The unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 and is likely to go higher.
Ford, the only U.S. automaker to dodge direct government aid and bankruptcy court, surprised investors with net income of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter and forecast a "solidly profitable" 2011.
Beware the math.
NASA's newest rocket successfully completed a brief test flight Wednesday, the first step in a back-to-the-moon program that could yet be shelved by the White House.
Nuclear energy, once vilified by environmentalists and facing a dim future, has become a pivotal bargaining chip as Senate Democrats hunt for Republican votes to pass climate legislation.
Health care legislation heading for the Senate floor will give millions of Americans the option of purchasing government-run insurance coverage,
Two Northwest Airlines pilots have told federal investigators that they were going over schedules using their laptop computers in violation of company policy while their plane overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles, the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.
A Colorado sheriff said Sunday it was hoax when parents reported that their 6-year-old son was in a flying saucer-like helium balloon hurtling away from their home when he was actually hiding in the garage.
With support from a lone Republican, a key Senate committee Tuesday approved a middle-of-the-road health care plan that moves President Barack Obama's goal of wider and affordable coverage a giant step closer to becoming law.
Americans Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for their analyses of economic governance the rules by which people exercise authority in companies and economic systems.
President Barack Obama said Friday he was honored and humbled to win the Nobel Peace Prize and would accept it as a "call to action" to work with other nations to solve the problems of the 21st century.
Some U.S. reaction to President Barack Obama's win of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday:
The choice of President Barack Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize was cheered Friday by a global chorus from European leaders to minibus passengers in Kenya but it also elicited criticism over the decision to break with tradition and recognize hopeful promise over concrete achievement.
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to encourage his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.
Targeting text messaging behind the wheel, the Obama administration plans to offer recommendations to address the growing traffic safety risk of distracted driving and the use of mobile devices by multitasking drivers.
A White House-backed overhaul of the nation's health care system weathered repeated challenges from Republican critics over taxes, abortion and more on Wednesday, and the bill's architect claimed enough votes to push it through the Senate Finance Committee as early as week's end.
Shona Holmes is the Harry and Louise of this year's health care debate, only unlike the fictional folks who memorably trashed the Clinton-era health plan in advocacy ads 15 years ago, Holmes is real.
A massive tsunami unleashed by a powerful earthquake flattened Samoan villages and swept cars and people out to sea, killing at least 99 and leaving dozens missing Wednesday. The death toll was expected to rise.
Flooding from lines of thunderstorms and rain across the Southeast killed at least 2 people and left 2 others missing Monday, including a Georgia toddler whose family's mobile home was split apart by a swollen creek.
The situation in Afghanistan is serious and growing worse and without more boots on the ground the United States risks failure in a war it's been waging since shortly after the terror attacks of September 2001, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, says in a confidential report.
Despite predictions the Great Recession is running out of steam, the House is taking up emergency legislation this week to help the millions of Americans who see no immediate end to their economic miseries.
An inmate whose execution was halted when executioners failed to get the needle into a vein after an unprecedented two hours of trying is traumatized, and trying to put him to death again in a week could spell disaster, his lawyer said.
Mary Travers, who as one-third of the hugely popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary helped popularize such tunes as "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" and "If I Had a Hammer," died in a Connecticut hospital Wednesday after battling leukemia for several years. She was 72.
The Obama administration sought to gain momentum Tuesday for global talks on climate change by announcing details of its plan to require better gas mileage for cars and trucks and the first-ever U.S. rules on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.
Shaking off a summer of setbacks, President Barack Obama summoned Congress to enact sweeping health care legislation Wednesday night, declaring the "time for bickering is over" and the moment has arrived to protect millions who have unreliable insurance or no coverage at all.
The U.S. Mint announced Wednesday that it will produce a series of quarters highlighting America's national parks, one per state and territory, beginning next year.
The chief executive of coal mining giant Massey Energy blasted supporters of climate-change legislation and other environmental issues affecting the coal industry at a free Labor Day concert and rally in southern West Virginia.
Les Paul, who invented the solid-body electric guitar later wielded by a legion of rock 'n' roll greats, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 94.
The Senate's Republican leader says the economy doesn't need any more stimulus spending and the Obama administration should turn its attention toward dealing with the national debt.
Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation Thursday night with an additional $2 billion for "cash for clunkers," the economy-boosting car rebate program that caught the fancy of car buyers and instantly increased sales for an auto industry long mired in recession.
Sonia Sotomayor won confirmation Thursday as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice in a history-making Senate vote that capped a summer-long debate heavy with ethnic politics. She'll be sworn in Saturday as the court's 111th justice, third woman and first nominee by a Democrat in 15 years.
The Senate reached a deal on saving the dwindling "cash for clunkers" program late Wednesday, agreeing to vote on a plan that would add $2 billion to the popular rebate program and give car shoppers until Labor Day to trade in their gas-guzzlers for a new ride.
President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials took to separate stages nationwide Wednesday to announce $2.4 billion in federal grants to develop next-generation electric vehicles and batteries.
