Government And Institutions

The Justice Department is seeking criminal charges against Lumber Liquidators in an ongoing investigation over imported products.

Eager to build on the U.S.-Japan alliance, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will work to strengthen economic ties further while confronting stiff resistance from the U.S. president's own political party to a massive new Pacific Rim trade deal.

As secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Trans-Pacific Partnership the "gold standard" in efforts to create open and fair trade.

An ocean advocacy group and a university law clinic are petitioning the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an investigation of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and what the group call misstatements in regulatory filings regarding Arctic offshore drilling.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction with the rate on three-month bills declining to the lowest level since early March, while the rate on six-month bills rose.

Federal investigators have released hundreds of pages of records that offer new insight into the moments just before and after a 2013 oil train derailment near Casselton, North Dakota, that created a massive fire and forced 1,400 people to evacuate for several days.

The North Dakota Legislature on Monday approved funding for a state-run rail safety pilot program intended to supplement federal oversight of oil train traffic.

The GOP chairman of the House Armed Service Committee on Monday recommended a $604 billion defense budget for 2016 that challenges the White House because it includes lethal weapons for Ukraine, makes it harder for the president to empty the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and restores funding for the A-10 fleet.

Food industry lawyers say there's not enough time to implement Vermont's new labeling rules for genetically modified products before the July 2016 effective date and are asking a federal judge to block them.

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

Leaders of the Democratic-controlled budget-writing committee have crafted a two-year, $40.5 billion spending plan for Connecticut that would restore many of the social service and health care cuts proposed by Gov. Dannel P.

House and Senate GOP negotiators neared agreement Monday on a budget blueprint that would enable Republicans controlling Congress to more easily target President Barack Obama's signature health care law while delivering an almost $40 billion budget boost to the Pentagon.

Reports about a Senate cafeteria worker who makes so little money he is homeless are prompting calls for change from Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Gov. Tom Wolf's sprawling package of tax changes he is seeking may not necessarily spare lower-income households, as his administration contends, the Legislature's fiscal analysis arm said this week.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will receive a $1 billion federal loan to improve rail safety.

With oil prices sinking enough that drillers may soon see a more favorable tax rate, North Dakota lawmakers approved a new framework Friday that cuts the price-triggered exemption in exchange for a lower tax rate.

A bill that would make Hawaii the first state to raise the legal smoking age to 21 cleared the Legislature on Friday and is headed to the governor.

Is ice cream safe to eat? Federal officials say yes, even amid recalls by two ice cream companies after the discovery of listeria bacteria in their frozen confections.

HSBC says it is considering moving its headquarters from Britain in the wake of "regulatory and structural reforms" imposed after the 2008 financial crisis.

In a story April 23 and April 24 about Gov. Bruce Rauner's budget cuts, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Illinois community colleges spokesman Matthew Berry said the cuts would have an immediate impact on schools.