Government And Institutions

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has reduced the length of federally mandated contracts Idaho Power signs with renewable energy projects such as solar and wind farms from 20 years to five years.

Insurers aren't required to encrypt consumers' data under a 1990s federal law that remains the foundation for health care privacy in the Internet age — an omission that seems striking in light of the major cyberattack against Anthem.

The Chinese affiliates of the "Big Four" accounting firms have agreed to pay a total $2 million and provide documents in a settlement with U.S. regulators resolving a yearslong dispute over fraud investigations.

In the 1970s, California Gov. Jerry Brown was a hero to environmentalists for cracking down on polluters, ending tax breaks for oil companies and promoting solar energy.

Standard & Poor's has cut its credit rating on Greece amid concerns over the country's cash position as the new Greek government tries to reach a new deal with bailout creditors.

As the U.S. economy has steadily recovered from the Great Recession, the critical missing piece has been a painful lack of pay raises for many Americans.

The ski jump sits shrouded in mist, its coat of snow undisturbed by any athletes hurtling down the ramp to take off into the air.

Global stock markets faltered Thursday as the European standoff over Greece's international bailout intensified, tempering optimism from China's latest move to boost its economy.

Gov. Scott Walker abruptly backed off Wednesday from a contentious plan to eliminate the University of Wisconsin System's public service mission statement known as the "Wisconsin Idea" and replace it with the charge of meeting the state's workforce needs.

The Commerce Department reports on the U.S. trade deficit for December.

U.S. stocks rose broadly Thursday, helped by a rebound in the price of oil and a rise in health care stocks following Pfizer's $16 billion deal to buy drugmaker Hospira.

Top New Jersey Democratic lawmakers say they are interested in reducing income taxes on retirees and estates as part of a deal to raise more money for transportation projects.

Treatment services for drug- and alcohol-addicted prisoners would receive a "significant" increase under Gov. John Kasich's proposed $72 billion budget, the state's addictions director said Thursday.

A top U.S. regulator just announced he wants more power to oversee Internet service, much in the same way that the government already regulates phone service and other public utilities.

German automaker Daimler AG says net profit fell 29 percent in the fourth quarter as the company set aside 600 million euros ($684 million) for potential costs from a European Union anti-trust investigation of truck makers.

A federal judge agreed Wednesday with a court-appointed panel's recommendation that a natural gas company should pay $7.3 million for storage rights and natural gas under nearly 9,200 acres of land spanning three southern Kansas counties, far below the more than $100 million that the property owners wanted.

Health care stocks were leading early gains in U.S. trading, while the energy sector also rose as the price of oil recovered from a stumble.

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

Federal regulators say problems in the design of a network of pipes and valves at a Houston-area DuPont chemical plant contributed to a poisonous gas leak that killed four workers in November.

Regulators in California, the country's third-largest oil-producing state, have authorized oil companies to inject production fluids and waste into what are now federally protected aquifers more than 2,500 times, risking contamination of underground water supplies that could be used for drinking water or irrigation, state records show.