Government And Institutions

After years of being flush with oil money, Alaska now faces drastic budget cuts and having to dip into well-stocked savings to offset unprecedented deficits exacerbated by an unexpected plunge in oil prices.

President Barack Obama will call for increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans by raising the capital gains rate and eliminating a tax break on inheritances, then using the revenue to fund new tax credits and other cost-saving measures for the middle class.

The White House says President Barack Obama will propose in his State of the Union address a plan to impose higher taxes on the wealthy and use the revenue to help middle-class families.

Washington's legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed.

The senator representing Democrats on the Budget Committee is vowing to fight efforts by Republicans to prevent money dedicated to paying retirement benefits from being shifted to the disabled.

Regulators have closed a small lender in Florida, making it the first U.S. bank failure of 2015 following 18 closures last year.

Gov. Rick Snyder's budget director said there will be "real" cuts to government services after economists agreed Friday that revenue is $289 million short of projections in the current state budget and $527 million below what was expected in the next fiscal year.

Illinois' new Republican governor followed through on a campaign pledge Friday to replace the director of the Department of Agriculture, a former state lawmaker whom he'd criticized for not being a farmer.

A group of senators says Nebraska is losing in the nationwide push for renewable energy.

Vermont could reap hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue if it were to legalize marijuana, but only if other nearby states don't also jump on the bandwagon, according to a study released Friday.

Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed bills Friday to prohibit e-cigarettes from being regulated as tobacco products under Michigan law.

Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities rose to a record level in November following two months of declines, reflecting a big increase in purchases by Japan.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says a special inspection of a backup pump at the Millstone Power Station has raised two findings it characterizes as of "very low safety significance." The backup pump is used to help cool the reactor after a shutdown.

Kansas would nearly triple its cigarette tax, raise taxes on alcohol and slow down promised income tax cuts to balance its budget under proposals Republican Gov. Sam Brownback outlined Friday.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey will slash 10 percent from state university funding, give only a token increase to K-12 schools, and essentially double the current $8 vehicle license fee as part of a plan to balance the upcoming state budget that was released Friday.

Puerto Rico's governor signed a law Thursday that will increase the excise tax on a barrel of crude oil by 68 percent to help generate funds and sell an anticipated $2.9 billion in bonds.

The new Republican-controlled Congress is facing an old problem: where to find the money for highway and transit programs.

A New Jersey judge is weighing whether she has the power to force Gov. Chris Christie and the Legislature to make promised payments to public employee pension funds.

Swiftly expanding trade ties with Cuba, the Obama administration opened the door to easier travel and a wide range of new export opportunities with the communist island starting Friday, punching the biggest hole to date in America's half-century-old embargo.

Republican Gov. Paul LePage wants to set aside $2 million in Maine's budget to cover legal fees for cases in which the state's top attorney declines to represent the state.