US News

A former astronaut who was accused of assaulting a romantic rival in the parking lot of the Orlando airport will avoid prison after pleading guilty to lesser charges as part of a plea agreement.

Everybody at American Legion Post 11 knows Joe. That's the point of a Legion post.

That's the point of a Legion post. Not the whole point, of course; for 90 years the Legion has supported wartime veterans, and Boy Scouts, and Special Olympians, and protection of the U.S. flag, the best symbol of the "one hundred percent Americanism" promised in the Legion's charter.

U.S. President Barack Obama will mark the first Veterans Day observance of his presidency Wednesday with a traditional wreath-laying ceremony and speech at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington.

Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Obama still has the public approval of a majority of Americans, but he finds himself governing an increasingly pessimistic country.

Reporting from Jarratt, Va. - A defiant John Allen Muhammad, who terrified the Washington area in 2002 as he orchestrated a series of sniper shootings, including 10 murders, was executed by lethal injection Tuesday night.

Nidal Hasan by name. "It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy," Obama said.

There have been two views on what happened last week when Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan opened fire on unarmed military colleagues at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 12 soldiers and one civilian. The politically correct version blames a lonely soldier's personal meltdown, precipitated by the fear of being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. The politically incorrect view portrays Hasan, the son of Palestinian immigrants, as a homegrown Islamic terrorist, whether he coordinated with any terrorist groups or not.

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By now, however, it seems pretty clear that Hasan perpetrated what Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., called on Fox News possibly "the most destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11."

And guess what? Most Americans are not stupid -- they can process that information with the clear understanding that Hasan does not represent your average Muslim or your average Muslim serving in the U.S. military. His own words as he opened fire -- "Allahu Akbar" -- and perhaps his online screeds show who he was. He acted not as a stressed-out shrink, but a violent and twisted extremist.

Oregon police say at least one person has been killed in a shooting reported at a suburban Portland office park.

Since the GOP nominee dropped out of the race in New York's 23rd Congressional District amid pressure from conservative leaders, Dede Scozzafava has been swept into the national political conversation.

Senator Christopher Dodd proposed creating a single U.S. bank regulator and stripping supervision from the Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

A Pine Plains, N.Y., town official says a gunman has taken a high school principal hostage, the Associated Press reports.

Carrier Prejean's sextape, which effectively ended her lawsuit against the Miss California pageant, has been called the "biggest mistake of my life" by the former beauty queen. She appeared on Seah Hannity's Fox News show last night, discussing the issue, and stating the tape was made for her boyfriend at the time.

Connecticut Gov. Jodi Rell (R) has decided against running for re-election, a decision that immediately turns the Nutmeg State into one of Democrats best pickup opportunities nationally.

Rell, who took over in July 2004 from scandal-plagued governor John Rowland (R), had been milling whether or not to run for months. ...

A majority of the justices at two Supreme Court arguments on Monday seemed inclined to find a way to take account of the age of young offenders in deciding whether they may be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Nuclear Waste left 'homeless'

The Energy Department is proposing to severely reduce Yucca Mountain's budget next year, an expected move as President Barack Obama pledged to zero out funds for the proposed nuclear waste dump in fiscal 2011.

Tube train stops inches from woman on tracks

A security camera has captured the moment a woman fell on the tracks on Boston's Orange Line as a train headed straight for her.

It sure seems that America is out of touch with the rest of the world regarding global warming, and that the world is slapping us in the face to awaken us from our stupor.

Najibullah Zazi: Zazi, from Denver, Colorado, is understood to have been given instructions by a senior member of al Qaeda in Pakistan over the internet.

The plan, which reportedly would have been the biggest attack on America since 9/11, was uncovered after Scotland Yard intercepted an email.

The force alerted the FBI, who launched an operation which led to airport shuttle bus driver Najibullah Zazi, 24, being charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

A seemingly divided Supreme Court wrestled Monday with whether teenagers can be locked away forever for their crimes.