News you can use
News you can use
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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama was sworn in for four more years Sunday in a simple ceremony at the White House, embarking on a second-term quest to restore a still-shaky economy and combat terrorists overseas while swearing an age-old oath to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution. AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool President Barack Obama is officially sworn-in by Chief Justice John Roberts in the Blue Room of the White House during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Sunday. "I did it," a s...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama was sworn in for four more years Sunday in a simple ceremony at the White House, embarking on a second-term quest to restore a still-shaky economy and combat terrorists overseas while swearing an age-old oath to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution. AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool President Barack Obama is officially sworn-in by Chief Justice John Roberts in the Blue Room of the White House during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Sunday. "I did it," a s...
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney swept to the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night at a storm-delayed national convention, every mention of his name cheered by delegates eager to propel him into a campaign to defeat President Barack Obama in tough economic times. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong Texas delegates cheer as Mitt Romney is nominated for the Office of the President of the United States at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday. Romney watched on television with his w...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama returned to the White House on Thursday from a vacation shortened by government gridlock while Democrats and Republicans snarled across a partisan divide and showed no sign of compromise to avoid year-end tax increases and spending cuts. Adding to the woes confronting the middle class was a pending spike of $2-per-gallon or more in milk prices if lawmakers failed to pass farm legislation by year's end. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak President Barack Obama waves to reporters as he steps off t...
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Republican officials abruptly announced plans Saturday night to scrap the first day of their national convention, bowing to the threat of Tropical Storm Isaac as it bore down menacingly on Florida. "The safety of those in Isaac's path is of the utmost importance," tweeted Mitt Romney, his formal nomination as presidential candidate pushed back by a minimum of 24 hours from Monday night to Tuesday. The announcement was made as convention-goers flocked to the Tampa Bay area by the planeload for what had b...
DETROIT — Four days before critical primary elections, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney outlined a far-reaching plan Friday to gradually delay Americans' eligibility for Medicare as well as Social Security. Romney said the shift, as people live longer, is needed to steer the giant benefit programs toward economic sustainability. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to the Detroit Economic Club at Ford Field in Detroit, Friday. Speaking to the D...
WASHINGTON — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announced Sunday she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago that shook the country. "I don't remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice," the Democratic lawmaker said on a video posted without prior notice on her Facebook page. AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords This video image provided by the Office o...
WASHINGTON — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona announced Sunday she intends to resign from Congress this week to concentrate on recovering from wounds suffered in an assassination attempt a little more than a year ago that shook the country. "I don't remember much from that horrible day, but I will never forget the trust you placed in me to be your voice," the Democratic lawmaker said on a video posted without prior notice on her Facebook page. AP Photo/Office of Gabrielle Giffords This video image provided by the Office o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A resurgent Rick Santorum swept primaries in Alabama and Mississippi Tuesday night, upending the race for the Republican presidential nomination as he sought to push Newt Gingrich toward the sidelines. Mitt Romney was running third in both states. "We did it again," Santorum told cheering supporters in Lafayette, La. He said it was time for conservatives to unite in an effort to defeat Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who is the faraway leader in the competition for Republican National Convention d...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney collided with rivals Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich on Tuesday in primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, hotly contested Southern crossroads in the struggle for the Republican presidential nomination. Caucuses in Hawaii were also on the calendar in the race to pick an opponent to President Barack Obama this fall. There were 107 Republican National Convention delegates at stake, 47 in Alabama, 37 in Mississippi, 17 in Hawaii and six more in caucuses in American Samoa. AP Photo/David Goldman D...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney's campaign fiercely protested a searing attack ad aired by allies of President Barack Obama on Wednesday, but drew expressions of dismay from conservatives when an aide to the former Massachusetts governor invoked the benefits of a state health care system he signed into law. "If people had been in Massachusetts under Gov. Romney's health care plan, they would have had health care," spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an interview on Fox News. The Republican presidential candidate himself rarely m...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama rolled to re-election Tuesday night, vanquishing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney despite a weak economy that plagued his first term and put a crimp in the middle class dreams of millions. In victory, he confidently promised better days ahead. Obama spoke to thousands of cheering supporters in his hometown of Chicago, praising Romney and declaring his optimism for the next four years. "While our road has been hard, though our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have...
AP Photo/Charles Dharapak President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday. WASHINGTON — In a blunt challenge to Republicans in Congress, President Barack Obama insisted Wednesday that elimination of selected tax breaks for oil companies and the super-wealthy must be included in any deficit reduction plan. "You stay here. Let's get it done," he all-but-lectured lawmakers, holding open the possibility of keeping Congress in Washington unless there is s...
WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts does not intend to seek re-election in 2012, his office said Monday, closing out a career of more than three decades in Congress capped by last year's passage of legislation imposing new regulations on Wall Street. Frank, 71 and a lifelong liberal, won a House seat in 1980 was one of the first lawmakers to announce that he is gay. AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. applauds at the Interior Department in Washington, on Dec. 22. Frank's office says h...
Republicans back at work cutting spending DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON — Moving quickly on their own priorities, House Republicans pushed legislation to abolish partial public financing of presidential campaigns on Wednesday, one day after a State of the Union address in which President Barack Obama pronounced the country "poised for progress" and beckoned lawmakers of both parties to make job creation their common goal. Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the program was a prime example of wasteful s...
WASHINGTON — In a blunt challenge to President Barack Obama, House Republicans drafted legislation Monday to avert a potentially devastating Aug. 2 government default — but along lines the White House has already dismissed. U.S. and world financial markets shrugged off the uncertainty. "This is a city where compromise is becoming a dirty word," Obama lamented as congressional leaders groped for a way out of a looming crisis. In stinging remarks a short while later on the Senate floor, the Republican leader, Mitch McC...
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Supercommittee member, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., fends off reporters as he arrives to meet in the Capitol Hill office of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., with other Supercommittee members. WASHINGTON — Congress' supercommittee conceded ignominious defeat Monday in its quest to conquer a government debt that stands at a staggering $15 trillion, unable to overcome deep and enduring political divisions over taxes and spending. Stock prices plummeted at home and across d...
AP Photo/Evan Vucci House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio walks of the floor of the House chamber on Tuesday. The House rejected legislation to extend a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for two months, drawing a swift rebuke from President Barack Obama that Republicans were threatening higher taxes on 160 million workers on Jan. 1. WASHINGTON — Congress lurched toward Grinch-like gridlock on Tuesday as the Republican-controlled House rejected a two-month extension of Social Security tax cuts that President Barack Obama s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sidestepping controversy, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., declined to take sides Monday on a proposal for higher tax revenues backed by fellow Republicans on Congress' supercommittee, yet expressed confidence the panel would agree on a deficit-reduction plan of at least $1.2 trillion by a Nov. 23 deadline. A proposal for $300 billion in higher taxes has stirred grumbling within the ranks of congressional Republicans, for whom opposition to such measures has been political bedrock for more than two...
WASHINGTON — To the dismay of consumer groups and the discomfort of Democrats, President Barack Obama wants Congress to make it easier for private debt collectors to call the cellphones of consumers delinquent on student loans and other billions owed the federal government. The change "is expected to provide substantial increases in collections, particularly as an increasing share of households no longer have landlines and rely instead on cellphones," the administration wrote recently. The little-noticed recommendation w...
