The Senate voted yesterday to release the second half of the Treasury's hugely unpopular initiative to stabilize the fragile U.S. financial system, granting President-elect Barack Obama virtually unfettered authority to spend $350 billion to revive sluggish credit markets and help millions of...

President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare "bargain" with the American people, saying that the nation's long-term economic recovery cannot be attained unless the government finally gets control over its most costly entitlement programs.

NEW YORK, Jan. 15 -- Darren Beck, a 37-year-old marketing executive, had just settled into Seat 3A of a Charlotte-bound passenger jet Thursday afternoon when he heard a sickening thump.

BRINKLEY, Ark. -- Wayne Loewer's truck reveals a lot about his life. A 12-gauge shotgun for duck hunting rests on the floorboard. A blue thermal lunch bag containing elk meat is shoved under the seat, left in haste that morning by his teenage son rushing to catch the school bus.

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said yesterday that he will for the first time personally sponsor a bill and do "everything in [his] power" to abolish capital punishment in Maryland, signaling his desire to make the issue a chief accomplishment as he enters the second half of his term.

Last night, President Bush said goodbye. Speaking for the last time to a nation he has led for eight years, he mixed his trademark confidence with a hint of contrition, acknowledging that he has "experienced setbacks" but emphasizing that he always acted in the "best interests" of the country.