Government And Institutions

Alpha Natural Resources said Thursday it expects to lay off 1,100 workers at 11 southern West Virginia surface coal mines by mid-October, citing dismal markets and federal regulation.

WellPoint's second-quarter profit fell 8.6 percent as expenses climbed.

Eager to begin a monthlong break, Congress leavened its customary heavy partisanship on Wednesday with a pinch of compromise, advancing legislation to repair the deeply troubled Department of Veterans Affairs and working to clear funds for highway construction at home and missile defense in Israel.

The Senate has delivered an unexpectedly strong vote in favor of taking action later this year to resolve the chronic funding problems that have bedeviled highway and transit programs.

Republican senators have blocked an election-year bill limiting tax breaks for U.S. companies that move operations overseas.

Opponents of expanding a natural gas pipeline through northwestern Massachusetts rallied on Boston Common on Wednesday, asking Gov. Deval Patrick to rescind his support for a new tax on New Englanders' electricity bills to help subsidize it.

Oregon insurance regulators are seeking the authority to require private insurers to have enough doctors and other health care providers to adequately serve all their customers.

North Carolina House and Senate Republicans unveiled the details of a $21.25 billion budget Tuesday that gives an average 7 percent raise for teachers now among the lowest paid nationally and preserves teacher assistant positions but cuts Medicaid reimbursement for health care providers by 1 percent.

Maine ended the fiscal year with better-than-expected revenues of more than $39 million, Republican Gov. Paul LePage's administration said Wednesday.

Congressional investigators say the government is underestimating the threat of a chemical attack on America's densely populated cities and has failed to inspect virtually all of the chemical facilities that it considers particularly vulnerable to terrorists.

The International Monetary Fund says Cyprus will need to make additional spending cuts to meet a key target of its financial rescue program.

Illinois voters will get a chance in November to weigh in on whether millionaires should pay an additional income tax to help fund schools after Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Tuesday adding a nonbinding resolution to the ballot.

Gov. Tom Corbett is expected in Pittsburgh at a rally of coal industry supporters who oppose stricter Environmental Protection Agency regulations for coal-fired power plants.

A ratings agency has maintained Connecticut's debt rating as negative, saying the state's budget relies on one-time fixes and calling the state's economic recovery "slow and uneven." The analysis by Fitch Ratings released Tuesday said the General Assembly relied on one-time items such as shifting millions of dollars from last year's surplus into the budget that took effect July 1.

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

A former IRS official at the heart of the agency's tea party controversy called conservative Republicans "crazies" and more in emails released Wednesday.

The European Union's sanctions against Russia are bound to inflict pain on the country's ailing economy.

Sen. Patrick Leahy on Tuesday introduced a bill to end the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone records, a proposal that goes further than a similar House measure and has drawn support from civil liberties groups, the White House and Republicans.

A U.S. District Court Judge has ordered the seizure of a vessel carrying about 1 million barrels of Kurdish crude oil about 60 miles off the Galveston coast.

Despite some good news, Medicare and Social Security still face long-term financial problems as millions of baby boomers reach retirement.