Two American journalists freed by North Korea returned home to the United States on Wednesday for a jubilant, emotional reunion with family members and friends they hadn't seen in nearly five months.
North Korea welcomed former President Bill Clinton to Pyongyang with flowers and hearty handshakes Tuesday as he arrived in the communist nation on a surprise mission to bring home two jailed American journalists.
The House voted Friday to rush $2 billion into the popular but financially strapped "cash for clunkers" car purchase program, heeding calls from consumers who hope to keep taking advantage of the trade-in incentives.
More than 200 protesters from a conservative corner of Appalachia showed up Wednesday in opposition to President Barack Obama's health care reform effort.
The head of the Tennessee Valley Authority acknowledged a "larger cultural problem" at the agency as an inspector general's report says it allowed its lawyers to stifle a $3 million study into the cause of a massive coal ash spill to limit its legal liability.
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday voted to approve Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice over nearly solid Republican opposition, paving the way for a historic confirmation vote.
Jim Bunning announced Monday he will drop his bid for a third term in the U.S. Senate, saying he thinks hes been right on the issues but has been unable to raise the funds necessary to run an effective campaign.
Frank McCourt, the beloved raconteur and former public school teacher who enjoyed post-retirement fame as the author of "Angela's Ashes," the Pulitzer Prize-winning "epic of woe" about his impoverished Irish childhood, died Sunday of cancer.
Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the networks' golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called "the most trusted man in America," died Friday. He was 92.
Families crowded around black-and-white television sets in 1969 to watch Neil Armstrong take man's first steps on the moon.
Sonia Sotomayor enters confirmation hearings for her historic nomination to the Supreme Court with reason to be confident about the outcome: Democrats have the votes in the Senate to make her the court's first Hispanic and third woman justice.
The share of Americans who see science as the nation's greatest achievement is down sharply, even as the public continues to hold scientists in high regard.
More than half of potential homebuyers say they're still not prepared to jump into the market, and fear of losing their jobs is the No. 1 reason, a new poll shows.
President Barack Obama and his G-8 summit partners wrestled anew with global warming amid tense discussions Thursday about how rich and emerging nations alike can live up to new clean-climate goals adopted by leading industrialized nations.
Casey Kasem has done his final countdown.
President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a preliminary agreement Monday to reduce the world's two largest nuclear stockpiles by as much as a third, down to the lowest levels of any U.S.-Russia accord, and to counter what Obama called "a sense of drift" in the countries' relations.
Robert S. McNamara, the cerebral secretary of defense who was vilified for his role in escalating the Vietnam War, a role he later deeply regretted, died Monday. He was 93.
Thomas Alva Edison, meet the Internet.
President Barack Obama couldn't let General Motors fail, but he won't concede he's taking over the company.
General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as part of the Obama administration's plan to shrink the automaker to a sustainable size and give a majority ownership stake to the federal government.
An Air France jet carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to Paris hit strong turbulence and lost contact with air traffic controllers over the Atlantic Ocean, officials said Monday. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast.
President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated a Hispanic judge, Sonia Sotomayor, to the U.S. Supreme Court, a choice unlikely to shift the ideological balance on the country's highest judicial panel.
An American ship captain was freed unharmed Sunday and three of his captors were killed in a daring rescue by U.S. Navy Seals that ended a five-day standoff between the world's most powerful Navy and Somali pirates in a lifeboat far off the Horn of Africa.
President Barack Obama twice authorized the military to rescue a U.S. captain who was being held by Somali pirates and whose life appeared to be at risk, administration official said after Sunday's rescue.
The owner of an Italian-flagged tugboat seized by pirates off Somalia marveled Sunday at the U.S. Navy rescue of an American hostage there, and said he hopes his crew also will be saved.
The shipping captain liberated from Somali pirates Sunday after a swift firefight that killed three of his captors called the U.S. Navy Seals and others who worked to rescue him "heroes," his boss said.
The head of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command is warning that the successful rescue of an American captain held by Somali pirates could escalate violence in that part of the world.
In Capt. Richard Phillips' hometown, they'll never forget this Easter Sunday.
A faster response by emergency officials to the attack at an immigrant services center in Binghamton would have saved no lives, a county prosecutor said Sunday.
A 911 call that brought two police officers to a home where they were ambushed, and where a third was also later killed during a four-hour siege, was precipitated by a fight between the gunman and his mother over a dog urinating in the house.
The U.S. and its allies sought punishment Sunday for North Korea's defiant launch of a rocket that apparently fizzled into the Pacific, holding an emergency U.N. meeting in response to concerns the country was testing long-range missile technology.
A gunman opened fire at an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton on Friday, killing as many as 13 people before authorities found him dead, officials said.
Time and time again, General Motors Corp.'s board of directors reaffirmed its support for Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, even as the company piled up billions of dollars in losses and begged for government loans to stay alive.
