McGREGOR, Texas | Rep. Chet Edwards, an imperiled Democrat running for his political life deep in the heart of Republican territory, finds exiting American Legion Post No. 273 slow going.

The wife of a World War II veteran hugs him. Several men line up to shake his hand. Another woman ...

The aftershocks from Alaska are being felt clear across the country in Delaware.

Days after underdog Joe Miller knocked off Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary there, Delaware GOP Rep. Michael N. Castle - long seen as a prohibitive favorite to capture the state's open Senate seat in ...

With recent polls showing Republicans poised for major congressional gains this fall, party leaders are wary of appearing overconfident and peaking too soon, playing down for now the prospect of winning majorities in the House and Senate in a vote that is still two months away.

The caution comes despite ...

Defying President Obama, Congress seems increasingly reluctant to let taxes go up, even on wealthier Americans.

Worried about the fragile economy and their own upcoming elections, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers are joining the rock-solid Republican opposition to Mr. Obama's plans to let some of the tax cuts passed ...

Top Amtrak officials declined to participate in an internal investigation until they were provided private lawyers on the government-owned company's dime, an unusual request considering they were not even targets of the probe.

Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that Amtrak Treasurer Dale Stein, General Counsel Eleanor ...

Palestinian and Israeli leaders agreed Thursday to pursue an interim understanding, or framework agreement, before ironing out a peace treaty during the first direct talks between the two sides since 2008.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met for 1 1/2 hours behind closed doors with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) | An oil platform exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water in protective "Gumby suits."

The Coast Guard initially reported that an ...

It will take the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) another seven years to implement new policies already seven years old aimed at improving weaknesses in its prison furlough program, a predicament the Justice Department's internal watchdog on Thursday called "unacceptable."

The reason is simple: The policy can't be implemented until BOP ...

In a test case with border-wide implications, a federal appeals court on Thursday reversed the littering conviction of a man who left gallon jugs of water on a national wildlife refuge to help illegal immigrants cross the remote federal land safely.

In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit ...

OPINION/ANALYSIS:

You can't blame a frog for posing as a prince. It's not the frog's fault if there's a line of princesses waiting to bestow the magic kiss.

The prince has turned out to be the usual frog, a politician trying to spin his shortcomings as successes. A lot of ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. | It's the conundrum Protestant denominations with declining memberships and shrinking budgets are desperate to solve: how to stem the decades-long losses and attract new worshippers.

The United Methodist Church, the third-largest denomination in the country, thinks it could be closer to finding the answer. It commissioned an ...

Alma Preciado, a mortgage broker and one-time prominent figure in Maryland politics, has been captured in Mexico more than a year after she skipped her sentencing in a mortgage fraud case that prompted a judge to call her Montgomery County's own "little Bernie Madoff."

Robert A. Hill, senior assistant Montgomery ...

HELENA, Mont. | Two young goats that wandered onto the thin ledge of a railroad bridge and spent two days high above a highway were hungry but safe when they were plucked to safety with a towering cherry picker.

The rescue occurred Wednesday 60 feet above a little-trafficked rural roadway ...

SEATTLE (AP) — Dell Inc. is walking away from a bidding contest with rival Hewlett-Packard Co. for data-storage maker 3Par Inc.

Dell said Thursday it won't match HP's offer to pay $33 per share for 3Par, or about $2.07 billion. Dell's decision came barely an hour after 3Par announced it ...

DENVER (AP) — A chaplain killed in Afghanistan this week was the first Army clergyman killed in action since the Vietnam War, the military said Thursday.

Capt. Dale Goetz of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo., was among five soldiers killed by an improvised bomb on Monday.

Before ...

GENEVA (AP) — A report detailing hundreds of gruesome attacks against civilians in Congo over a 10-year period won't be released until October, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Thursday, after Rwanda angrily protested the findings in a draft version.

Drafts of the report — circulated to governments earlier ...

NEW YORK (AP) — The former television producer who tried to blackmail David Letterman over the comedian's office affairs was freed from jail Thursday, city Correction Department records show.

Robert "Joe" Halderman served four months of his six-month sentence in the case, which exposed Mr. Letterman's personal life to public ...

MUMBAI, India (AP) — India has widened its security crackdown, asking all companies that provide encrypted communications — not just BlackBerry maker Research In Motion — to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users' data. That move likely would affect digital giants ...

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are edging higher after reports on housing, manufacturing and jobs indicated the economy continues to grow, albeit slowly.

The Labor Department says first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week, but remain well above levels that indicate a healthy economy. The number of buyers ...

NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) — The Coast Guard is backing off its earlier report that an oil sheen about a mile long was spreading following a another rig platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said Thursday afternoon that crews was ...