WASHINGTON (Reuters) – As Americans scrambled to beat a deadline to sign up for insurance under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, the White House gave most consumers an extra day, until Tuesday, to obtain coverage that starts January 1. The last-minute ... More »
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are planning a second and final spacewalk to fix the outpost’s cooling system early on Tuesday, a NASA official said. NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are ex... More »
ELMHURST, New York (Reuters) – U.S. consumers shopped less on the final weekend before Christmas despite deeper discounts, the latest sign of how difficult a season this is turning out to be for retailers. Shoppers also showed signs they will do more of their ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Vice President Joe Biden congratulated the wrong man on being elected mayor of Boston and college football star Manti Te’o publicly mourned the death of a girlfriend who never was. While U.S. headlines in 2013 were dominated by the Boston ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – For most Americans who don’t have health insurance, Monday is the deadline to sign up for coverage starting on January 1 under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. For others, it’s not a deadline. There is a “hardship” exception for ... More »
HOMESTEAD (Reuters) – As a squat, red-and-black robot nicknamed CHIMP gingerly pushed open a spring-loaded door a gust of wind swooped down onto the track at the Homestead-Miami Speedway and slammed the door shut, eliciting a collective sigh of disappointment ... More »
INGLEWOOD, California (Reuters) – Hollywood Park is giving horse racing fans a run for their money one last time this weekend, as the 75-year-old track near Los Angeles that was once the playground of movie industry elites closes down amid declining U.S. popul... More »
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India said on Saturday that it had transferred the diplomat at the center of a row with the United States to its U.N. delegation, a move that it hopes will give her protection from prosecution for visa fraud and underpaying a maid. Whethe... More »
HONOLULU (Reuters) – Barack Obama and family landed in Honolulu late Friday to kick off a two-week Hawaiian vacation, what the U.S. president earlier described as a chance for “sleep and sun” after a bruising year in Washington. Obama, with wife Michelle and d... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Love him or hate him, one thing is for sure: New Yorkers will not forget outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg anytime soon. As the independent billionaire politician bids farewell to City Hall by touting his accomplishments during 12 years in ... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British and U.S. spies targeted a senior European Union official, German government buildings, and the office of an Israeli prime minister, according to the latest leaked documents from Edward Snowden published on Friday. Other targets from ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Friday more than half a million Americans enrolled in health insurance plans under Obamacare using the HealthCare.gov website during the first three weeks of December. That brings the total enrollments thro... More »
(Reuters) – The value of the collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts falls within a range from $454 million up to $867 million, auction house Christie’s said in its final report to the city’s state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr. The appraisal only ... More »
ATLANTA (Reuters) – A store owner in Atlanta said she was thrilled to learn on Wednesday that her shop, and another in San Jose, California, had sold winning tickets for an estimated $636 million Mega Millions jackpot, the second biggest in U.S. lottery histor... More »
LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Concerns among Hispanics that signing up for medical insurance under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law may draw the scrutiny of immigration authorities has hurt enrollment, according to advocates of the policy. Convincing... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg gives his final major policy speech on Wednesday, two weeks before he steps down after three terms in office. Bloomberg, addressing the Economic Club of New York, will speak about “the rise of American citi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Technology company executives pressed President Barack Obama on Tuesday to rein in the U.S. government’s electronic spying after a court dealt a blow to the administration’s surveillance practices. Top executives from Apple Inc, Google I... More »
(Reuters) – Insurance companies are struggling with a new request by the Obama administration to make sure people receive medical benefits under healthcare reform come January 1, even if they miss a sign-up deadline set for next Monday. The government has soug... More »
(Reuters) – A last-minute ticket buying frenzy a week before Christmas inflated Tuesday’s Mega Millions jackpot to $636 million, threatening to become the biggest U.S. lottery prize in history, a game official said. The prize swelled after a spike in sales ear... More »
(Reuters) – The snowstorm that hit the Northeast and Midwest this past weekend is unlikely to hurt overall holiday sales, analysts say, even as the shorter shopping season makes every day crucial for retailers. The season, which has six fewer days than last ye... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The troubled federal website used by Americans to shop for health insurance as part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul was back up and running on Sunday after planned maintenance overnight took less time than planned, governme... More »
