Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates edged down this week to their lowest levels of the year, offering a continued incentive for purchasing during the spring home-buying season. The benchmark 30-year fixed-rate loan touched its lowest point in nearly three years, ...
Read More »Report: US medicine spending up 8.5 percent 2015
U.S. spending on prescription drugs rose 8.5 percent last year, slightly less than in 2014, driven mainly by growing use of ultra-expensive new drugs and price hikes on other medicines. A report from data firm IMS Health estimates patients, insurers, ...
Read More »Conservative lawmakers drive backlash against LGBT rights
Year after year, South Carolina Sen. Lee Bright has watched as gays won more rights through legislation and the courts. And as he sees proposals elsewhere in the U.S. aimed at allowing transgender people to use the bathroom that conforms ...
Read More »EPA: No changes to federal lead water rule until next year
The Environmental Protection Agency’s top water regulator said Wednesday that officials are working urgently to strengthen a federal rule limiting lead and copper in drinking water — a key focus in the ongoing lead-contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan. But Joel ...
Read More »Obama’s power over immigration drives Supreme Court dispute
The raging political fight over immigration comes to the Supreme Court on Monday in a dispute that could affect millions of people who are in the United States illegally. The court is weighing the fate of Obama administration programs that ...
Read More »Dispute over Internet data collection splits high court
WASHINGTON (AP) — No one at the Supreme Court on Monday disputed the fact that an online profile of Thomas Robins was riddled with false and misleading information. The profile of the Virginia resident compiled by Internet search site Spokeo.com ...
Read More »Jackson County task force releases jail report
A group tasked with reviewing policies and procedures at the Jackson County Detention Center has cited corrections officer pay, fast turnover and lack of accreditation as key factors the county must address to improve conditions at the facility. The recommendations ...
Read More »2 VA officials refuse to testify on job-manipulation claims
Associated Press Two high-ranking officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to testify Monday night at a congressional hearing on allegations that they manipulated the agency’s hiring system for their own gain. The officials, Diana Rubens and Kimberly Graves, ...
Read More »Google will let artificial intelligence reply to your email
Google is putting a different twist on the concept of “automated reply” with a new tool that aims to write artificially intelligent responses to your email. The technology is part of an update to Google’s Inbox app for managing and ...
Read More »Ex-instructor gets nearly $5M award in Missouri lawsuit
A St. Louis County jury has awarded nearly $5 million to a former Harris-Stowe State University instructor who argued the historically black school discriminated against her because she is white. Jurors returned the $4.85 million verdict favoring Beverly Wilkins last ...
Read More »Unrest may be over, but the lawsuits keep coming
It’s been more than a year since Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson and subsequent protests and unrest, but earlier this month a woman filed suit against Ferguson police, claiming they unlawfully told her to stop recording their actions and arrested ...
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