Spartan Echo

  WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairmen of President Barack Obama’s 2010 fiscal commission are wading back into Washington’s budget wars with a revised, somewhat milder plan to rein in intractable federal deficits. The plan released Thursday, Apr. 18  by and former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles [...]

  WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are staking out stark differences with Democrats as they prepare to meet with President Barack Obama for talks over the budget impasse, while Obama is conceding that a political accommodation may be impossible. On the one hand, many Republicans who long have chided Obama for failing to engage their [...]

  WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are sending mixed signals in agreeing to meet with President Barack Obama for talks over the budget impasse, while Obama is conceding that a political accommodation may be impossible. On the one hand, many Republicans who long have chided Obama for failing to engage their party on the nation’s [...]

    NEW YORK (AP) — As the fortunes of many Americans go, so goes Wal-Mart, so goes the economy. Even as the world’s largest retailer on Thursday reported an 8.6 percent rise in fourth quarter profit during the busy holiday shopping season, it offered a weaker forecast for the coming months. The problem? The [...]

  WASHINGTON (AP) — A new plan by Senate Democrats to head off severe spending cuts in two weeks met an icy reception from Republicans on Thursday as administration officials stepped forward to lay out the biting consequences that could come if no deal is reached soon: thousands of air traffic controllers sidelined, the on [...]