The House has approved a $50.7 billion measure for Superstorm Sandy victims.

A New York native who built one of the world's top public relations companies has died.

An organization of gay and lesbian lawyers says 30 of its members will be sworn into the Supreme Court bar in a courtroom ceremony next week.

New York's Legislature has passed the nation's toughest gun control law and the first since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting. The bill calls for a tougher assault weapons ban and provisions to try to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill who make threats.

Police say a gunman walked into a business school in downtown St. Louis and shot an administrator in the chest before shooting himself.

A 27-year-old sanitation worker in Philadelphia says he was drawn to cries for help by an abducted girl before finding the freezing child huddled beneath a playground slide.

As New York state lawmakers prepare to approve the toughest gun control law in the nation, some Republicans are complaining that the bill is being rushed through, with no time for review or debate.

Holiday sales rose 3 percent, a major retail trade organization said Tuesday well below its forecast for a 4.1 percent gain.

The Army says the staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers during nighttime raids last year is due to be arraigned Thursday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.

A federal appeals court has denied bail for a New York City police officer charged with conspiring to rape, kill and eat women.

Oprah Winfrey is confirming that Lance Armstrong came clean to her about his use of performance-enhancing drugs during their 2 1/2 hour interview Monday.

Falling food and gas costs pushed down U.S. wholesale prices last month for the third month in a row, the latest evidence inflation is tame.

Florida wildlife officials say 11 Burmese pythons were killed during the first three days of a public hunt for the invasive species in the Everglades.

The New York Police Department wants pharmacies in and around the city to fight prescription drug thefts by stocking pill bottles fitted with GPS tracking chips.

More than three dozen students have spent the night in a hospital after carbon monoxide leaked at their Nashville private school.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer and the nation's largest private employer, is making a pledge to hire every veteran who wants a job.

Facing powerful opposition to sweeping gun regulations, President Barack Obama is weighing 19 steps that could be taken through executive action alone, congressional officials said.

House conservatives opposed to more deficit spending tried Monday to chip away at the $50.7 billion Superstorm Sandy aid package by requiring offsetting spending cuts to pay for recovery efforts and by stripping money for projects they say are unrelated to the Oct. 29 storm or not urgently needed.

The New York Police Department wants pharmacies in and around the city to fight prescription drug thefts by stocking pill bottles fitted with GPS tracking chips.

Family, friends and military members are paying final respects to one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first black pilots in the U.S. military.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will testify Jan. 23 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the deadly Sept. 11 assault on the US mission in Libya.

President Obama's complete speech Monday in Washington transcribed.

Parents of Connecticut first-graders slain in last month's mass shooting have joined a new group in calling for a national dialogue to help prevent similar tragedies.

President Barack Obama is demanding that Congress quickly raise the nation's $16.4 trillion debt limit, telling reporters, "we are not a deadbeat nation."

The husband of a Minnesota woman who was trapped in her overturned car on a frozen pond says she could not get her door open or crawl out a broken window, so she spent 18 hours praying someone would find her.