IBT Staff Reporter

The Senate finally voted 74-26 to raise the debt ceiling to over 2 trillion dollars this afternoon and slash federal spending by a similar amount. As soon as President Obama officially signed the bill in the White House to allow the nation to continue borrowing money while increasing citizen taxes, he told America "Everyone is going to have to chip in. It's only fair."

A Sacramento resident has passed away after eating ground turkey that was linked to an outbreak of salmonella food poisoning.

The debt ceiling bill passed the House by a vote of 269-161 and the Senate with bipartisan support by a vote of 74-26. The legislation was quickly signed into law by President Obama Tuesday, averting a U.S. default and government shutdown.

Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday confirmed its Aaa rating of the United States, citing the decision to raise the debt limit, but assigned a negative outlook that could pressure lawmakers to cut the U.S. deficit.

Britain will signal on Wednesday that it intends to legalize copying of CDs or DVDs onto digital music players or computers for personal use, a government source said on Tuesday.

Heidi Montag and husband Spencer Pratt have fallen from their stardom on "The Hills" and say they wish they could take back much that made them famous. The couple, known also together as "Speidi", attracted attention from the MTV scripted reality show "The Hills." Both found that their lives were turning in stressful directions based on publicity stunts that kept them in the public's eye.

Fitch upheld its AAA rating on the United States on Tuesday after lawmakers approved spending cuts to avoid a U.S. default, but it warned the world's largest economy must cut its debt burden to avoid a future downgrade.

A new salmonella scare is ravaging the nation as news spreads of one death and 77 illnesses that have been reported since March. The CDC is suspecting that the specific strain, Salmonella Heidelberg, is tied to ground turkey.

U.S. auto sales ticked higher in July, but the industry's top salesmen cautioned the prospect for a second-half recovery remained clouded with consumers hurting in a weak economy.

Charlie Sheen's character on the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men is rumored to exit the show in a coffin. Rumors have spread online that the creator of the show, Chuck Lorre, is planning on killing off Sheen's character, Charlie Harper.

State governments would have to identify persons forming corporations under legislation that was reintroduced on Tuesday in the Senate, taking aim at shadowy shell companies and anonymous corporate owners.

The S&P 500 turned negative for the year on Tuesday as the wrangling over the U.S. debt ceiling faded and investors turned their attention to the stalling economy.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday gave a speech to pro-Kremlin youth in which he accused the United States of acting like a "parasite" on the global economy by massing up uncontrollable debts that threaten the financial system of the world.

Google may be planning on adding its Dealmap acquisition to its Wallet service.

Major automakers posted July U.S. sales that ticked higher from the slump of recent months, but failed to dispel doubts about the strength of the economy and the mood of American consumers.

Broadband speeds on average are within 80 percent of what major Internet service providers advertise, a big improvement from two years ago, according to a government study.

A new research is saying that an innie belly button is home to at least 60 to 100 species of organisms. Among the findings besides bacteria were "fungi" and "interesting yeasts".

A multi-state outbreak of Salmonella poisoning linked to ground turkey has spread across the nation, killing one person while more than 75 have been sickened, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s Food Safety and Inspection Service who are investigating the outbreak.

Consumer spending dropped in June for the first time in nearly two years and incomes barely rose, signs the economy lacked momentum as the second quarter drew to a close.

Pregnant mothers' exposure to strong electromagnetic fields may increase the risk of developing asthma for their baby according a new study conducted by US researchers.

Celina Cass, an 11-year-old whose body was found by divers in the Connecticut River., will receive an autopsy Tuesday. Law officials said that the girl's death was considered "suspicious" but did not explain why.

JPMorgan Chase & Co and UBS AG , emboldened by a favorable court ruling, urged a federal judge to throw out many claims by the bankruptcy trustee seeking billions of dollars for victims of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Fitch upheld its AAA rating on the United States on Tuesday after lawmakers approved spending cuts to avoid a U.S. default, but it warned the world's largest economy must cut its debt burden to avoid a future downgrade.

Just hours ahead of a deadline to avert an unprecedented default, President Barack Obama, without public ceremony, signs a bill that raises the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and sets in motion a plan to reduce U.S. deficits over 10 years.

Charlie Sheen's "Two and A Half Men" character will not only be killed off, he will be given a funeral when the TV series returns in September, according to entertainment industry Web site Deadline Hollywood.

Jennifer Lopez remains a romantic despite her recent split with husband Marc Anthony, but she said finding a way to love herself is what gave her the courage to walk away from the seven-year marriage.

Forbes has listed the current highest paid actors in Hollywood. At the top of the list for the year is Leonardo DiCaprio who earned $77 million between May 2010 and May 2011. The reason may not just be the blockbusters that he continually rolls out, but his reputation as a quality actor. Last year's projects with director Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" as well as Christopher Nolan's "Inception" netted a total of $1.2 billion from both films, of which he received a sizeab...

Skype announced Tuesday that it would release its online calling software officially as an iPad app to the iOS App Store, bringing the live video service to both 3G and Wi-Fi data connections. In May, Microsoft announced that it had bought the Luxembourg-based service in a deal reportedly worth $8.5 billion.

Americans are not happy NASA is not ending the space shuttle program.