US News

A judge has declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict in the trial of a Detroit police officer who fatally shot a 7-year-old girl.

Under pressure from House conservatives opposed to comprehensive immigration reform, House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday, "I don't see any way of bringing an immigration bill to the floor that doesn't have majority support of Republicans."

The director of the National Security Agency said today the government's sweeping surveillance programs have foiled some 50 terrorist plots worldwide, including one directed at the New York Stock Exchange, in a forceful defense of spy operations that was echoed by the leaders of the House Intelligence Committee.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday lawmakers are worried about the possibility of further disclosures about the government's sweeping electronic surveillance and the impact that could have on efforts to combat terrorism.

The abortion wars return to Congress in a big way with House legislation to ban almost all abortions after a fetus reaches the age of 20 weeks.

There's good news for most companies that provide health benefits for their employees: America's slowdown in medical costs may be turning into a trend, rather than a mere pause.

The governors of Texas and South Dakota visited Connecticut on Monday to court gun manufacturers that have threatened to leave since the state passed tough new gun-control laws this year in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

New airborne laser scanning data has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating an entire bustling ancient city linking Cambodia's famed Angkor Wat temples complex.

Chicago's next U.S. attorney faces a dilemma sprung from the twin evils bedeviling America's third-largest city.

The Republican Party's hope of running stronger presidential races by revamping immigration is about to hit a big hurdle: House Republicans.

A woman who was sentenced to death at age 16 after she confessed to her part in the torture and murder of a 78-year-old bible studies teacher has been released from an Indiana prison after spending a quarter century behind bars.

Federal agents revived the hunt for the remains of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa on Monday as they searched a field in suburban Detroit.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that deals between pharmaceutical corporations and their generic drug competitors, which government officials say keep cheaper forms of medicine off the market, can be sometimes be illegal and therefore challenged by federal officials in court.

The Supreme Court says states cannot require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier.

Major U.S. stock markets were climbing in early morning trading Monday as investors cheered a better-than-expected report on New York manufacturing and anticipated more details about the Federal Reserve's policy plans for the future.

The dollar recovered a little ground against the yen Monday, while most other major currencies were becalmed, in a quiet trading session ahead of the much-anticipated Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama's approval rating dropped eight percentage points over the past month, to 45 percent, the president's lowest rating in more than a year and a half, according to a new national poll.

The problem is not that evangelicals' political participation is declining. It's that the gap between what they believe and what everyone else does is growing wider

Despite worries that their focus on abortion and gay marriage is a liability for Republicans, they're as well-organized, vigilant, and powerful as ever.

Ever since Republicans got clobbered in the last election, some have suggested they dial back some of their hard stances in the culture war. The College Republicans, for example, commissioned a study that concluded that young voters see the party as fusty and old-fashioned, and urged it to get with the times on issues such as gay marriage.

There's a popular calculus attached to public-sector employment. It holds that state or local public employees, like police officers and teachers, exchange job security for money; they may make less than private-sector workers, but they're less likely to lose their jobs.

An odd thing is happening in the world's self-declared pinnacle of democracy. No one -- except a handful of elected officials and an army of contractors -- is allowed to know how America's surveillance leviathan works.