Repealing Defense of Marriage Act is cast as a civil rights matter

By the time Ron Wallen and Tom Carrollo married in 2008, they had already lived most of their "good times and bad" as a same-sex couple....

Trial date set in Ft. Hood rampage

A U.S. military judge set a March 2012 court-martial date for an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at a Texas...

House Republicans pass symbolic measure on debt ceiling

House Republican leaders pulled out all the stops Tuesday to pass legislation tying a debt ceiling increase to a tight, long-term cap on...

Obama backs repeal of Defense of Marriage Act

President Obama has endorsed a new bill by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act,...

Rep. Maxine Waters again calls for ethics case to be dropped

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) on Tuesday launched a new drive to push the House Ethics Committee to drop its long-running case...

Pair charged with illegally lobbying for Pakistan

Two American citizens were charged with illegally lobbying the U.S. government about the territorial dispute over Kashmir without disclosing...

Denver archbishop named to take over Philadelphia archdiocese

Ending days of speculation, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a shake-up of leadership in the troubled Roman Catholic Archdiocese of...

U.S. softens its criticism of Syria

After sharply escalating its criticism of Syria's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the Obama administration has abruptly scaled...

Iraqi refugees in U.S. rechecked for terrorism links

In a far-reaching inquiry, authorities are rescreening more than 58,000 Iraqi refugees living in the United States amid concerns that lapses...

Symbolic House vote on debt ceiling approaches

The House prepared to vote on a Republican proposal to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for steep spending cuts, in defiance of...

Justice Department trying to shield officials in guns scandal, ATF chief says

The Justice Department is trying to protect its political appointees from the Fast and Furious scandal by concealing an internal "smoking...

Family of U.S. agent slain in Mexico demands to know gun source

Five months after U.S. immigration agent Jaime Zapata was shot to death by a Mexican drug cartel, his family is demanding to know whether...

The case a lawyer wouldn't give up on

Defense lawyer Elvin Gentry was walking into the El Paso County courthouse this year as an assistant district attorney was walking out....

Talks continue over debt ceiling

Hoping to break the impasse over the nation's debt limit, White House and congressional leaders and aides continued their private...

What recession? It's boom time again in Silicon Valley

As she unloaded groceries in the driveway of her Palo Alto home, Lisen Stromberg was approached by a real estate broker who asked whether...

Independent groups getting a head start on 2012 campaign

An early television war fueled by independent groups is poised to shape the focus and landscape of the 2012 presidential race much as "tea-...