The Obama administration is calling for stronger privacy protections for consumers as mobile gadgets, Internet services and other tools are able to do a better job of tracking what you do and where you go.More >>
President Obama beats each potential Republican challenger by double digits in the Marquette Law School poll, but experts caution that's not unusual this early.More >>
Primed for a fight, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum traded fiery accusations about health care, spending earmarks and federal bailouts Wednesday night in the 20th and possibly final debate of the roller-coaster race for the...More >>
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that the U.S. government cannot deny health benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee by relying on the 1996 law that bars government recognition of same-sex unions.More >>
The Republican presidential candidates are trying to avoid a debate on contraception and instead are looking to keep the focus of their criticism on President Barack Obama.More >>
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are clashing on spending requests during a sharp confrontation that fellow Republican Newt Gingrich calls "silly" as the Republican presidential contenders' debate.More >>
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is explaining what he meant when he described himself as "severely conservative" at a conservative political meeting earlier this month.More >>
Current and former aides to Sarah Palin lashed out Wednesday at HBO's "Game Change," describing the upcoming film's depictions of her on the 2008 campaign trail as "sick" and inaccurate.More >>
Republicans Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are sparring in what is likely to be the final debate before the next slate of states has nominating contests, trading barbs on Washington spending and borrowing.More >>
Union members went to federal court Wednesday to ask a judge to block Indiana's new right-to-work law from being enforced, the first lawsuit and latest conflict over the divisive legislation.More >>
Washington state cannot force pharmacies to sell Plan B or other emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying the state's true goal was to suppress religious objections by druggists - not to promote...More >>
The former Packers offensive lineman joined doctors and others backing a bill that would take young athletes out of the game if they suffer an apparent concussion.More >>
The Marquette Law School poll shows a strong belief Wisconsin is a good place to start a business, but many also believe it's not creating jobs. More >>
Longtime Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette plans to file paperwork on Thursday that would allow him to run for governor if a recall election is ordered against Republican Gov. Scott Walker.More >>
A surging Rick Santorum is making increasingly harsh remarks about President Barack Obama, questioning not just the president's competence but his motives and even his Christian values.More >>
Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold is one of two Wisconsin residents who has been tapped to serve as national "co-chairs" for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.More >>
It comes after that signature drive, a mayor who said he would never consider stepping down, and a city council that once considered trying to remove him from office. More >>
A new poll shows former Gov. Tommy Thompson is the Republican candidate with the best chance of beating Democratic U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin's U.S. Senate race.More >>
President Barack Obama is proposing to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent and wants an even lower effective rate for manufacturers, a senior administration official says, as the White House lays down an...More >>
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush sidestepped talk of presidential campaign politics to focus on business issues Tuesday during a speech at the Kansas Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner.More >>
Same-sex marriage was on hold in California after opponents petitioned a federal appeals court Tuesday to review a split decision by three of its judges that struck down a voter-approved measure that limited marriage to a...More >>
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum promised Monday to revive manufacturing, cut taxes and shrink government, pledges that drew loud applause from conservative Michigan voters who said he was more in line with...More >>
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum belittled President Barack Obama on Tuesday as a rock star who won the White House four years ago, and dismissed fellow GOP rivals Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich as unable to...More >>
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Tuesday that President Barack Obama's administration has "fought against religion" and sought to substitute a "secular" agenda for one grounded in faith.More >>
Fresh off the national stage of a failed presidential bid, Republican Michele Bachmann said Tuesday that she will seek re-election to her Minnesota congressional seat, even though her home is being thrown into a district...More >>
A super political action committee supporting Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has refunded a $50,000 donation from a London-based securities firm.More >>
A once-powerful Washington figure himself, Newt Gingrich pledged Tuesday to state lawmakers in Oklahoma that he'd shrink the role of the nation's capital if sent back as president.More >>
If Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination for president, he'll face the urgent task of inspiring the party's conservative core and rallying them to beat President Barack Obama in the November election.More >>
U.S. Representatives Tom Petri and Reid Ribble joined local farmers and key organizations in the agricultural sector to discuss the pending 2012 farm bill and other issues. More >>
