US News

Out of conventional ammunition, the Fed uses its balance-sheet to battle the slump

CENTRAL bankers ordinarily strive to be boring. But these are not ordinary times. On December 16th the Federal Reserve unveiled a three-part assault on America’s slump that lit up the news wires like a pyrotechnic display. The Fed’s policy panel, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), announced that it had cut its target for the federal funds rate to between zero and 0.25%,.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday ordered a state hiring freeze and payroll cuts to conserve cash as California struggles to deal with a $42 billion budget deficit.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has changed his position with respect to the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.

The sponsors of Proposition 8 are asking the California Supreme Court to nullify the marriages of the estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who exchanged vows before voters last month approved the ballot initiative that outlawed gay unions.

The investigating judge in the case of the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush says the man shows signs of having been beaten.

The judge, who saw Muntader al-Zaidi this week, said the journalist had bruises on his face and about his eyes.

He said Mr Zaidi was beaten while still at the news conference, in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

It's Caylee Marie. The five-month mystery ended today when authorities confirmed that skeletal remains discovered in woods last week belong to the missing two-year-old girl.

Sheriff's officials delivered the news at a 2 p.m. press conference in Orlando. Word came after the FBI forensic lab in Virginia matched Caylee's DNA with bones found a quarter-mile from her grandparents' home.

Well, it seems as though the family of Levi Johnston, he who apparently impregnated Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin's daughter, has decided that Sarah Palin wasn't getting enough press. Sherry L. Johnston, 42, and the mother of Levi, was arrested Thursday at her home by Alaska State Troopers. She was charged with six felony counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Following a two-day wargame exercise on cyber-security issues, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff today said that no one person should be in charge of cyber-security, despite the growing and emerging ...

Snow and ice storms across the U.S. Midwest knocked out power service to more than 220,000 homes and businesses in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio early Friday, local utilities reported.

Mary Schapiro has escaped the criticism that followed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox as subprime mortgage securities brought down investment banks and Bernard Madoff was ...

DFL challenger Al Franken has just taken the lead in the U.S. Senate race. Until now, the lead has belonged to Republican Sen.

Mark Felt, the man better known as Deep Throat, has died at the age of 95 at his home in California from congestive heart failure.

Saying he has to 'shield the American people from a harsh economic blow at a vulnerable time,' President George W. Bush this morning announced plans to immediately extend $13.4 billion to struggling Detroit ...

A bailout for Detroit translated into a bounce for Wall Street. Stocks rose in early trading on Friday, minutes after President Bush announced plans to shore up the auto industry with an infusion of government ...

Russia should be offered a possibility to watch U.S. missile defense system in Czechia and Poland, according to a U.S. Senator.

“Besides, we can think over installation of a missile defense shield in Azerbaijan,” said Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator for Indiana. “We should reason out the ground for rockets and radars.”

Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.

A lawyer for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich told state lawmakers Thursday that the federal wiretaps at the heart of the pay-to-play allegations against his client were illegally obtained, and therefore should be ...

The OPEC cartel agreed on Wednesday to reduce production by 2.2 million barrels a day, the group’s largest cut ever, in an effort to put a floor on falling oil prices.

A west Georgia judge had a Muslim woman arrested Tuesday for contempt of court after she refused to take off her hijab, the headscarf worn by Muslim women.

Time Magazine has had some strange picks for their yearly "Person of the Year," including picking the PC and "You" . But this years's winner was a real winner: President-Elect Barack Obama.