispute, but the case will also put on display one of Washington’s most p... More »
RICHMOND (Reuters) – Terry McAuliffe, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a major party fundraiser, was sworn in as governor of Virginia on Saturday, cheered on by his friends former President Bill Clinton and potential White House conte... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Accenture has been chosen to replace CGI Federal as the lead contractor for the Obamacare enrollment website, which failed to work when it launched in October for millions of Americans shopping for health insurance, the U.S. Centers for ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Jersey lawmakers on Saturday pledged to continue to seek more details in the bridge scandal engulfing Governor Chris Christie, with the Democratic Assembly speaker-elect saying he planned to call the body into special session. At issue... More »
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) – A napkin-size Renoir painting bought for $7 at a flea market but valued at up to $100,000 must be returned to the museum it was stolen from in 1951, a federal judge ordered on Friday. The 1879 Impressionist painting “Paysage Bo... More »
TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Thursday fired a top aide who apparently helped orchestrate massive traffic jams at a busy commuter bridge to settle a score, saying he had been blindsided in the scandal that threatened to ... More »
(Reuters) – Kraft Foods is warning it may run short of its Velveeta cheese product, right at a time of high seasonal U.S. demand for the orangey-yellow foodstuff. “It is possible consumers may not be able to find some Velveeta products on store shelves over th... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc and other big technology companies that rely on private commuter buses to ferry workers around will now pay the city of San Francisco fees to use city bus stops, the city announced at a news conference on Monday. Companies ... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A California girl declared brain dead following complications from a tonsillectomy, whose case has prompted debate over when to withdraw life support, has arrived at an undisclosed care facility with her mother, a family spokesman sai... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Ron Johnson filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging the way President Barack Obama’s healthcare law is being applied to Congress, part of a larger Republican strategy to draw attention to what they see as critical flaws in Oba... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – A Chicago-area family got a belated Christmas surprise this week – a book of family photos from the White House meant for the Obama girls’ godmother, according to media reports and the White House. Alane Church, who lives north of Chicago, ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is coming into City Hall with a sweeping mandate to address the city’s most vexing problems, from economic inequality to police and community relations. But first, he will have to manage a snowstorm. A winter ... More »
(Reuters) – Hospitals and medical practices across the United States braced for confusion and administrative hassles as new insurance plans under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law took effect on Wednesday. More than 2 million people enrolled in private p... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bill de Blasio was formally inaugurated as New York City’s 109th mayor on Wednesday at a City Hall ceremony where he promised to take “dead aim” at closing the affordability gap he has decried as New York’s tale of two cities. Former U.S. ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Roman Catholic Church-affiliated organizations on Tuesday obtained last-minute court injunctions that give them temporary exemptions from a part of the Obamacare healthcare law that requires employers to provide insurance policies coveri... More »
(Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday it will provide a month’s supply of certain prescriptions at no upfront cost to participants of U.S. President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law who have not yet received a plan identification number. The m... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A high volume of holiday packages overwhelmed shipping and logistics company UPS, the company said on Wednesday, delaying the arrival of Christmas presents around the globe and sending angry consumers to social media to vent. Amazon.com re... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tuesday is a moment of truth for Obamacare. It marks the final deadline for most Americans to sign up for health insurance under President Barack Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, if they want coverage start... More »
FALL RIVER, Massachusetts (Reuters) – A Massachusetts judge said on Monday she would consider a request by lawyers defending former National Football League star Aaron Hernandez that she issue a gag order preventing leaks about the high-profile murder case. Ju... More »
(Reuters) – Former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, who revealed extensive details of global electronic surveillance by the U.S. spy agency, said in an interview published on Tuesday that he has accomplished what he set out to do. “For... More »
