House Democratic leaders are gambling that they can secure the support for President Obama's sweeping health care legislation with showdown votes looming as early as next week

As the Arkansas Senate race heats up, Sen. Blanche Lincoln wants to set the record straight on her view of settling health care reform with a simple majority vote.

After a year of pitched battle with the Obama White House over health care reform, the Chamber is now priming for a the 2010 midterm cycle in which executives say they pro-business lobby will spend close to $200 million, more than double its spending in 2008.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected two legal challenges by Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow, who claimed the references to God disrespect his religious beliefs.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's wife and daughter were being treated in a hospital Thursday for serious injuries they sustained when their vehicle was rear-ended by a truck, a spokesman said.

Black congressional leaders emerged from an afternoon pow-wow at the White House with nothing but nice things to say about President Obama, even though behind the scenes the lawmakers and their aides seemed to be spoiling for a fight. 

Former Chief Judge Judith Kaye will also probe whether the governor lied about his intentions to pay for World Series tickets.

As the U.S. military prepares to leave Iraq, the State Department is blaming the Iraqi government for arbitrary killings of civilians and other human rights abuses.

The Obama Justice Department administration shut down an investigation into ACORN last year, ignoring evidence of fraud at the community group, a government watchdog claimed Thursday, citing investigative documents it obtained

A congresswoman who is the mother of Detroit ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick says she'll comply with a subpoena to testify before a grand jury in Detroit. 

In a sign that the Eric Massa controversy may not go away any time soon, the House on Thursday advanced a Republican measure calling for the ethics committee to "investigate fully" what House Democratic leaders and their staffs knew ahead of time about the ex-congressman's alleged misconduct. 

Vice President Biden's trip to the Middle East -- meant to pave the way for a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks -- is coming to a close, leaving in its wake a trail of stinging snubs, cringe-worthy blunders and one-word headlines in Israelis newspapers: "Embarrassment."  

A House Judiciary Committee task force charged District Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. with a long-standing pattern of corruption.

Republicans on Capitol Hill say they are "deeply concerned" over news that, during his confirmation more than a year ago, Attorney General Eric Holder failed to notify them about a terrorism-related legal brief he helped craft.

A nonpartisan study is casting new doubt on President Obama's campaign pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class

After being shunned by scores of colleges across the country for more than 40 years, the U.S. Army's ROTC program is making a comeback.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's aides knew about concerns over ex-Rep. Eric Massa's behavior as far back as October, Fox News has learned, raising the possibility that the scandal could dog Democratic leaders even though Massa is now out of office. 

The Labor Department said initial jobless claims fell by 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 462,000. That's close to Wall Street analysts' estimates of 460,000 and the second straight drop.

The New York Times reports that investigators have new evidence that Sen. John Ensign tried to find lobbying work for the husband of his former mistress.

Vice president appears to be trying to calm a diplomatic row that erupted during his visit over Israeli settlement plans for disputed east Jerusalem. 

AP - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's wife and daughter were hospitalized Thursday — the wife with a broken back and neck — after their minivan was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer truck on an interstate highway in suburban Virginia, authorities said.

AP - The Obama administration accused China on Thursday of abusing its citizens' rights and maintaining currency policies that cost millions of U.S. jobs, a double-barrel attack that comes amid a growing willingness to confront and even antagonize the Asian power.

AP - With one eye on the calendar and the other on elusive bipartisanship, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd plans to offer his own version of a sweeping overhaul of financial regulations without Republican support.

AP - Government vehicle safety regulators may seek greater authority to investigate defects in cars and trucks and are weighing a range of new safety requirements in response to Toyota's recall of more than 8 million vehicles over brake and acceleration problems.

AP - President Barack Obama sought Thursday to put some detail behind his lofty drive to double U.S. exports over the next five years, calling the effort imperative to putting people back to work. But doubts remain about how many net jobs his trade agenda will create — and how he will get it done.

AP - House Democrats on Thursday stopped a Republican bid to force an investigation of Democratic leaders aimed at determining whether they covered up sexual harassment allegations against ex-Rep. Eric Massa.

AP - Over the years, "Little Billy" learned much from the country's top minds.

AP - A conservative group's bashing of several Obama administration lawyers as the "al-Qaida Seven" has struck a nerve in the U.S. legal community, prompting even some fellow Republicans to denounce the group's attack.

AP - The body of former Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulos was reburied on Thursday, three months to the day after it was dug up from its grave and stolen in an apparent extortion bid.

Reuters - President Barack Obama plans to nominate San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen to be vice chairman of the central bank, a source familiar with the process said on Thursday.

McClatchy Newspapers - WASHINGTON — Long-awaited Senate legislation that would direct the broadest overhaul of financial regulation since the Great Depression will be introduced on Monday without any Republican support, despite weeks of bipartisan negotiations.