DENVER (Reuters) – Four people were stabbed, with one critically wounded, in a melee late on Thursday in a parking lot outside a stadium hosting a U.S. National Football League game, police said. The clash occurred outside Sports Authority Field at Mile High i... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. National Archives Museum opened a civil rights gallery on Wednesday, with a 13th century copy of the Magna Carta accord, considered one of the founding documents of modern government, as its centerpiece. The new 3,450-square-foo... More »
(Reuters) – USA Today, nicknamed “The Nation’s Newspaper,” is getting local. Gannett Co, the parent company of the nationally distributed newspaper, announced on Wednesday that it planned to include pages of USA Today in 35 of its local community papers after ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a new push to increase access to mental health services with $100 million in new government funding nearly a year after a school shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut. Biden, who spearhead... More »
(Reuters) – Detroit’s Heidelberg Project has been struck by eight suspicious fires since May, the latest on Sunday, which have destroyed a large part of the art installation that has drawn international attention since the 1980s, authorities said. The art proj... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A species of cockroach native to Asia that has been seen crawling around an outdoor tourist destination in New York City can survive the city’s often brutal winters, according to a new study. Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey... More »
(Reuters) – When Mohammad Hamedi Rad arrived in the United States last year, he carried his Iranian passport, a hard-won student visa and a backpack containing $14,000 in hundred dollar bills, because there was no simpler way of getting money into the country.... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, battered by weeks of turmoil over the malfunctioning HealthCare.Gov website, turned to a fresh item on his agenda on Saturday as he pressured Republicans in Congress to extend benefits for jobless Americans. It wa... More »
FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (Reuters) – Water pollution at the Camp Lejeune military base in North Carolina has been linked to increased risk of birth defects and childhood cancers, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A study rel... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – A Detroit-area entrepreneur has offered to donate $5 million to help protect the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts from being sold or otherwise monetized as part of Detroit’s bankruptcy, the Detroit Free Press reported on Friday. ... More »
NEW YORK/BOSTON (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co is warning some 465,000 holders of prepaid cash cards issued by the bank that their personal information may have been accessed by hackers who attacked its network in July. The cards were issued for corporations ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The troubled mobile phone maker BlackBerry still has at least one very loyal customer: U.S. President Barack Obama. At a meeting with youth on Wednesday to promote his landmark healthcare law, Obama said he is not allowed to have Apple’s... More »
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The agency that oversees development in the San Francisco Bay in California has begun a formal investigation into the construction of a secretive Google Inc barge on an island in the bay. The probe, which began in the past week, will ... More »
DETROIT (Reuters) – The auction house Christie’s put a price tag on one of Detroit’s highest-profile city assets, its share of the Detroit Institute of Arts collection, stating that nearly 3,000 works controlled by the city are worth between $452 million and $... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More people signed up on the government’s new health insurance website on the first two days of December than in the entire first month of the launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, sources familiar with the numbers said o... More »
MIAMI (Reuters) – A gleaming addition to Miami’s waterfront will greet the art world elite as they jet into town this week for the 12th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach: a $131 million art museum the city hopes will anchor its burgeoning cultural scene. “Our c... More »
HONOLULU (Reuters) – Scientists plumbing the Pacific Ocean off the Hawaii coast have discovered a World War Two era Japanese submarine, a technological marvel that had been preparing to attack the Panama Canal before being scuttled by U.S. forces. The 400-foot... More »
(Reuters) – A surge of visitors clogged the U.S. government’s revamped healthcare insurance shopping website on Monday, signaling that President Barack Obama’s administration has a way to go in fixing the portal that showcases his signature domestic policy. Fa... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The American singer Bob Dylan is being investigated in France after a Croatian community organization alleged that comments he made to Rolling Stone magazine last year amounted to incitement to racial hatred, Paris prosecutors said on Monday.... More »
