Exclusive: McConnell defends 'imperfect' fiscal cliff deal

Editor's note: This op/ed is by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.The first day of a new Congress always represents a fresh start. This year, it also presents a perfect opportunity to tackle the single-greatest challenge facing our nation: reining in the out-of-control federal spending that threatens to permanently alter our economy and dim the prospects and opportunities of future generations...

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House passes fiscal cliff deal

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., left, with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, head into a closed-door …Updated 11:38 pm ETThe House of Representatives late Tuesday easily approved emergency bipartisan legislation sparing all but a sliver of America’s richest from sharp income tax hikes -- while setting up another “fiscal cliff” confrontation in a matter of weeks.Lawmakers voted...

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Senate clears fiscal cliff measure

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has passed legislation to block the impact of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts that make up the fiscal cliff.The vote was an overwhelming 89-8 and came well after midnight on New Year's Day.A House vote is expected before Wednesday.The White House-backed legislation would prevent middle-class taxes from rising, and raise rates on incomes over $400,000 for...

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Clinton admitted to hospital with blood clot

(REUTERS/Gary Cameron) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers remarks at the State Department in Washington …Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been admitted to a New York hospital for treatment of a blood clot, her spokesman said Sunday.State Department Spokesman Philippe Reines said Clinton had entered the hospital following a medical examination for a concussion she sustained...

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Last-minute fiscal cliff talks in Senate

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders groped for a last-minute compromise Saturday to avoid middle-class tax increases and possibly prevent deep spending cuts at the dawn of the new year as President Barack Obama warned that failure could mean a "self-inflicted wound to the economy."Obama chastised lawmakers in his weekly radio and Internet address for waiting until the last minute to try and avoid a "fiscal...

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Obama ‘optimistic’ Senate leaders will reach fiscal cliff deal this weekend

(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)Following talks with congressional leaders that yielded no news of  a "fiscal cliff" agreement, President Barack Obama on Friday evening pressured lawmakers to reach a deal this weekend as the public's patience wears thin."America wonders why it is that in this town for some reason they can't get stuff done in an organized timetable, why everything always has to wait for...

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Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf dies at 78

H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the retired general credited with leading U.S.-allied forces to a victory in the first Gulf War, has died at age 78, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.He died today in Tampa, Fla., a U.S. official told the Associated Press.Schwarzkopf, sometimes called "Stormin' Norman" because of his temper, actually led Republican administrations to two military victories: a small one...

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Powerful winter storm pounds Northeast

A powerful winter storm system that pounded the nation's midsection, wrecking holiday travel plans and dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas, began lashing the Northeast on Wednesday with high winds, snow and sleet.The storm, which knocked out power to thousands of utility customersm mainly in Arkansas, was blamed in at least six deaths.Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed, scores of motorists...

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Christmas Day storms blamed for 3 deaths

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- Twisters hopscotched across the Deep South, and, along with brutal, straight-line winds, knocked down countless trees, blew the roofs off homes and left many Christmas celebrations in the dark. Holiday travelers in the nation's much colder midsection battled treacherous driving conditions from freezing rain and blizzard conditions from the same fast-moving storms. ...

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Nasty weather threatens Gulf Coast for Christmas

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Nasty weather, including a chance of strong tornadoes and howling thunderstorms, could be on the way for Christmas Day along the Gulf Coast from east Texas to north Florida.The storms held off long enough, though, to let Christmas Eve bonfires light the way for Pere Noel along the Mississippi River, officials said.Farther north, much of Oklahoma and Arkansas were under a winter...

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NRA chief LaPierre fires back at his critics

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre fired back at his critics today, defending his proposal to put armed guards in every school in the country as a way to prevent future tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six adults."If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," the head of...

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Official: North Korea could have U.S. within missile range

SEOUL (Reuters) - This month's rocket launch by reclusive North Korea shows it has likely developed the technology, long suspected in the West, to fire a warhead more than 10,000 km (6,200 miles), South Korean officials said on Sunday, putting the U.S. West Coast in range. North Korea said the December 12 launch put a weather satellite in orbit but critics say it was aimed at nurturing...

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NRA move exposes deep divide on guns

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Any chance for national unity on U.S. gun violence appeared to wane a week after the Connecticut school massacre, as the powerful NRA gun rights lobby called on Friday for armed guards in every school and gun-control advocates vehemently rejected the proposal. The solution offered by the National Rifle Association defied a push by President Barack Obama for new...

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Boehner suffers major 'fiscal cliff' setback

House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks to the media about the fiscal cliff at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. …In a stinging setback for Republican House Speaker John Boehner, a lack of support from inside his own party for his “fiscal cliff” fall-back plan forced him late Thursday to cancel a much-trumpeted vote on the measure.“The House did not take up the tax measure today because...

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Funerals become routine in shattered town

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — One by one by one by one, each with fresh heartbreak, hearses crisscrossed two New England towns on Wednesday, bearing three tiny victims of the Sandy Hook school massacre and a heroic teacher in a seemingly never-ending series of funeral processions."The first few days, all you heard were helicopters," said Dr. Joseph Young, an optometrist who attended one funeral and would...

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Rush to boost safety sparks flurry of ideas

(Reuters) - They began calling on Friday morning, even before confirmation of the death toll at Sandy Hook Elementary. Principals, district administrators, school police chiefs all asked the same pleading questions: What can we do? How do we stop this? How can we keep our children safe? Michael Dorn, phone to his ear until 2 a.m., gave them all the same advice: Slow down. Every horrific...

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Newtown students to return to classes in wake of school massacre

NEWTOWN, Connecticut (Reuters) - The schools of Newtown, which stood empty in the wake of a shooting rampage that took 26 of their own, will again ring with the sounds of students and teachers on Tuesday as the bucolic Connecticut town struggles to return to normal. But among the normal sounds of a school day - teachers reading to children, the scratch of pencil on paper - students will...

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Obama: ‘We can’t tolerate this anymore’

President Barack Obama assured the grieving, shell-shocked Newtown community on Sunday that "you are not alone" and vowed sternly to wield "whatever power this office holds" in a quest to prevent future mass shootings."We can't tolerate this anymore," Obama said from behind a podium on the stage of a Newton High School auditorium, as adults wept, or hugged, or sat quietly, many hugging small children....

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