Government And Institutions

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.

New York state financial regulators say Deutsche Bank will pay a $2.5 billion settlement involving the manipulation of the benchmark interest rates.

New England's governors met Thursday to update their long-term energy strategy that increasingly relies on natural gas and efforts to build more pipelines.

The North Dakota Senate on Thursday rejected a House bill meant to ensure that thousands of public employees receive the same health benefits when their insurance coverage switches to another company this summer.

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

A Chinese regulator has fined Mercedes Benz 350 million yuan ($57 million) on price-fixing charges in a probe of the auto industry that has prompted complaints foreign automakers are being treated unfairly.

House Speaker John Boehner says he'd welcome a bipartisan move to replace budget cuts to domestic agencies and the Pentagon with cuts elsewhere in the government's almost $4 trillion budget.

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits was little changed last week, evidence that employers are cutting few jobs.

Michigan Unemployment Agency is violating the rights of applicants for jobless benefits by using an automated system to file unjustified fraud charges and penalties against them, a federal lawsuit alleges.

Democrats and Republicans quarreled Wednesday over spending levels for domestic agencies as well as policy provisions on clean water rules and guns on federal lands as they kicked off action on more than $1 trillion worth of spending bills for the next budget year.

Princeton has become the fifth New Jersey town to ban tobacco sales to customers under 21.

Last August, Miami voters gave a developer permission to lease land on the city's sparkling downtown waterfront to build a 1,000-foot, hairpin-shaped tourist tower complete with thrill rides, breathtaking observation decks, restaurants and clubs.

Legislation that prohibits cities and towns from regulating oil and natural gas drilling operations was approved by the House on Wednesday, one day after the Oklahoma Geological Survey said it is "very likely" that a swarm of recent earthquakes were triggered by the subsurface injection of wastewater from drilling operations.

State regulators approved a disposal well Wednesday that would allow a Colorado energy company to discard oil and natural gas wastewater underground in northwest Nebraska — a project that's drawn more opposition from landowners and environmental groups than similar past plans.

Indiana lawmakers were grappling Wednesday over where to make cuts in the new state budget with little more than a week remaining in the legislative session while also debating what steps should be taken to help struggling casinos.

A group representing helicopter operators has filed a lawsuit claiming new laws restricting flights at an airport in the Hamptons are unconstitutional.