(Reuters) – A Wisconsin man was sentenced on Monday to two years probation after he admitted taking part in a cyber attack sponsored by the hacker group Anonymous against Kansas conglomerate Koch Industries in February 2011, federal prosecutors said. Eric J. R... More »
(Reuters) – Buying a set of the gifts named in the classic holiday carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” will cost a true love $27,393 this year, up 7.7 percent from the 2012 price tag, according to an annual tongue-in-cheek analysis released on Monday. Prices ... More »
(Reuters) – Macy’s Inc and a slew of other U.S. retailers are opening on Thanksgiving for the first time ever in a bare-knuckled brawl for a bigger slice of overall holiday sales. But it might not be so easy to lure most Americans from their turkey and footbal... More »
DALLAS (Reuters) – American cardiologists appear staunch in their support for President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform, although some fear that its rocky launch could derail efforts to improve preventive care for needy patients. The broad support for the Aff... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Illinois legislative leaders on Wednesday reached a long-elusive deal to reform the state’s woefully underfunded public pensions, but the plan must still win support of lawmakers and could face legal challenges if approved. Powerful House S... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Taking a break from weighty matters of state and pitched battles with political foes, President Barack Obama exercised the lighter side of his authority Wednesday by sparing two magnificent turkeys the fate of becoming someone’s Thanksgi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House is nearing a decision on splitting up the eavesdropping National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, which conducts cyber warfare, a proposed reform prompted in part by revelations of NSA’s widespread snooping, indivi... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. government has issued a proposal that would likely increase risk payments in 2014 to health insurers offering plans on the Obamacare exchanges after the companies complained a recent policy change allowing people to keep their insurance po... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country’s biggest banks. The loans are a problem now because an increasing number a... More »
(Reuters) – The Republican Party of Florida called on Republican Congressman Henry “Trey” Radel on Monday to resign after he pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor charge of cocaine possession. Lenny Curry, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said ... More »
CERES, California (Reuters) – For most Republicans in the U.S. Congress, a large gathering of Hispanic voters to discuss immigration would be politically perilous – an invitation to complaints about the party’s longtime resistance to measures aimed at helping ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a “doomsday” cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud. The... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In the last days before the botched October 1 launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare website, the team in charge was seeing alarming results from performance tests, according to internal emails released by Republican lawmakers inv... More »
TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – An overwhelming majority of Floridians would support legalizing marijuana when used for medical purposes in the Sunshine State, a poll released on Thursday showed. The Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters in the stat... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – With Senate action to overhaul the military’s handling of sexual assault cases certain, senators debated an emotionally charged proposal on Wednesday to strip commanders of their power to decide whether many serious criminal charges shou... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Television journalist Elizabeth Vargas, a co-anchor on the ABC news show “20/20,” said on Wednesday she was out of rehab and doing well after receiving treatment for alcohol abuse. “Hello everyone! I am home, and so grateful for all your s... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is expected to sign same-sex marriage into law on Wednesday afternoon, which will make President Barack Obama’s home state the 16th to allow such unions. Illinois state senators voted to legalize gay marriage las... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – A Republican city councilman opened a strong lead in a special election to replace disgraced former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner on Tuesday, while two Democrats battled for a place in a likely run-off. Eleven candidates were competing to su... More »
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s HealthCare.gov site is riddled with security flaws that put user data of millions of people at risk and it should be shut down until fixed, several technology experts warned lawmakers on Tuesday. The testimony at a congress... More »