Rick Santorum says President Barack Obama is pushing a radical environmental agenda that unwisely limits energy production and turns its back on science.More >>
Newt Gingrich slammed his Republican rivals Friday for refusing to appear in a nationally televised debate from his home state of Georgia, a state the former House speaker has made central to his strategy of getting his...More >>
Newt Gingrich's deputy campaign manager says the former House speaker has "tremendous staying power" in the Republican presidential sweepstakes.More >>
Long expecting to face Mitt Romney in the fall, President Barack Obama's campaign team has shifted gears in recent days to consider the possibility his GOP opponent will instead be Rick Santorum.More >>
Newt Gingrich said Sunday that he and other Republican presidential candidates must win their home-turf contests or face serious questions about continuing in the race.More >>
A resurgent Rick Santorum hopes to spring his next big surprise in Michigan. Newt Gingrich looks for a campaign revival in the Bible Belt. Mitt Romney has his home state of Massachusetts, and the luxury of picking his spots...More >>
Mitt Romney returned to Salt Lake City on Saturday to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 2002 Winter Games he helped lead, but the GOP presidential candidate has come under attack for urging the federal government to...More >>
Rick Santorum stole a key endorsement from chief rival Mitt Romney on Friday as polls in Ohio and elsewhere suggest the former Pennsylvania senator has seized the momentum in the rollercoaster Republican presidential contest.More >>
Access to college has been the driving force in federal higher education policy for decades. But the Obama administration is pushing a fundamental agenda shift that aggressively brings a new question into the debate: What...More >>
Mitt Romney parted ways with his Arizona campaign co-chairman after allegations of misconduct made by a man with whom the campaign official previously had a relationship.More >>
Republicans told the court they're finding discrepancies with the signatures. Democrats say they're not finding enough to stop an election. Updated throughout. More >>
Most Americans don't share Rick Santorum's absolutist take on abortion. He's out of step on women in combat. He questions the values of the two-thirds of mothers who work. He's even troubled by something as...More >>
President Barack Obama on Friday called for more steps to help U.S. companies compete overseas, standing in front of an enormous Boeing Dreamliner to summon a bright future for American manufacturing and exports.More >>
President Barack Obama pulled in $29.1 million for his re-election campaign and the Democratic Party in January, raising his total for this election cycle to about $250 million.More >>
Americans are getting an election-year tax present. Congress voted with rare speed and cooperation Friday to extend a Social Security payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and to renew unemployment benefits for millions...More >>
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine switched his endorsement from Mitt Romney to Rick Santorum on Friday in a defection he said was driven by his belief the former Pennsylvania senator can win the Republican presidential race.More >>
All five Republicans on the House ethics committee and the panel's ranking Democrat withdrew from a long-standing investigation of Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California on Friday to avoid further questions about...More >>
Millions of Americans will continue to receive long-term unemployment benefits under legislation approved Friday in Congress, but the scope of the program is being scaled back to cover fewer people by the end of the year.More >>
The number has been repeated so often by presidential prognosticators that it's an article of faith: No president has been re-elected since World War II with an unemployment rate higher than 7.2 percent.More >>
The world according to Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney: Europeans are socialists. The Chinese are currency manipulators. Russia can't be trusted to abide by nuclear agreements. The Palestinians are out...More >>
In a Feb. 16 story about reaction to President Barack Obama's budget proposal, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Obama was proposing a $1 million exemption for the federal estate tax and a tax rate of 55...More >>
By The Associated Press Congressional negotiators have agreed on a $144 billion package that extends three major programs through the end of the year: a 2 percentage-point reduction in the Social Security...More >>
The Legislature's finance committee is set to hold a hearing on a contentious bill designed to jumpstart an iron mine in northwestern Wisconsin.More >>
President Barack Obama is preaching an economic message aimed at the 99 percent and raising campaign cash among the 1 percent, walking an election year tight rope complicated by the need for hundreds of millions of dollars...More >>
The Republican-controlled House endorsed a plan Thursday to vastly expand oil and gas drilling off the nation's coasts to help pay for a $260 billion transportation bill.More >>
Capitol Hill negotiators Thursday officially unveiled hard-fought compromise legislation to prevent 160 million workers from getting slapped with a payroll tax hike, but it ran into turbulence in the Senate, where...More >>
A united House Republican leadership surrendered crisply and cleanly on legislation to extend expiring payroll tax cuts for 160 million Americans, skipping most if not all of the self-defeating drama that accompanied their...More >>
An aggressive Rick Santorum went after Mitt Romney on multiple fronts Thursday, challenging the Republican front-runner's economic policies, values and consistency in the city of his birth.More >>
