Jun 9, 2011 – Let’s start with what economic growth is. “Rules in economics should always be taken with a grain of salt,” says Jared Bernstein, a fellow at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and a former White House economist, “but the speed limit on growth is understood to be (roughly) the...

Jun 9, 2011 – WASHINGTON — Recent signs that the economic recovery is flagging have introduced a new tension into the bipartisan budget negotiations, giving rise to calls especially from liberals to limit the size of immediate spending cuts or even to provide an additional fiscal stimulus. On Thursday, for the first time...

Jun 9, 2011 – Around 150 militants armed with rockets attacked a security checkpost in Pakistan's Waziristan on Thursday, killing eight soldiers, intelligence officials said, as tensions rise in the volatile northwestern region along the Afghan border. The attack, in which about 12 militants were killed, appeared to be part of a new strategy...

Jun 9, 2011 – President Obama's reelection campaign on Friday announced the hiring of Katherine Archuleta as national political director. Archuleta serves as chief of staff to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and formerly worked as an aide to former Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, helping to coordinate the 2008 Democratic National Convention in the...

Jun 9, 2011 – Former Sen. Rick Santorum is running for the Republican presidential nominee as the principled, unbending conservative stalwart -- which means he's also running from his past. Santorum's beliefs are conservative, and he's been a hero for pro-lifers nationwide. But last decade he exhibited the standard Bush-era misguided pragmatism of...

Jun 9, 2011 – ALEXANDRIA, Va. — President Obama, battling the public’s loss of confidence in his handling of the economy, came to a community college here on Wednesday to talk up a $2 billion program aimed at tailoring classes to match the needs of manufacturing companies. Speaking at Northern Virginia Community College,...

Jun 9, 2011 – Washington (CNN) – Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman had dinner Wednesday with five influential Republican senators in Washington as he puts the finishing touches on his near-certain presidential campaign. Huntsman and wife Mary Kaye were seen entering The Monocle, a popular steakhouse and political watering hole on the Senate side...

Jun 9, 2011 – Reporting from Washington— As drug cartels wreak murderous havoc from Mexico to Panama, the Obama administration is unable to show that the billions of dollars spent in the war on drugs have significantly stemmed the flow of illegal narcotics into the United States, according to two government reports and outside...

Jun 9, 2011 – In the next week, Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, thanks mostly to her decision to participate in next week's Republican primary debate, is going to be getting her first big moment in the national political spotlight. For the last two years, she's been a caricature -- a spoof on "Saturday Night...

Jun 9, 2011 – Real estate mogul Donald Trump reiterated Wednesday that he might reconsider a presidential run as an independent if the GOP does not field a suitable candidate that can take the presidency from President Barack Obama. Trump also told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren that the House budget plan is going...

Jun 9, 2011 – JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon’s public questioning of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on bank regulatory costs has “thrown down the gauntlet” in the industry’s increasingly aggressive fight to curb higher capital requirements and other rules. “They threw out the first ball, now...

Jun 9, 2011 – A group of wealthy Americans that calls itself the Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength has sent a letter to President Obama and Congress asking them to raise their taxes and the taxes of the 370,000 other Americans who earn more than $1 million a year. In a video the group...

Jun 9, 2011 – Several 2012 Republican presidential candidates are slated to participate in an Iowa bus tour that seeks to make returning the country’s monetary system to the gold standard a key election issue. The Iowa Tea Party and the group American Principles in Action announced that they are launching their 18-day bus...

Jun 9, 2011 – LIVONIA, Mich. — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is defending himself in Michigan against questions over why he opposed a federal bailout of General Motors and Chrysler two years ago. Romney told a diner at the Senate Coney Island restaurant Thursday morning that the automakers should have gone...

Jun 9, 2011 – NEW DELHI — India test-fired a short-range, nuclear-capable missile Thursday that hit its target accurately, the defense ministry said. The surface-to-surface Prithvi missile was fired from the testing range in Chandipur in the eastern state of Orissa, said Sitanshu Kar, the defense ministry spokesman. It reached the target in...

Jun 9, 2011 – Republican Jon Huntsman, looking more like a full-fledged presidential candidate every day, has "corrected" a statement he made during a Wednesday radio interview that he would not veto an assault weapons ban if such a bill was sent to him by Congress. The former Utah governor and ambassador to China...

Jun 9, 2011 – The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits hardly changed for a second straight week, stuck at a high level that points to a slowing job market. Weekly unemployment benefit applications ticked up 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 427,000 last week, the Labor Department said. It marked the ninth straight week...

Jun 9, 2011 – U.S. initial jobless claims unexpectedly rose last week, a sign that the labor market is struggling to gain traction. Jobless claims increased by 1,000 to 427,000 in the week ended June 4, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a drop in claims...

Jun 9, 2011 – Democrats kept up their criticism of Mitt Romney's (R) approach toward the auto industry with a web video Thursday reminding Michigan voters that Romney had favored bankruptcy for GM and Chrysler. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) released a new web ad, "Welcome to Detroit," featuring clips of Romney talking...

Jun 9, 2011 – NEW YORK — Saddened by the disclosure of her husband’s online sexual antics, Rep. Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, is on a weeklong overseas trip with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as another disclosure puts her even more in the unwelcome public eye: She is pregnant....

Jun 9, 2011 – Jon Huntsman is trying out a novel strategy: running for president without criticizing the incumbent by name. Since returning from his post as ambassador to China last month, Huntsman has made scant mention of the man who appointed him in May 2009—President Barack Obama. And his would-be campaign officials say...

Jun 9, 2011 – LANSING, Mich. — Mitt Romney stood in front of an auto factory in his native Michigan during his 2008 presidential race and vowed to bring back jobs, a popular message that helped give him his first — and only — Republican primary victory. He could run into a more...

Jun 9, 2011 – More rough polling numbers for Sarah Palin: In a CBS News poll, a majority of Republicans said they don't want her to run for president in 2012. Fifty-four percent of Republicans said they don't want Palin to run, compared with just 34 percent who said they're hoping for a bid....

Jun 9, 2011 – The 2012 presidential candidate excluded from CNN’s upcoming debate is making his appeal to YouTubers. In a campaign video released late yesterday, Gary Johnson makes the case for being included in the June 13th debate. Apart from the Fox news clips describing the former New Mexico governor’s fiscal accomplishments, the...

Jun 9, 2011 – Scott Brown has spent most of his Senate career with a target on his back. But his maverick voting record and fundraising prowess have positioned him to achieve the unthinkable: winning statewide reelection in Massachusetts as a Republican. Brown has, so far, avoided drawing a serious challenger in his...