HANNIBAL, Missouri (Reuters) - Some Tea Partiers admit mistakes were made. Others are quick to describe the movement's recent efforts in the political arena as not quite ready for prime time. But the conservative upstart is determined to shed its amateur status. To that end, members are literally ...

The New York State Division of Parole turned down Mark David Chapman's request, citing concerns "about the disregard you displayed for the norms of our society and the sanctity of human life," according to a report by CNN. The three-member parole board panel concluded in written comments ...

Orszag's views differed from those of his former boss, President Barack Obama. Orszag, who stepped down in July as Obama's budget chief, said the United States faces a "jobs deficit" near term and fiscal shortfalls that are unsustainable longer term.

The NIH has already designated another $10 million to begin the study, which will look at the health effects on clean-up workers from oil and dispersants, including respiratory, neurobehavioral, carcinogenic, and immune conditions. The study will also include mental health concerns and other ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The State University of New York has adopted new practices to help prevent students from falling victim to deceptive credit card marketing that can burden them with too much debt in tough economic times. Under an agreement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose ...

Hermine's path kept it away from major oil and gas installations in the Gulf of Mexico, and refineries in Texas were unaffected by the passage of the storm, operators said. The storm was expected to weaken during the next 48 hours and become a tropical depression later Tuesday.

These costs, which also include administrative costs, payments to plaintiffs and lawyer fees, account for 2.4 percent of annual U.S. healthcare spending, Michelle Mello of the Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues reported. So-called defensive medicine costs alone totaled an estimated ...

MIAMI (Reuters) - U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan warned on Monday that a small Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks could endanger the lives of American troops. The warnings followed an angry protest on Monday by several hundred ...

The National Hurricane Center gave Gaston, which weakened to a remnant low-pressure area on Thursday soon after becoming a tropical cyclone, an 80 percent chance of redeveloping over the next 48 hours. An area of low pressure over the extreme southwestern Gulf of Mexico became a tropical ...

on Saturday. "We basically have secured this well," retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said. "We have essentially eliminated the threat of discharge from the well at this point."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he would outline new measures next week to boost the U.S. economy, but analysts were skeptical he would be able to deliver a big enough package to lift growth significantly. Obama made his remarks after August data showed that jobs -- ...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc successfully replaced a failed blowout preventer from atop its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well late on Friday, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said. Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen called the equipment switch "an important milestone" ...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - U.S. government inspectors found no leaking oil at Mariner Energy Inc's burned platform in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said late on Friday, allaying fears about more environmental damage after BP's massive spill. "Inspectors have reported no sign of pollution," the ...

Skilling led Enron's transformation from a sleepy natural gas pipeline company into a global energy trading powerhouse, which disintegrated in bankruptcy in 2001. Convicted in May 2006 of 19 counts of conspiracy, securities fraud, insider trading and lying to auditors, Skilling is currently in ...

CHATHAM, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Residents and business owners in the beach communities of Cape Cod and nearby islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard hung plywood over their shop windows on Friday and rued the arrival of Hurricane Earl, which appeared set to spoil their holiday weekend. But ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors in Gabriel Capital LP, a so-called feeder fund that funneled money to imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff, were awarded $12.74 million by a panel of three arbitrators, court records show. The award to two New Jersey investment funds was disclosed in a filing Thursday ...

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami Dade County, the Fraternal Order of Police said the city should void the cuts and come up with other ways to fill a $105 million budget gap, like stepping up its collections enforcement. Miami declared a "financial emergency" in July and said ...

Christopher Ward, 41, admitted to issuing unauthorized checks and wire transfers from the National Republican Congressional Committee and other political committees between March 2001 and December 2007, the Justice Department said. In addition to working for the NRCC accounting department, Ward ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama Administration is likely to stay focused on toughening regulatory oversight of the U.S. offshore oil industry and may push back lifting a ban on deepwater drilling after the latest accident in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts said on Thursday. The fire on a Mariner ...

The Miami Herald said the man held, a former science professor at Texas Tech University identified as Thomas Butler, had been convicted in 2003 on federal charges related to shipping vials of plague bacteria. His history may have raised red flags. But an FBI spokesman, who said he was unable to ...

By Susan Heavey and Lisa Richwine SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) - It wasn't what you would call a casual get-together.

Some harnesses supplied by Johnson Controls for lighting in 2010 model-year Soul cars and 2011 model-year Sorento SUVs were improperly soldered, leading to possible electrical shorts, Kia said in a letter to U.S. safety regulators on August 30. There were no reports of accidents or injuries due to ...

