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States fight over right to claim first flight

Ohio and North Carolina drew a line on the tarmac Thursday in the fight over who was first to make a powered airplane flight. Ohio license plates proclaim the state is the “Birthp...

Obama calls for immigration law by year’s end

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama made a plea for Republican cooperation on immigration Thursday, seeking common ground by year’s end in the aftermath of the divisive partial government sh...

Nation Briefs

Study finds Facebook news source for many NEW YORK – Most people don’t log on to Facebook to find out the news. But it’s an important news source anyway, even if incidentally, a s...

Violent crime rises in U.S. for second year

WASHINGTON – The violent crime rate went up 15 percent last year, and the property crime rate rose 12 percent, the government said Thursday, signs that the nation may be seeing the last of t...

Contractors reject blame for website woes

WASHINGTON – Contractors who built the web portal for the Obama administration’s health insurance marketplace said Thursday the site’s crippling problems trace back to insufficient testing a...

Two shot at National Guard armory; shooter in custody

MILLINGTON, Tenn. – A member of the National Guard opened fire at an armory outside a U.S. Navy base in Tennessee, wounding two soldiers before being subdued and disarmed by others soldiers...

Nation/World Briefs

White House aide loses job over postings WASHINGTON – A White House national security official was fired after it was discovered that he was behind an anonymous Twitter account th...

Obama, Pakistan’s prime minister vow to work together

WASHINGTON – Seeking to improve a rocky relationship, President Barack Obama and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday pledged cooperation on the security issues that have strai...

Dutch defend ‘Black Pete’ tradition

AMSTERDAM – A Facebook page seeking to preserve the “Black Pete” clowns in blackface who accompany St. Nicholas to the Netherlands during the holidays has become the fastest-growing Dutch-la...

U.S. now world’s top producer of shale gas

The United States, followed by Canada, leads the world in producing natural gas from shale formations as the controversial practice of fracking spreads, the U.S. government reported Wednesda...

Speaker hopeful of immigration action this year

WASHINGTON – Speaker John Boehner expressed optimism on Wednesday about House action by year’s end on stalled efforts to overhaul immigration as Republicans discussed possible limited steps ...

Biden says country on cusp of mental health changes

BOSTON – Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the country is on the cusp of what he called “remarkable changes” in the treatment of mental illness. Speaking at a forum on ...