State attorneys general are preparing for a surge of prosecutions of financial fraud, and there are hints the Obama administration?s budget will add to the effort.
The bill would temporarily lift the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children, which would enable some lawsuits against Catholic priests that had been thrown out.
Charles W. Freeman Jr., a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, withdrew from consideration for a top intelligence post following a successful campaign by pro-Israel lobbyists.
AP - President Barack Obama, sounding weary of criticism over federal earmarks, defended Congress' pet projects Wednesday as he signed an "imperfect" $410 billion measure with thousands of examples.
AP - The government should refrain from micromanaging banks that receive taxpayer assistance, a top Treasury official cautioned lawmakers itching to see results from a $700 billion rescue program for the financial sector. Neel Kashkari, interim assistant secretary for financial stability at Treasury, told a congressional oversight panel Wednesday that banks should not be forced to make loans that bankers might deem risky.
AP - Despite halts on new foreclosures by several major lenders, the number of households threatened with losing their homes rose 30 percent in February from last year's levels, RealtyTrac reported Thursday.
After a group of Israeli farmers sought last year to expand their property in the hills near Jerusalem, they discovered an archeological gem beneath the dirt. The remains of a Byzantine monastery have been found, and it is believed to have been built in the late fifth or sixth century.
Alina Knowles anxiously crept along her neighbor's porch, where the bodies lay strewn on the blood-covered floor. And then she heard the baby's wail. The infant was covered in blood, and she was crying. "I'm glad she was crying -- I knew she was alive," Knowles said a day after her neighbors were gunned down in a shooting spree in two Alabama towns.
The gunman responsible for the deadliest crime in Alabama's history trained briefly as a police officer in the small town of Samson, which was hardest hit by the deadly rampage, authorities said. Michael McLendon was armed with two assault rifles, two semiautomatic weapons, a handgun and a shotgun, police said.