Government And Institutions

Consumer taxes in Cook County will increase by 1 percentage point next year as a result of a vote Wednesday by commissioners to impose a sales tax hike designed to address the county's pension funding woes.

The White House predicts this year's budget deficit will register at $455 billion, less than it forecast in February and the lowest yet of Barack Obama's presidency.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress voiced bipartisan displeasure Tuesday with a federal agency's progress in enacting pipeline safety improvements required as part of legislation passed into law four years ago.

Heavy crude oil will be banned from a pipeline that runs under a scenic waterway where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet, state officials said Tuesday, adding they also will require independent analyses of future alternatives to the pipes and worst-case consequences of a spill.

Italy's public debt has risen to a new record of 2.2 trillion euros ($2.4 trillion), up by 23.4 billion euros in May.

Generic versions of the Allergan's top-selling Alzheimer's drug, the subject of a court battle over the company's sales tactics, are now on the market.

Court officials say Connecticut is now the most expensive place to die in the U.S. — at least for the wealthy — because of hefty new fees for settling estates.

A year after Colorado's marijuana tax for schools came in far short of its goal, the fund is setting records and has accrued more money in the first five months in 2015 than it did for all of 2014.

California lawmakers want to take more time considering a proposal crafted in response to a deadly balcony collapse in Berkeley.

Whistleblowers who sued State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. can seek more evidence of fraud against the U.S. government after 2005's Hurricane Katrina, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

Christine McCormack quit her job as a restaurant manager two years ago to care for her 88-year-old mother-in-law.

Gov. Scott Walker signed the next Wisconsin state budget into law on Sunday, brushing aside complaints from his own party about the $73 billion spending plan and fulfilling his promise to get it done before he announces he is running for the Republican nomination for president.

The U.S. government ran a budget surplus in June, leaving the budget deficit so far this year running under last year's level.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction with rates on three-month bills unchanged while rates on six-month bills rose to the highest point in two weeks.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf met in private Monday with leaders of the Republican majorities in the Legislature, but both sides reported no breakthrough in what has become a two-week budget standoff.

A federal law crafted to fight the mob is giving marijuana opponents a new strategy to stop the expanding industry.

Following a deadly listeria outbreak in ice cream, the Justice Department is warning food companies that they could face criminal and civil penalties if they inadvertently poison their customers.

House Republicans called for a brief extension of highway and mass transit funding Monday night to prevent a reduction in scheduled construction as early as this summer.

Figures on government spending and debt (last six digits are eliminated).

The Treasury Department and other government agencies are unable to pinpoint a single reason for a period of extreme volatility that occurred in the market for Treasury securities on Oct. 15 last year.