Obama’s gun measures face a tough road in Congress

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s sweeping gun control package faces an uncertain future on Capitol Hill. Republicans dominating the House are rejecting his proposals while Obama’s allies in the Democratic-controlled Senate are stopping well short of pledging immediate action. The fate of Obama’s plan could …

Aurora victims hold remembrance at movie theater

AURORA, Colo. — The Colorado movie theater where a gunman killed 12 people and wounded dozens of others reopens Thursday with a private ceremony for victims, first responders and officials — an event boycotted as insensitive by some of those who lost loved ones in …

New York City school bus drivers, matrons go on strike

NEW YORK — More than 8,000 New York City school bus drivers and matrons went on strike over job protection Wednesday morning, leaving some 152,000 students, many disabled, trying to find other ways to get to school. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said the strike started …

ER visits tied to energy drinks double since 2007

SAN FRANCISCO — A new government survey suggests the number of people seeking emergency treatment after consuming energy drinks has doubled nationwide in a recent four-year span. That’s the same period in which the supercharged drink industry has surged in popularity in convenience stores, bars …

Marine faces charges for urinating on corpses

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — A U.S. Marine was set to face court martial Wednesday for urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and then posing for photos with the corpses. Staff Sgt. Edward W. Deptola is accused of the desecration of remains …

LIVE: Obama unveils gun control plan

President Barack Obama’s broad effort to reduce gun violence will include proposed bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines as well as more than a dozen executive orders aimed at circumventing congressional opposition to stricter gun control.

2 killed in shooting on Kentucky college parking lot

HAZARD, Ky. — A gunman who fired into a vehicle, killing a man and a woman and wounding a teenage girl, has been charged with murder and attempted murder in a shooting police blamed on a domestic dispute. The violence late Tuesday in a college …

NY passes 1st US gun control bill since massacre

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s Assembly on Tuesday easily passed the toughest gun control law in the nation and the first since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, calling for a tougher assault weapons ban and provisions to try to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill who make threats.

Gunman shoots man, himself at St. Louis school

ST. LOUIS — Police say a gunman walked into a business school in downtown St. Louis and shot an administrator in the chest before shooting himself. Police Chief Sam Dotson said the shooting happened about 2 p.m. Tuesday. The administrator was a man in his 40s who was shot in his office.

Obama to call Wednesday for universal background checks, assault weapons ban

President Barack Obama on Wednesday will urge a reluctant Congress to establish universal background checks on gun buyers and ban military-style assault weapons as well as the kinds of high-capacity ammunition magazines used in last month’s Connecticut massacre. The broad package Obama will announce will also include efforts to stop bullying and boost availability of mental health services.

Connecticut school renamed for hero teacher Victoria Soto

STRATFORD, Conn. — Officials of a town near Newtown, Conn., are renaming a local school for a resident killed in the massacre there and hailed as a hero.

HoneySpot Elementary School in Stratford will be named after 27-year-old Victoria Soto who died trying to shield …

U.S. military suicides hit a record high of 349 in 2012

WASHINGTON — Suicides in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 last year, far exceeding American combat deaths in Afghanistan, and some private experts are predicting the dark trend will grow worse this year. The Pentagon has struggled to deal with the suicides, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others have called an epidemic.

Ex-President George H.W. Bush leaves the hospital

HOUSTON — Former President George H.W. Bush has left a Houston hospital where he spent nearly two months recovering from an illness that began with a bronchitis-related cough.

Bush spokesman Jim McGrath says the 88-year-old Bush was released Monday from Methodist Hospital.

He was admitted …

Obama demands quick action to raise debt limit

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama demanded on Monday that lawmakers raise the nation’s $16.4 trillion federal debt limit quickly, warning that “Social Security benefits and veterans’ checks will be delayed” if they don’t and cautioning Republicans not to insist on concessions in exchange.

“They will …

NRA says Congress will not pass weapons ban

WASHINGTON — The National Rifle Association says it has enough support in Congress to block any new laws that would ban assault weapons. That comes as Vice President Joe Biden finalizes a package of recommendations to curb gun violence. The NRA has so far prevented …