(Reuters) – More older Americans than young adults so far have signed up for new insurance coverage under the state marketplaces created by President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, according to early data from four states reporting details on their enrollment.... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Diane Disney Miller, philanthropist and daughter of cartoon and theme park pioneer Walt Disney, died on Tuesday in California. She was 79. Miller died in the northern California wine town of Napa from injuries sustained in a fall, the W... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Imelda Marcos’ former secretary was convicted on Monday of conspiring to sell art that the former Philippine first lady acquired during her husband’s presidency, including a famous Claude Monet water-lily painting. After deliberating 2-1/2... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will join former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday in a wreath-laying ceremony at John F. Kennedy’s grave to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his assassination. Fi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court on Thursday said an Arkansas prison inmate should be allowed to maintain a beard while he contests the prison’s grooming policy. In an unusual order, the court said that Gregory Holt, 38, should be allowed to grow a bea... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Proponents of solar power will face off with Arizona’s biggest utility on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to sway regulators who are preparing to rule on the fate of a little-known solar subsidy that, if altered, would be a blow to the ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is set to tout the U.S. economic recovery during a visit to an Ohio steel mill on Thursday even as he faces more questions about the troubled rollout of his signature healthcare law. Obama will talk about the recov... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to introduce articles of impeachment against Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday, in the hopes of removing a cabinet member they say has lied to Congress as well as failed to uphold f... More »
HONOLULU (Reuters) – Hawaii’s governor signed into law on Wednesday a bill extending marriage rights to same-sex couples, capping 20 years of legal and political rancor in a state regarded as a pioneer in advancing the cause of gay matrimony. The new law, whic... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The woman accused of stalking Emmy-award winning actor Alec Baldwin and his wife was held in contempt of court during her trial on Wednesday after outbursts in a New York courtroom. Judge Robert Mandelbaum had warned aspiring Canadian actr... More »
HONOLULU (Reuters) – Hawaii was poised to become the 15th U.S. state to extend marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples on Wednesday, with the governor expected to sign a bill legalizing same-sex matrimony a day after it won a final nod from lawmakers. The m... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – When the Yellow Dogs were still playing secret gigs in their native Iran, even the unruly hairstyles of the four 20-something members of the indie-rock band were enough to get them in trouble with the police. But on the streets of Williams... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Alec Baldwin was moved to tears while testifying on Tuesday in the trial of an aspiring Canadian actress charged with stalking him and his wife, calling the accused “dangerous” and saying that he just wanted her to leave him alone. W... More »
(Reuters) – New U.S. guidelines on heart health that were a decade in the making recommend stronger measures for patients at particularly high risk of heart attack or stroke, including more aggressive therapy with drugs that lower cholesterol or even weight lo... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court took on cases involving a heroin overdose and a drug deal gone wrong on Tuesday as the justices weighed what prosecutors needed to prove in order to convict defendants of certain federal offenses. In both cases, the jus... More »
(Reuters) – A new push to sign up Americans for insurance under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law will begin in December, when the government’s faulty enrollment website is expected to work better, an advocacy group leading the campaign said on Tuesday. ... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – An Iranian rock musician who had been kicked out of his band in New York shot dead three people, including two members of an indie band who had fled Tehran, and wounded a fourth man before killing himself in Brooklyn, authorities said on M... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The second explosive oil-train derailment this year, which has finally burned out in rural Alabama, may raise new questions about the safety of the crude-by-rail boom, pointing to problems beyond those that surfaced following the earlier t... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration will release healthcare enrollment numbers for Obamacare’s rocky October rollout this week that could be more important for what they fail to say, than for what they do. President Barack Obama’s Democratic admini... More »
DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) – Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who rallied members of the Tea Party in their failed effort to defund Obamacare, lashed out on Saturday against members of the Republican Party who agreed to end the government shutdown. The 2008... More »
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – Oklahoma City police have arrested a man who escaped from a Maryland prison more than 30 years ago after he contacted them to say he was tired of paying off a business partner who threatened to expose him as a fugitive. Anthony Rackle... More »