An aggressive Rick Santorum went after Mitt Romney on multiple fronts Thursday, challenging the Republican front-runner's economic policies, values and consistency in the city of his birth.More >>
House Republicans on Thursday pushed ahead with a plan to update the federal No Child Left Behind education law by shifting more control to states and school districts in determining whether children are learning.More >>
Mitt Romney says they're "job creators" and vows to come to their aid as president. Newt Gingrich visited them on his "jobs and growth" bus tour. President Barack Obama calls them "the engine of our economy."More >>
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is wooing tea partyers in his home state of Michigan with a potentially risky strategy: blasting the auto industry bailout that many people credit with saving the state's...More >>
Republicans in Congress launched bids Thursday to nullify Obama administration rules that would speed up union elections and set the first national air pollution standards for toxic mercury pollution from the nation's...More >>
Two Republican senators unveiled a Medicare overhaul Thursday that features an accelerated transition to private health insurance for many seniors, a gradual increase in the eligibility age, and higher premiums for...More >>
Republican Mitt Romney is faltering with white working-class voters crucial to his party's drive to capture the White House, even as he tries to fend off a rising GOP challenger, Rick Santorum, who wields strong...More >>
School kids visiting the White House got a brief scare when Michelle Obama popped up and warned them there would be a 50-question test at the end of their tour.More >>
Assembly Democrats are proposing a series of reforms that would make the state Legislature subject to the open meetings law and force members of the Supreme Court to step down from cases involving law firms they've...More >>
Candidate for governor Kathleen Falk has picked up support from an influential Democratic group in her bid to replace Republican Gov. Scott Walker if a recall election is called.More >>
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum released four years of federal income tax returns on Wednesday night, showing a sharp rise in his personal wealth spurred by his growing work as Washington-based corporate...More >>
Congressional negotiators ended a bruising election-year fight and sealed an agreement late Wednesday on legislation to renew a payroll tax cut for 160 million workers and jobless benefits for millions more, a top priority...More >>
President Obama is pushing for three immediate changes to put Americans to work. He held Master Lock up as an example, for returning 100 jobs that had been off-shore.More >>
President Barack Obama pitched for blue-collar jobs and then dashed for campaign cash on Wednesday, embarking on a three-day West Coast trip to haul in millions of dollars for his re-election bid.More >>
Former President Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday that Occupy organizers have created a "relatively successful" movement because they focused national discussion on wealth disparity despite lacking leadership and a unifying...More >>
President Barack Obama and former first lady Laura Bush will celebrate the groundbreaking for a new national museum showcasing black life, art and history on the National Mall.More >>
Both Democrats and Republicans believe the current recalls and supercharged partisan atmosphere are giving them momentum in the presidential race.More >>
By BETH FOUHY Associated Press Mitt Romney's campaign and an allied independent group have launched a heavy television ad blitz to shore up the former Massachusetts governor's position in his home...More >>
A long-term blueprint for federal transportation programs was delayed Wednesday by House Speaker John Boehner as GOP leaders scramble to shore up support for the endangered measure.More >>
"Wisconsin manufacturers are some of the best in the world and this helps us highlight that fact," Governor Walker said in one of two statements on President Obama's visit. More >>
Congressional Republicans on Wednesday vowed to block the Obama administration from sharply cutting the U.S. nuclear force, calling potential reductions of as much as 80 percent in the number of deployed weapons "reckless...More >>
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker isn't joining President Barack Obama at a Milwaukee event, but about 100 Walker protesters still showed up chanting for the Republican governor's recall.More >>
Gov. Scott Walker wants an additional two weeks to review signatures on recall petitions, saying he doesn't have enough time to go over the estimated 1 million signatures submitted last month.More >>
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, facing a Democratic recall effort for his attempts to curb union rights, has given President Barack Obama a friendly tarmac welcome in Milwaukee.More >>
Pointing to a rebound in manufacturing, President Barack Obama in Wednesday is visiting a Milwaukee plant that has brought back jobs to the United States.More >>
Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum is exploring Secret Service protection following a rowdy rally in Washington state earlier in the week.More >>
Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum isn't predicting victory, but he says he's going to plant a flag in the state where Mitt Romney was born.More >>
Australian lawmakers on Wednesday narrowly approved tax hikes for the wealthy that will help the government meet its pledge to deliver a budget surplus next year.More >>
Republican Newt Gingrich on Monday dismissed calls to drop out of the presidential contest in order to set up a direct contest between rivals Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. The former House speaker insisted that his ideas...More >>
House-Senate talks on renewing a payroll tax cut that delivers about $20 a week to the average worker yielded a tentative agreement Tuesday, with lawmakers planning to unveil the pact Wednesday and sending the measure to...More >>
