For most Americans, the ability to lay claim to any economic growth of the nation at large has been vastly diminished

In an interview with New Hampshire's Union Leader newspaper, Herman Cain said his wife didn't know he was giving money to Ginger White, who claims to have had a 13-year affair with him. Cain also said quitting the presidential race 'is an option.'

The White House on Thursday rejected as insubstantial a GOP proposal to curtail unemployment insurance and food stamps for the rich as an offset for extending the payroll tax cut.

AP - Ignoring a presidential veto threat, the Democratic-controlled Senate moved methodically Thursday to complete a massive defense bill that would deny suspected terrorists, even U.S. citizens seized within the nation's borders, the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention.

AP - Herman Cain is still campaigning for president. But by most measures, his White House bid is all but over.

AP - Republicans and Democrats bickered and blustered Thursday toward eventual compromise legislation extending expiring Social Security payroll tax cuts and long-term jobless benefits through 2012, each seeking political advantage for elections almost a year distant.