(Reuters) – TV newsmagazine “60 Minutes” on Friday said it would correct an October report on the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, saying that a source who told the program that he had been present at the scene of t... More »
(Reuters) – Moderate Republican Chris Christie easily won re-election as New Jersey governor, while a conservative Republican popular with the Tea Party movement narrowly lost his bid for the Virginia governorship, in two races closely watched for signs of vot... More »
RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) – Democratic Party insider Terry McAuliffe won the Virginia governor’s race on Tuesday by narrowly beating Republican Ken Cuccinelli, a Tea Party favorite who seized on the rocky launch of the U.S. healthcare program to try to keep... More »
ASBURY PARK, New Jersey (Reuters) – New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie resoundingly won re-election on Tuesday, winning support across the political spectrum and immediately challenging Washington to follow his lead in a victory speech that could be... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Liberal Democrat Bill de Blasio cruised to victory on Tuesday in the race to succeed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, marking the first time a Democrat has captured City Hall in two decades. De Blasio, the city’s public advocate, was lead... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Liberal Democrat Bill de Blasio cruised to victory on Tuesday in the race to succeed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, marking the first time a Democrat has captured City Hall in two decades, local media reported. De Blasio, the city’s pub... More »
(Reuters) – Democrat Terry McAuliffe has narrowly defeated Republican Ken Cuccinelli in the closely watched Virginia’s governor race on Tuesday, NBC and CBS television said. State election board figures showed McAuliffe, a Democratic Party insider leading Cucc... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Seeking to stop accusations of plagiarism, Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul, a Tea Party favorite and potential 2016 White House contender, said on Tuesday that he and his staff have begun to more thoroughly check and footnote what they... More »
(Reuters) – Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said widespread U.S. government spying on its data centers would be outrageous and potentially illegal if true, the Wall Street Journal reported. “It’s really outrageous that the NSA was looking between th... More »
ARLINGTON, Virginia (Reuters) – President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats attempted on Sunday to tap into voter anger about a 16-day U.S. government shutdown and turn Virginia’s upcoming governor’s election into a referendum on Tea Party conservatives. With ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The glitch-ridden website used to sign up for insurance under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law will be down for “extended maintenance” overnight on Saturday, the Department of Health and Human Services said. The website has been p... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – As the United States whets its appetite for a big tasty feast on this month’s Thanksgiving holiday, two turkeys are on a mission to save their kind from slaughter in a new animated adventure, where they travel back in time to get the bi... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chaotic launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law has Democrats in Congress increasingly anxious about its potential impact on them in the 2014 elections and scrambling to protect themselves if the program’s problems persist.... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Edward Snowden has told the German government in a letter he believes support from around the world will persuade Washington to stop what he called “harmful behavior” in trying to prevent him from revealing secret surveillance by the U.S. go... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel criticized nine U.S. states on Thursday for refusing to issue identity cards to same-sex spouses and said he expected the adjutants general for the state militias to comply with lawful directions and Pentago... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Airline passengers will soon be able to use certain electronic devices throughout their entire flight after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ended a long-standing ban on Thursday. Mobile phone calls remain barred under Federal Co... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Americans who use flexible spending accounts (FSAs) for healthcare costs may now be able to carry up to $500 of expiring money into the next year, the U.S. Treasury said on Thursday. For nearly 30 years, about 14 million families with FS... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of the National Security Agency defended his beleaguered organization on Tuesday, saying it acts within the law to stop militant attacks and calling reports that the NSA collected data on millions of phone calls in Europe false.... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. began his first day of a 30-month sentence in a North Carolina federal prison on Tuesday, a day after he had attempted to report early and was turned away. The son of civil rights leader Reverend... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is facing fresh attacks for his pledge that Americans who like their current healthcare plans can keep them under Obamacare after reports that thousands of Americans facing cancellation notices. Accusations that th... More »