The chances of Texas voters having much influence in the Republican presidential race faded Tuesday after a panel of federal judges acknowledged the state's deep divisions over political maps had made it nearly...More >>
U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and Dean Heller are shedding political donations amid reports that a Nevada developer and lobbyist is the target of a federal campaign finance investigation.More >>
Hundreds packed the Alabama Statehouse courtyard on Tuesday to rally against the state's tough immigration law, with organizers saying they chose to send a message on Valentine's Day that lawmakers need to love and...More >>
The man destined to be China's next leader won an extraordinary welcome across Washington on Tuesday, a finely scripted opening to one of the world's most important relationships. Trading kind words of cooperation,...More >>
A Republican supermajority has muscled two of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in years through the Virginia House, including one that would all but outlaw the procedure in the state by declaring that the rights of...More >>
After years of procrastination, the White House and Congress have suddenly boosted a long-term plan to improve the nation's roads, bridges and transit systems to the top of the political agenda.More >>
Mitt Romney and his under-funded opponents are taking advantage of a weeklong lull in the Republican presidential nomination fight - no debate or primary is slated - to raise the money needed to carry out Super Tuesday...More >>
In a Feb. 13 story about President Barack Obama's upcoming fundraisers, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Chris Cornell was the former frontman of the band Soundgarden. Cornell is currently with the band as...More >>
A protest outside the Westminster dog show aimed at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney drew about a dozen demonstrators Tuesday, plus a few pooches.More >>
Brushing aside congressional opposition, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the nation's top military leader insisted on Tuesday that President Barack Obama's trimmer, $614 billion defense budget will ensure the U.S....More >>
A state agency head in Gov. Scott Walker's administration late last year gave the wife of a Republican Party official a political appointment and a $27,000 raise.More >>
Minority Democrats in the state Senate have used a procedural maneuver to delay a vote on a Republican bill that would ease regulations on wetland development.More >>
The governor's "Ready, Set, Build!" initiative would identify up to 10 potential shovel-ready sites for economic development to speed up the permitting process.More >>
Tina Fey's red suit, flag pin and eyeglasses worn to channel her Sarah Palin parodies of the 2008 presidential race are going on view at the Newseum, along with items from journalists and candidates who made history in...More >>
The head of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank warned Tuesday against efforts to accelerate the nation's economic recovery, citing the threat of inflation.More >>
When a president introduces a budget, there are always phantoms flitting around the room. President Barack Obama's spending plan sets loose a number of them.More >>
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress Tuesday that the president's new $3.8 trillion spending plan would impose new taxes on only 2 percent of the nation's wealthiest families and the alternative would be...More >>
Organizers of Occupy protests from the around the Midwest will gather in St. Louis next month, pledging to re-emerge from a "winter lull" as bigger and stronger than before.More >>
If Mitt Romney is rattled by polls showing presidential rival Rick Santorum nipping at his heels, he didn't show it Monday at an outdoor rally with about 2,500 people.More >>
Wisconsin lawmakers are considering whether to lift an unpopular cap to a state program that keeps elderly and disabled people out of nursing homes.More >>
Gov. Chris Gregoire handed gay rights advocates a major victory Monday, signing into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage in Washington state, making it the seventh in the nation to allow gay and lesbian couples to...More >>
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is defending his department's slimmed-down, $614 billion budget plan, telling senators that it is time to step up and show they are serious about reducing the deficit.More >>
Backers of affirmative action asked a federal appeals court Monday to overturn California's 15-year-old ban on considering race in public college admissions, citing a steep drop in black, Latino and Native American...More >>
Taking a pass on reining in government growth, President Barack Obama unveiled a record $3.8 trillion election-year budget plan Monday, calling for stimulus-style spending on roads and schools and tax hikes on the wealthy to...More >>
In an abrupt about-face, House GOP leaders announced Monday that they are willing to extend the two percentage point cut in the payroll tax through the end of the year and add the approximately $100 billion cost to the...More >>
The White House said Monday legislation in the Senate that would give employers broad leeway to restrict coverage for contraception is "dangerous and wrong."More >>
Despite criticism of Fannie Mae by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, his campaign accepted nearly $280,000 in donations raised by a registered lobbyist who once represented the government mortgage giant and...More >>
The Federal Housing Administration could run out of money over the next year and require a $700 million cash infusion from the Treasury Department to stay afloat, according to the Obama administration's budget request...More >>
President Barack Obama's new budget lays down the political themes he will pound as he campaigns for re-election - more spending on jobs and higher taxes for the wealthy. It sets him apart from the Republican contenders...More >>
