Government And Institutions

Less than a year after signing legislation with new safeguards in response to a 2014 chemical spill that prompted a tap-water ban for 300,000 people, West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill Friday to trim away some of those protections against leaky aboveground tanks.

Minnesota Senate Democrats produced a two-year budget outline Friday that would commit $555 million more for education programs and sock $250 million extra into state reserves, a framework that lands them between the ambitions of Gov. Mark Dayton and majority House Republicans..

The Senate has approved a long-delayed bill to boost energy efficiency that includes incentives to cut energy use in commercial buildings, manufacturing plants and homes.

Legislative budget writers are matching Gov. C.L.

4:10 p.m. (1510 GMT, 11:10 a.m. EDT) A Duesseldorf hospital says the co-pilot of Germanwings flight 9525 had been a patient there over the past two months.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has approved a bill that would overrule Salt Lake City's mandate that restaurants allow cyclists in drive-thru lanes.

Fewer people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, evidence that strong hiring should continue despite signs of slower economic growth at the start of 2015.

The Senate is up next.

Myanmar is increasing the salaries of its government employees — doubling some of them — as of next month.

Kansas is poised to join a handful of other states that allow their residents to carry concealed firearms without a permit after the Legislature gave final approval Wednesday to a bill backed by the National Rifle Association.

Payday lenders are facing new federal regulations aimed at preventing low-income borrowers from being buried by high fees and rising debt loads.

The U.S. Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week.

Inspired by the popular "USDA organic" label, House Republicans are proposing a new government certification for foods free of genetically modified ingredients.

New momentum for a lasting fix to Medicare's doctor-payment problem shows that lawmakers may finally be recognizing what has long bothered their constituents.

GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz could soon be buying his family's health care coverage through the Affordable Health Care Act he has vowed to dismantle.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he's ready to sign "good, bipartisan" legislation protecting physicians from steep cuts in Medicare reimbursements as Senate Democrats seemed to soften their opposition to the package.

President Barack Obama is meeting with mayors and business owners at the White House to highlight the benefits of trade on a broad swath of the economy.

Raising New York's minimum wage must be a part of negotiations over the state budget, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said Wednesday as the closed-door wrangling over the budget continued ahead of a deadline next week.

President Barack Obama wants to cut health care costs by reducing inefficiencies like unnecessarily long hospital stays and excessive paperwork for doctors that rack up big bills.

A Rhode Island lawmaker wants to make the state the first in the nation to raise the age for legal tobacco purchases to 21.