Bigger fights loom after tax deadline deal

(Note language, paragraph 12) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans face even bigger budget battles in the next two months after a hard-fought "fiscal cliff" deal narrowly averted devastating tax hikes and spending cuts. The agreement, approved late on Tuesday by the Republican-led House of Representatives, was a victory for Obama, who...

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House faces test on ‘fiscal cliff’ deal

Vice President Joe Biden gives two thumbs up following a Senate Democratic caucus meeting about the fiscal cliff …Updated 4:25 pm ETA hard-fought bipartisan compromise passed in the Senate early Tuesday to spare all but the richest Americans from painful income-tax hikes teetered on the edge of collapse as angry House Republicans denounced its lack of spending cuts.While House Speaker John Boehner...

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Obama: Deal to avert fiscal cliff 'in sight'

WASHINGTON (AP) — Working with Congress against a midnight deadline, President Barack Obama said Monday that a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" was in sight but not yet finalized. The emerging deal would raise tax rates on family income over $450,000 and individual income over $400,000 a year, increase the estate tax rate and extend unemployment benefits for one year."There are still issues left to...

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Top Republican Senator urges Biden to break ‘fiscal cliff’ impasse

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is shown in this C-Span video footage as he addresses the Senate …Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged Vice President Joe Biden to jump into “fiscal cliff” talks in hopes of breaking an impasse that threatens Americans with sharply higher income taxes come January 1.In a brief speech on the Senate floor, McConnell complained that...

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Obama not making new offer at debt talks

WASHINGTON (AP) — A person familiar with the details says President Barack Obama is not making a new 'fiscal cliff' offer at his high-stakes meeting with congressional leaders at the White House.Obama instead is spelling out again a plan he says can pass the House and Senate, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak publicly about the private meeting.Obama...

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House back Sunday night, will have 29.5 hours to make a deal

President Barack Obama salutes as he returns via Marine One from a Christmas visit with his family in Hawaii, to …Will parachutes be provided? Republican House leaders informed their rank-and-file on a conference call Thursday that they have to be back at work at 6:30 p.m. Sunday – giving them, oh, 29.5 hours to forestall the “fiscal cliff.”Absent a last-minute compromise, Americans will see...

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Powerful winter storm throttles Midwest travelers

CINCINNATI (AP) — A powerful winter storm system pounded the nation's midsection Wednesday and headed toward the Northeast, where people braced for the high winds and heavy snow that disrupted holiday travel, knocked out power to thousands of homes and were blamed in at least six deaths.Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed, scores of motorists got stuck on icy roads or slid off into drifts,...

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Egypt constitution passes with 63.8 percent

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's disputed Islamist-backed constitution passed with a 63.8 percent "yes" in a referendum, the election commission announced Tuesday, rejecting opposition allegations of significant vote fraud.Turnout of 32.9 percent of Egypt's nearly 52 million registered voters was quite a bit lower than most other elections since the uprising nearly two years ago that ousted authoritarian leader...

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Firefighters ambushed by gunman while responding to house fire

Residence near shooting and fire in Webster evacuated. (Max Schulte/Rochester Democrat&Chronicle via Twitter)A man with a criminal history shot and killed two West Webster, N.Y. firefighters and seriously injured two others as they responded to a fire at his home., police say.William H. Spengler, Jr., 62, apparently started a 5:35 a.m. fire at his home on Lake Road  and then waited with an...

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NRA’s LaPierre: New gun laws won't work

LaPierre speaks at Friday's press conference. (Getty)Two days after suggesting a "good guy with a gun" be stationed at every school in the country in response to the deadly shootings in Newtown, Conn., National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre blasted critics of his plan.In an interview broadcast on Sunday's "Meet The Press," LaPierre reiterated the statements he made Friday...

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Final day of funerals for Newtown shooting victims

The final three victims of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School will be laid to rest today, ending a somber week of funerals.A mass will take place today at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church for Josephine Gay, who had celebrated her 7th birthday on Dec. 11.Friends and family have been asked to wear Josephine's favorite color, purple, in her honor. ...

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NRA: 'Good guy with a gun' could have saved lives at Sandy Hook

The NRA's Wayne LaPierre speaks at Friday's press conference (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)The National Rifle Association on Friday, a full week after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, gave its first response to the massacre that killed 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, argued at a press conference in Washington, D.C., that gun...

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Snowstorm triggers deadly Iowa pileup

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The first widespread snowstorm of the season crawled across the Midwest on Thursday, with whiteout conditions stranding holiday travelers and sending drivers sliding over slick roads — including into a fatal 25-vehicle pileup in Iowa.The storm, which dumped a foot of snow in parts of Iowa and Wisconsin, was part of a system that began in the Rockies earlier in the week before...

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Obama sets Jan. deadline for proposals to curb gun violence

WASHINGTON (AP) — Spurred by a horrific elementary school shooting, President Barack Obama tasked his administration Wednesday with creating concrete proposals to reduce gun violence that has plagued the country."This time, the words need to lead to action," said Obama, who set a January deadline for the recommendations. He vowed to push for their implementation without delay.The president, who exerted...

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W.H.: 'Gun laws alone would not solve this'

President Barack Obama (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)President Barack Obama supports Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's legislation banning assault weapons—signed into law in 1994, it expired in 2004—and other potential gun measures, the White House revealed on Tuesday, after declining to discuss gun control specifics the day before."He is actively supportive of, for example, Sen. Feinstein's stated intent...

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Neighbor took six survivors into his home

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — Gene Rosen had just finished feeding his cats and was heading from his home near Sandy Hook Elementary school to a diner Friday morning when he saw six small children sitting in a neat semicircle at the end of his driveway.A school bus driver was standing over them, telling them things would be all right. It was about 9:30 a.m., and the children, he discovered, had just run from...

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Gunman’s computers may be key in Connecticut school shooting investigation

NEWTOWN, Conn. — Alleged school shooter Adam Lanza reportedly occupied two bedrooms in his family's sprawling suburban home, one where he slept and another to stash his computer equipment.For a young man who has been described as withdrawn from the outside world, Lanza's computer room is likely a gold mine for detectives, a veteran law enforcement source familiar with the investigation told Yahoo...

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Police hope motive emerges from evidence in shooter's home

Conn. State police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance at Saturday morning's news conference. (Jason Sickles/Yahoo News)NEWTOWN, CT - The Sandy Hook school principal and another staffer were killed after lunging at a gunman who forced his way inside to begin a deadly shooting spree, the regional school superintendent said Saturday.The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, 47, and school psychologist Mary Sherlach, 56,...

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20 children, 6 adults killed at Conn. school shooting

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — A gunman opened fire inside a Connecticut elementary school, killing 26 people, including 20 children, by blasting his way through the building as young students cowered helplessly in classrooms while their teachers and classmates were shot.The attack, coming less than two weeks before Christmas, was the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia...

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Rice drops out of race for top State post

Susan Rice, the embattled U.S. Ambassador for the U. N., withdrew her name from consideration Thursday to be Secretary of State."If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly — to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities," Rice wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama, NBC News first reported.President Barack Obama...

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