House passes fiscal cliff deal

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., left, with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, head into a closed-door …Updated 11:38 pm ETThe House of Representatives late Tuesday easily approved emergency bipartisan legislation sparing all but a sliver of America’s richest from sharp income tax hikes -- while setting up another “fiscal cliff” confrontation in a matter of weeks.Lawmakers voted...

Read More..

Tentative ‘fiscal cliff’ deal reached in Senate

President Barack Obama discusses the negotiations with Capitol Hill on the looming fiscal cliff in front of middle …Racing to beat a midnight deadline, Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Capitol Hill Monday night to sell wary Democratic senators on an 11th-hour deal to avert income tax hikes on all but a sliver of the richest Americans.Grinning broadly, Biden ignored reporters questions on...

Read More..

Clinton admitted to hospital with blood clot

(REUTERS/Gary Cameron) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at the State Department in Washington …Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been admitted to a New York hospital for treatment of a blood clot, her spokesman said Sunday.State Department Spokesman Philippe Reines said Clinton had entered the hospital following a medical examination for a concussion she sustained...

Read More..

Senate leaders work to avoid New Year's fiscal cliff

By Richard Cowan and Rachelle Younglai WASHINGTON | Sat Dec 29, 2012 7:22pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional negotiators burrowed into their offices on Saturday to see if they could stop the U.S. economy from falling off of a "fiscal cliff" in just three days when the biggest tax increases ever to hit Americans in one shot are scheduled to begin.Aides...

Read More..

Obama ‘optimistic’ Senate leaders will reach fiscal cliff deal this weekend

(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)Following talks with congressional leaders that yielded no news of  a "fiscal cliff" agreement, President Barack Obama on Friday evening pressured lawmakers to reach a deal this weekend as the public's patience wears thin."America wonders why it is that in this town for some reason they can't get stuff done in an organized timetable, why everything always has to wait for...

Read More..

Retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf dies

H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the retired general credited with leading U.S.-allied forces to a victory in the first Gulf War, has died at age 78, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.He died today in Tampa, Fla., a U.S. official told the Associated Press.Schwarzkopf, sometimes called "Stormin' Norman" because of his temper, actually led Republican administrations to two military victories: a small one...

Read More..

Former President George H.W. Bush in intensive care

HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush has been admitted to the intensive care unit at a Houston hospital "following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever," but he is alert and talking to medical staff, his spokesman said Wednesday.Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman in Houston, said in a brief email that Bush was admitted to the ICU at Methodist Hospital on Sunday. He said doctors...

Read More..

Christmas Day storms blamed for 3 deaths

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- Twisters hopscotched across the Deep South, and, along with brutal, straight-line winds, knocked down countless trees, blew the roofs off homes and left many Christmas celebrations in the dark. Holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions from the same fast-moving storms. ...

Read More..

Nasty weather threatens Gulf Coast for Christmas

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Nasty weather, including a chance of strong tornadoes and howling thunderstorms, could be on the way for Christmas Day along the Gulf Coast from east Texas to north Florida.The storms held off long enough, though, to let Christmas Eve bonfires light the way for Pere Noel along the Mississippi River, officials said.Farther north, much of Oklahoma and Arkansas were under a winter...

Read More..

NRA chief LaPierre fires back at his critics

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre fired back at his critics today, defending his proposal to put armed guards in every school in the country as a way to prevent future tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six adults."If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," the head of...

Read More..

Obama starts Hawaiian vacation, leaving Washington on ice

KAILUA, Hawaii (Reuters) - Taking what promised to be a very brief Christmas break from the ongoing struggle to avoid the "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, President Barack Obama relaxed with his family on Saturday at a beach retreat in Hawaii. Congress was to return to Washington next Thursday and Obama has pledged to work with lawmakers to strike a deal to avoid the economic...

Read More..

Blizzards, blackouts hit Midwest

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The first major winter storm of the year hit the U.S. Midwest on Thursday, bringing a blizzard to the Plains and tornadoes to Alabama and Arkansas, and leaving some 133,000 customers without electricity. Bad driving conditions led to a 25-car pileup on a highway near Clarion, Iowa, that left three people dead, authorities said. Blizzard warnings were in effect in eastern...

Read More..

Funerals become routine in shattered town

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — One by one by one by one, each with fresh heartbreak, hearses crisscrossed two New England towns on Wednesday, bearing three tiny victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre and a heroic teacher in a seemingly never-ending series of funeral processions."The first few days, all you heard were helicopters," said Dr. Joseph Young, an optometrist who attended one funeral and would...

Read More..

Rush to boost safety sparks flurry of ideas

(Reuters) - They began calling on Friday morning, even before confirmation of the death toll at Sandy Hook Elementary. Principals, district administrators, school police chiefs all asked the same pleading questions: What can we do? How do we stop this? How can we keep our children safe? Michael Dorn, phone to his ear until 2 a.m., gave them all the same advice: Slow down. Every horrific...

Read More..

Obama: ‘We can’t tolerate this anymore’

President Barack Obama assured the grieving, shell-shocked Newtown community on Sunday that "you are not alone" and vowed sternly to wield "whatever power this office holds" in a quest to prevent future mass shootings."We can't tolerate this anymore," Obama said from behind a podium on the stage of a Newton High School auditorium, as adults wept, or hugged, or sat quietly, many hugging small children....

Read More..

'Always smiling': Portraits of Connecticut victims

Most died at the very start of their young lives, tiny victims taken in a way not fit for anyone regardless of age. Others found their life's work in sheltering little ones, teaching them, caring for them, treating them as their own. After the gunfire ended Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the trail of loss was more than many could bear: 20 children and six adults at the school, the gunman's...

Read More..