Government And Institutions

Some consumer tips to help avoid excessive fees or potential fraud when using paid tax preparers, according to the Justice Department, Internal Revenue Service and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: — Make sure any tax refund due is sent to you or deposited into your bank account, not deposited into a preparer's bank account.

About 55 percent of Earned Income Tax Credit recipients reported using a paid tax preparer last year.

New data show that cash-strapped Americans anxious for tax refunds are increasingly turning to payment advances and prepaid cards when getting tax preparation help.

This winter's record-low snowfall means less hydroelectricity for California.

Two sparring Maine pro-marijuana groups are gearing up for spring petition drives that would ask residents whether to make pot legal for recreational use in the state.

A high-stakes federal case playing out in New York could lead to the end of pro sports' all-or-nothing TV packages that force fans to buy hundreds of games from around the league instead of just the games of their favorite teams.

A budding bipartisan House deal to shelter physicians from Medicare cuts is drawing powerful allies including the American Medical Association and a rainbow of conservative and liberal groups.

Ten states will test new ways to get food stamp recipients back to work, using Agriculture Department grants aimed at helping some of the 46 million Americans who receive benefits move off the rolls.

A key Senate policy committee is backing a workers' compensation reform bill that it says will reduce costs by 7.5 percent without imposing a price-fixing mechanism backed by business groups.

Payrolls in Pennsylvania hit a record high in February, recovering all the jobs lost in the recession, according to figures released Friday by the state Department of Labor and Industry.

The Obama administration says it's making progress trying to correct a tax-form error that affected 820,000 customers of HealthCare.gov.

Threatened with extinction but with no one having yet told it to stop, the organization that promotes Atlantic City to other parts of the country has a new campaign touting the seaside resort's entertainment offerings.

Illinois' Democratic attorney general on Friday delivered a blow to Gov. Bruce Rauner's efforts to weaken labor unions, saying two of the main ideas the Republican has been pitching across the state would be illegal.

An emerging bipartisan House deal changing how Medicare pays physicians would raise money in part by targeting Medicare providers who are tax scofflaws and by curbing reimbursements for hospitals and nursing homes.

Potatoes that won't bruise and apples that won't brown are a step closer to grocery store aisles.

A much-hailed law that restricted the opening of new stand-alone fast-food restaurants in one of the poorest sections of Los Angeles did not curb obesity or improve diets, a new study found.

A tentative bipartisan House deal to change how Medicare reimburses doctors is running into turbulence in the Senate over abortion.

The producer of the new James Bond thriller "Spectre" denies that the script was changed to get incentives in Mexico.

Ohio officials say nearly 1 million taxpayers have taken a new quiz used by the state to catch phony income-tax returns and most have passed it.

A Treasury official says that if a nuclear deal is struck with Iran, lawmakers should leave congressionally-imposed sanctions in place for years.