However they satisfy their nicotine cravings, tobacco users are facing a big hit as the single largest federal tobacco tax increase ever takes effect Wednesday.
For environmental activists, the message was clear: Earth Hour was a huge success.
Now they say nations have a mandate to tackle climate change.
President Barack Obama's first European trip could dampen his hopes that a new diplomatic style will convert once-reluctant allies into cooperative global partners.
Storms spread misery Saturday from the Great Plains to the Gulf Coast, dumping spring snow that cut power to thousands of Kansas utility customers and spawning tornado warnings and heavy rain across the South.
At its first negotiations on climate change, the Obama administration is trying to convince other countries that the U.S. does care about global warming and wants to shape an international accord.
The Obama administration launched a new effort Monday to end a paralysis in lending, saying it will team with investors to initially buy up to a trillion dollars of bad assets from banks that have been reluctant to make loans to consumers and companies.
Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupted five times overnight, sending an ash plume more than 9 miles into the air in the volcano's first emissions in nearly 20 years.
President Barack Obama was flooding the American television Sunday with key economic advisers, pressing to buttress confidence in a nation caught in a financial downdraft unequaled in more than 50 years.
Standing before the nation on a "day of reckoning," President Barack Obama summoned politicians and public alike Tuesday night to forge a path out of the worst economic disaster in a quarter-century by embracing shared sacrifice and costly new endeavors to improve health care, schools and the environment.
In a major victory for President Barack Obama, Democrats muscled a huge, $787 billion stimulus bill through Congress late Friday night in hopes of combating the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Republican opposition was nearly unanimous.
After a 24-hour delay caused by late, lingering controversy, Democratic congressional leaders say President Barack Obama's economic stimulus bill, a massive, $790 billion package of tax cuts and federal spending, is on track for a Friday vote in the House.
A commuter plane "basically dove" into a house while coming in for a landing outside Buffalo, sparking a fiery explosion and killing all 48 people on board and one person on the ground.
General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner said Tuesday the automaker is committed to meeting tighter U.S. government fuel efficiency requirements as he met with House and Senate leaders who could play a role in developing global warming legislation.
Alex Rodriguez's reputation is in tatters, his credibility shredded. Having admitted that he, too, cheated in baseball's steroids era, the New York Yankees star must go about rebuilding his image in the eyes of teammates, opponents and fans.
President Barack Obama, pressuring lawmakers to urgently approve a massive economic recovery bill, criticized Republicans who have balked at the legislation Monday night and said, "I can't afford to see Congress play the usual political games."
Global warming hurts polar bears but could be a boon for international shipping, if vessels eventually use the Arctic Ocean to cut transit routes in half between Europe and Asia. The U.S. Coast Guard is scrambling to get ready.
With job losses soaring nationwide, Senate Democrats reached agreement with a small group of Republicans Friday night on an economic stimulus measure at the heart of President Barack Obama's plan for combatting the worst recession in decades.
Army is investigating a stunning number of suicides in January, a count that could surpass all combat deaths on America's two warfronts last month.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery Thursday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the court said.
New jobless claims jumped far more than expected last week in an already dismal labor market, and there's no relief in sight for workers as mass layoffs persist.
Deadly white-nose syndrome is striking more bats over a larger area this winter, reaching south into New Jersey and Pennsylvania and emptying caves in hard-hit areas like New York.
Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to be President Barack Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, dealing potential blows to both speedy health care reform and Obama's hopes for a smoother start as president.
Millard Fuller, the millionaire entrepreneur who gave it all away to help found the Christian house-building charity Habitat for Humanity, died Tuesday. He was 74.
Senate Republicans circulated a sweeping plan to drive down the cost of mortgages by expanding the federal government's role in the industry, officials said Monday night as debate opened on an economic stimulus bill at the top of President Barack Obama's agenda.
The world's most famous groundhog has seen his shadow which, legend has it, means this already long winter will last for six more weeks.
After crushing defeats in back-to-back elections, the top Senate Republican warned Thursday that the GOP risks remaining out of power in the White House and Congress unless it better explains its core principles to woo one-time faithful and new loyalists.
After weeks of shocking twists and turns, the conclusion of Rod Blagojevich's tenure as Illinois governor offered no surprises at all.
Weeks before the earliest signs of a national salmonella outbreak that now has been traced to peanuts from a Georgia processing plant, peanuts exported by the same company were found to be contaminated and were returned to the United States, The Associated Press has learned.
In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night, filled with new spending and tax cuts at the core of the young adminstration's revival plan for the desperately ailing economy.
President Barack Obama met face-to-face Tuesday with congressional Republicans who have been chafing over parts of a $825 billion plan to pull the country out of recession, and he urged lawmakers to "keep politics to a minimum" and quickly approve the measure.
President Barack Obama ordered the government Monday to re-examine whether California and other states should be allowed to have tougher auto emission standards to combat a build up of greenhouse gases, a clean break from Bush administration policy.
President Barack Obama says it appears Congress is "on target" to approve a massive new stimulus package by Feb. 16.
