Government And Institutions

Proposals to kill Ohio's tax on commercial activity, fund absentee-ballot mailings and allow counties to privatize jails are among dozens of revisions that a legislative panel considered Monday as it prepared to put finishing touches on the two-year, $71.5 billion state operating budget.

President Barack Obama has invited Democratic and Republican lawmakers to the White House for a reception thanking them for their work on legislation permanently changing how Medicare pays doctors.

Republican or Democrat, the next president will have the chance to remake the nation's health care overhaul without fighting Congress.

The North Dakota House endorsed a bill Monday that will cut an exemption for oil companies if crude prices continue to slide, in exchange for a lower and permanent flat tax rate.

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is calling for a reshaping of the U.S. financial oversight regime, which he says is splintered and ineffective.

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

Bus and rail commuters on New Jersey Transit would face fare increases for the first time in five years and see some service cuts under proposals released Monday that seek to close an estimated $60 million budget gap.

Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed a bill Monday that would have increased regulations on ride-hailing companies like Uber, a decision that could face an override vote when the Legislature returns from its annual recess April 29.

As oil gushed from BP's ruptured well five years ago and public outrage built by the day, the Obama administration issued a six-month moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Five years after the nation's worst offshore oil spill, the industry is working on drilling even further into the risky depths beneath the Gulf of Mexico to tap massive deposits once thought unreachable.

The world's financial leaders see a number of threats facing a global economy still on an uneven road to recovery, with U.S. and European officials worrying that Greece will default on its debt.

Shanghai stocks rose Monday after China's central bank announced a boost for the slowing Chinese economy.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is urging Greece to reach a deal with its creditors, warning that a default would "create immediate hardship for Greece" and damage the world economy.

Republican Gov. Paul LePage's administration has revoked the city of South Portland's "business friendly" status because of a local ordinance that bans tar sands oil from being exported from the city's harbor.

Massachusetts cities and towns already are seeing gambling windfalls even before the first casino has opened its doors.

Gov. Bill Walker vetoed legislation Friday that sought to temporarily restrict participation of a state-sponsored corporation in an alternate gas pipeline project that he proposed.

An emergency order requiring trains hauling crude oil and other flammable liquids to slow down as they pass through urban areas and a series of other steps to improve the safety were announced Friday by the Department of Transportation.

President Barack Obama says the politics of international trade have always been difficult, especially within the Democratic Party.

The hardest sell for President Barack Obama will be persuading members of his own party to back a bipartisan agreement on global U.S. trade policy.