US News

Federal aviation officials said Friday they are investigating 17 cases in which 11 air carriers did not comply with government safety directives.

WASHINGTON - The federal highway trust fund will run out of money this month, requiring delays in payments to states for transportation construction projects, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said today.

The Alaska Legislature will work to complete its ethics investigation into Gov. Sarah Palin's firing of her public safety commissioner earlier than expected, weeks before the national election.

Tropical Storm Hanna picked up speed Friday as it cruised toward the Carolinas, promising to deliver gusty winds and heavy rain during a dash up the Eastern Seaboard that could wash out the weekend for millions of people.

A federal appeals court is temporarily blocking former White House counsel Harriet Miers from testifying about the firing of 9 U.S. attorneys.

Joblessness grew by an additional 84,000 in August 2008, bumping the national unemployment rate up to 6.1 percent. This is the highest level in five years and the eighth straight month of job losses. The economy has lost more than 600,000 over that time period.

WACO, Texas -- Jurors sent a triple-murderer back to death row on Thursday after his death sentence had been overturned on appeal.

After hearing eight days of witness testimony in the sentencing retrial of Billie Wayne Coble, 59, the jury deliberated about four hours before sentencing him to death. The jurors had the option of sentencing him to life in prison, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported in its online edition Thursday.

Victims of Hurricane Gustav who can't return to their homes over the next month because of storm damage or power outages can have their hotel costs covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, officials said Thursday.

Troubled by the Bear Stearns debacle, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan is advocating a new way of dealing with government bailouts of companies whose sudden collapse could wreak havoc on the country's economic and financial stability.

ballot counts could undermine confidence in the switch to optical scan voting

About 2,500 ballots remain missing from an Aug. 26 primary in Palm Beach County, Fla.

County workers will fan out to polling places Friday to check whether ballots may have been left there rather than being transferred to a central counting facility. Elections workers also will be counting voter signatures in logs from the primary as they try to account for discrepancies.

21st century version of the Cold War is fueled by energy

Much of the last century after World War II was defined by the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

Jack Abramoff, the onetime powerhouse Republican lobbyist whose influence peddling led to one of the biggest public corruption investigations in recent history, was sentenced by a federal judge today to four more years in prison..

Top U.S. defense officials have recommended that President George W. Bush withdraw one combat brigade from Iraq but not until early next year, Pentagon sources said on Thursday.

An influential New Jersey Muslim leader accused by some federal officials of having terrorist ties but praised by others as being an important ally won his fight to gain permanent U.S. residency Thursday.

Some Southeastern states declared emergencies and officials urged residents to head inland Thursday as Tropical Storm Hanna headed toward the Atlantic coast, where it could bring high winds and rain from South Carolina to Maine.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony charges Thursday in a sex scandal and will step down after months of defiantly holding onto his job leading the nation's 11th-largest city.

Three days after Hurricane Gustav came ashore on the Gulf Coast, nearly 829,000 households were still without electricity, power company officials said Thursday, warning that power may be restored slowly in the hardest-hit areas.

Albert J. Stanley, a former executive with a Halliburton subsidiary, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges that he conspired to pay $182 million in bribes to Nigerian officials in return for contracts to build a $6 billion liquefied natural gas complex.

As a stream of traffic queued up on the highways leading back to New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin decided Wednesday to let residents who fled Hurricane Gustav back after all — with a stern warning the city was still vulnerable.

Job cuts announced by U.S. employers last month jumped 12 percent over a year ago to cap the busiest summer of downsizing in six years, according to a report released Wednesday.