US News

Teams of first responders descended on the devastated town of West, Texas, after a massive explosion at a fertilizer plant left scores of casualties and turned homes to rubble.

The ex-congressman whose career imploded in a rash of raunchy tweets two years ago said in a YouTube video announcement late Tuesday that he's in the New York City mayoral race.

The U.S. has identified five men who might be responsible for the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and has enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists, officials say.

The mother of a 13-year-old West Texas cheerleader found dead in March said Tuesday that since her daughter went missing more than two years ago she had feared the worst, including that the girl was chained and tortured or had fallen victim to human traffickers.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bipartisan "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill on Tuesday, sending the measure to the Senate floor for consideration and giving the bill's backers their first major legislative victory.

A lawyer for a former board member at Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble Co., who was convicted on insider trading charges, has told an appeals court that his client deserves a new trial.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., is learning to eat lean and mean this week. The freshman lawmaker is taking the 'SNAP' challenge, living off the equivalent of what Connecticut families receive in food stamps.

Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller testifies on Capitol Hill at a hearing on Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative groups, May 17, 2013 in Washington, DC.

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Europe risks an extended period of low growth and deflation like Japan 's unless the European Central Bank acts with an aggressive quantitative easing program.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said Tuesday he will put on hold about 20 applications to export liquefied natural gas until he reviews studies by the Energy Department and others on what impact the exports would have on domestic natural gas supplies and prices.

Moniz, who was sworn in Tuesday as the nation’s new energy secretary, said he promised during his confirmation hearing that he would “review what’s out there” before acting on proposals to export natural gas. Among the things Moniz said he wants to review is whether the data in the studies are outdated.

A high-tech startup is wading into the gun control debate with a cellphone controller that would allow gun owners to know when their weapon is being moved - and disable it remotely.

This undated file photo shows al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. A federal appeals court is backing the U.S. government's decision not to release photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden during and after a raid in which the terrorist leader was killed by U.S. commandos.

A federal court in San Francisco has struck down Arizona's ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy unless there's a medical emergency.

The tax law requires 501 organizations to operate exclusively to promote the "public welfare." In 1959 the IRS edited their tax codes to only require that they mostly promote the public welfare.

This loophole has allowed political activists to assume that they can spend up to 49% of their budgets on political ads, while still maintaining tax-exempt status that allows them to keep their donors secret.

This massive loophole was never authorized by Congress!

The current version of the Revenue Act of 1913 provides a tax exemption for:

26 U.S.C. § 501(c)(4)(A)(emphasis added)

Rescue crews are working through the night after a monstrous tornado barreled through the Oklahoma City suburbs, demolishing an elementary school and reducing homes to piles of splintered wood.

In this Aug. 2, 2012, file photo, then-Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.

President Obama will address the nation on the Oklahoma tornadoes at 10 a.m. Tuesday, the White House has announced.

After grounding for battery problems, United flew 787 from Houston to Chicago

Signaling confidence to the flying public that Boeing 787s are safe to fly, the CEOs of Boeing Co. and United Continental Holdings on Monday traveled from Houston to Chicago aboard a Dreamliner.

Monday's flight, which touched down at 1:14 p.m., early and without incident, marked the return to service of United-owned Dreamliners after the Boeing plane model was grounded for 100 days by aviation regulators worldwide because of overheating onboard batteries.

A Northern California tea party group filed the first lawsuit against the U.S. government stemming from the Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups for more scrutiny as they applied for tax-exempt status.

Tesla Motors, the American maker of luxury electric cars, has been riding a wave of good publicity.

Its Model S sedan (base priced at $62,400, after federal tax credits) was just named Motor Trend Car of the Year. Reviewers at Consumer Reports gave the lithium-ion battery powered vehicle a rave.

And the company, headed by billionaire innovator Elon Musk, 41, posted a profit for the first time in its 10-year history — powered in part by zero-emission environmental credits.