President Barack Obama called on Congress Monday to create an $8 billion fund to train community college students for high-growth industries, giving a financial incentive to schools whose graduates are getting jobs.More >>
President Barack Obama proposed tax increases on wealthy individuals and some corporations Monday, setting the stage for an ideological battle that won't be resolved until after the November election - if then.More >>
President Barack Obama on Monday honored several artists, writers and organizations for their contributions to the nation, and pledged to make the arts and humanities a priority for as long as he is in the White House.More >>
The dustup over contraception underscored President Barack Obama's political edge in working to attract independent voters without alienating his Democratic base. His Republican rivals are forced to keep emphasizing...More >>
Mitt Romney narrowly won Maine's Republican caucuses, state party officials announced Saturday, providing his campaign with a much-needed boost after three straight losses earlier this week. But the former Massachusetts...More >>
President Barack Obama's political shifting over contraception coverage has united conservative Republicans in protest even as they split over which GOP presidential hopeful should face him in the general election.More >>
President Barack Obama is pressuring Congress to extend a payroll tax cut for the rest of the year as another deadline nears for Congress to act or see taxes go up for millions of working people.More >>
Under fierce election-year fire, President Barack Obama on Friday abruptly abandoned his stand that religious organizations must pay for birth control for workers, scrambling to end a furor raging from the Catholic Church to...More >>
President Barack Obama's new budget predicts a $1.3 trillion deficit for the ongoing fiscal year but that would drop to $575 billion in 2018 if the president gets his wish to raise taxes and if policymakers can live...More >>
A year after thousands rallied for weeks in front of the state Capitol, the protesters will be back for a week. We talk to two senators who were in the middle of it last year. More >>
Social issues dominated the 2012 presidential race Friday, as President Barack Obama tried to calm a storm over religion and birth control and the Republicans vying to replace him jockeyed to outdo each other in proving...More >>
Will.i.am said he hoped to raise $1 million for his charity that benefits needy students at a concert Thursday night. Instead, he raised $5 million.More >>
A new ethics investigation of the House Financial Services Committee chairman's investment activities during the events leading up to and surrounding Congress' $700 billion bailout of Wall Street sets back...More >>
In just the past few days, she's danced with cheering school kids, chatted with troops, swapped ideas with busy parents and engaged in a friendly cooking competition with stars from "Top Chef."More >>
President Barack Obama is making a strong election-year push for an economic revival "built on American manufacturing." But he faces an uphill slog, with little consensus even within his own party on how to do it.More >>
President Barack Obama signed into law Friday a final bill authored by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was wounded in an Arizona shooting rampage a year ago.More >>
All of a sudden, abortion, contraception and gay marriage are at the center of American political discourse, with the struggling - though improving - economy pushed to the background.More >>
Rick Santorum stirs his ever-growing crowds when he promises to right a country awash in "immoral debt" and to replace an administration he argues has "callousness toward life and family and faith."More >>
Senior campaign aides to Republican Mitt Romney will begin appearing at fundraising events for an independent political group supporting his White House run, officials said Friday. The decision comes days after President...More >>
Corporations are asking the Supreme Court to allow them to spend freely to influence upcoming elections in Montana, despite a state high court ruling upholding a ban on independent corporate campaign spending.More >>
Democrats say challenges to thousands of signatures submitted on petitions to recall four incumbent Republican state senators won't stand and the elections will be ordered.More >>
Republicans vowed Wednesday to reverse President Barack Obama's new policy on birth control, lambasting the rule that religious schools and hospitals must provide contraceptive coverage for their employees as an...More >>
Ten states now have President Barack Obama's OK to scrap one of the most rigorous and unpopular mandates in American education - that all students measure up in reading and math by 2014. In exchange, the states had to...More >>
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Thursday accused President Barack Obama of actively seeking ways to allow Iran to gain a nuclear weapon and suggested that the administration had betrayed Israel by publicly...More >>
Democrats are deeply divided over President Barack Obama's new rule that religious schools and hospitals must provide insurance for free birth control to their employees amid fresh signs that the administration was...More >>
President Barack Obama told gay and lesbian supporters at a big-ticket fundraiser Thursday that there's more work to do to ensure fairness for all, but he said he "couldn't be prouder" of his track record for them.More >>
The college student accused of "glitter bombing" Mitt Romney after the Colorado caucuses has been fired from his unpaid internship with state Senate Democrats.More >>
Celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna criticized Ohio lawmakers Thursday for not yet passing a bill to regulate exotic animals, months after authorities shot dozens of lions, tigers, bears and other wild creatures let loose by...More >>
