Politics News

WASHINGTON - Crashing a state dinner at the White House apparently takes a security breakdown as well as some kind of nerve.

WASHINGTON - After 10 months in office, President Barack Obama on Wednesday granted his first pardon — to Courage, a 45-pound turkey spared from the Thanksgiving table.

WASHINGTON - The Obama family passed out turkeys, stuffing and other Thanksgiving favorites to people at a food pantry organization.

HILLSIDE, N.J. - Former CNN host Lou Dobbs is seriously considering running for U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 2012 as a stepping stone to a possible White House bid — a congressional matchup that would pit one of illegal immigration's biggest critics against a champion for immigrant rights.

Democratic incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand may have a serious problem on her hands if Rudy Giuliani gets in next year's race for the U.S. Senate in New York State.

CHICAGO - The White House and Illinois Democrats said Tuesday that their bid to hold on to President Barack Obama's old Senate seat won't be easy and their difficulties aren't just because of the scandal that engulfed ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

WASHINGTON - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (MAHN'-moh-hahn SING) is issuing a stern warning to Pakistan on the eve of the first anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

WASHINGTON - Eight years after the U.S. Coast Guard and the NAACP signed a voluntary agreement to work together to boost the number of African-Americans at its 1,000-cadet service academy, the annual enrollment and graduation figures for blacks remain in single digits.

WASHINGTON - A grand jury in Philadelphia indicted four men Tuesday for an alleged plot to support the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah through illegal schemes, including buying the group more than a thousand machine guns.

NEW YORK - An activist group has begun posting 573,000 pager messages purportedly sent on Sept. 11, 2001, from "Second World Trade Center tower collapses" to "I'm ok & love you..xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox."

CONAKRY, Guinea - One of Africa's most brutal rebel movements relies on a vast, international network of supporters in at least 25 countries, including the United States and some in Europe, a United Nations report said.

KABUL, Afghanistan — When Susan Marx was awoken before dawn last month with word that United Nations colleagues across town were under attack, the 32-year-old human rights researcher did the only thing she could think of to calm her nerves: Bake.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state improperly adopted the same three-drug lethal injection protocol that was upheld in the nation's highest court and is used by dozens of other states.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A federal judge has ordered Connecticut officials to promote 14 firefighters who won a reverse discrimination case in a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.

COLUMBUS, Ohio - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (AN'-toh-nihn skuh-LEE'-uh) has said in a speech at Ohio State University the Constitution is best treated as an original document within the context of its historical creation, not as a text subject to modern reinterpretation.

The Obama White House is addicted to the “unprecedented.”

WASHINGTON - Toyota plans to replace the gas pedals on 4 million vehicles in the United States because the pedals can get stuck in the floor mats and cause sudden acceleration, a flaw that led to the sixth-largest recall ever in the U.S.

WASHINGTON - Faced with limited job options, many young adults are turning to an old standby to weather the recession: moving back in with mom and dad.