"I am in no sense writing off legislation over time. And I'm quite sure the president isn't," U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern told a news conference during two days of talks in Geneva among about 45 nations reviewing climate finance. He said Washington would rely on a combination of ...

The study published on Friday in the journal "Health Affairs" recommended policy reforms and broader efforts to get uninsured children into government medical programs, including the use of income tax data for automatic enrollment. An estimated 7.3 million children were uninsured on an ...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - An oil and gas platform operated by Mariner Energy burst into flames in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, but the crew of 13 escaped and there were no signs of an oil spill, the Coast Guard said. The accident brought unwelcome attention to the offshore drilling industry as it ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One upside of the worst U.S. economic slump since the Great Depression is that with fewer motorists on the road, the nation's highways are less congested and in better shape, a study said on Thursday. The condition of urban interstate highways and rural primary roads both ...

The trial centered on a 2001 accident involving Brian Cole, who at the time had been a prospect for the New York Mets, the family's attorney Tab Turner said. Turner said that after the jury returned its verdict, Ford reached a settlement with the family. He declined to disclose the amount.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will roll out more regulations on greenhouse gases and other pollution to help fight climate change, but they will not be as strong as action by Congress, a senior administration official said. The agency "has a huge role to play ...

Harvard students enrolled in Warren's contracts class were informed that a different professor will be teaching the class instead, according to a report in The Washington Post, which obtained a copy of an email to the students. "Professor Warren regrets that she will not be able to teach you ...

The bomb squad had been called to investigate a black Mercedes Benz and 10 blocks of Park Avenue were briefly closed to traffic and pedestrians, a police spokeswoman said. "It's nothing," she said. It was unknown why the vehicle was considered suspicious.

WASHINGTON/PHOENIX (Reuters) - The Justice Department on Thursday sued an Arizona sheriff for refusing to cooperate with its investigation into allegations he and his police force discriminate against Hispanics in his program to crack down on illegal immigrants. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio ...

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned on Thursday an air strike by NATO-led forces which he said killed 10 election campaign workers, although U.S. officials maintained it was aimed at an Islamist leader. Civilian casualties caused by foreign forces hunting militants have ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday dismissed the case against a former U.N. employee accused of biting a U.N. security guard after complaining of nepotism at the world body. Nicola Baroncini, 36, was charged with third-degree assault in the June 2009 incident.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Companies are cutting healthcare costs further amid a continuing sour economy, scaling back benefits and shifting a greater share of the expense to employees. The findings, published on Thursday, come as the congressional campaign heats up over the nation's stagnant economic ...

All 13 crew were accounted for and the platform continued to burn 90 miles south of the Louisiana coast, CNN reported. (Reporting by Erwin Seba)

Helicopters were an hour away from the site of the possible explosion, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Prentice Danner. (Reporting by Erwin Seba)

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) - Police shot and killed a man who took three people hostage, waving a gun and apparently fitted out with explosives, in the headquarters of the Discovery Channel near Washington Wednesday. Officers who had been watching the hostage drama on a building security ...

The Federal Communications Commission has been prodding phone, cable and Internet companies for months to find consensus on the thorny issue of net neutrality -- a debate over whether high-speed Internet providers should be allowed to give preferential treatment to content providers who pay for ...

"While monthly filings are volatile, consumer bankruptcies are still the highest they have been since Congress overhauled the bankruptcy law in 2005," ABI Executive Director Samuel Gerdano said in the report. A total of 127,028 consumer bankruptcies were filed in August, according to the ...

HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc expects to remove a failed blowout preventer atop its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well by Saturday or Sunday and later plug the leak for good, the top U.S. official overseeing the spill response said on Wednesday. "We believe in the next 24 to 36 hours, we will ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Muslims declared themselves just as American as opponents of an Islamic cultural center and mosque near the World Trade Center on Wednesday in a bid to seize control of a debate they appear to be losing. Leaders of some 55 New York mosques and Islamic ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The future of an 80-acre New York apartment complex will be at stake on Thursday as a judge considers whether a venture led by a prominent hedge fund investor may conduct a foreclosure auction. William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management LP and Boston-based Winthrop ...

Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc and other drilling companies sued the administration on June 7 after it first ordered a halt to deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico following BP Plc's well rupture that killed 11 workers and caused the world's worst offshore oil spill. As a result of ...

The groups expressed their concern in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who were urged last week by the Chamber of Commerce, a leading U.S. business group, to press Congress for a generous package of U.S. textile tariff cuts to help Pakistan ...