BARACK OBAMA

U.S. employment grew solidly last month and the jobless rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent, offering the strongest evidence yet of an acceleration in economic activity.

The Internal Revenue Service audited one in eight people who earned $1 million annually, which makes them far likelier to be audited than those making less than $200,000, according to IRS data released on Thursday.

Employment grew solidly last month and the jobless rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent, offering the strongest evidence yet of an acceleration in economic activity.

Stocks, commodity prices and the dollar moved higher on Friday while safe-haven government bonds fell after better-than-expected U.S. jobs data for December confirmed the recovery in the world's biggest economy is strengthening.

U.S. Army Cpl. Jesse Thorsen took the stage at Ron Paul's caucus night rally in Iowa on Tuesday with a few things on his mind. By the time he finished speaking, the 28-year-old would come to embody a breed of supporter seemingly unique to the Ron Paul universe: The War-Weary Veteran.

Recently, a thumb-drive with an audio file on it arrived in my mail. When I plugged into the laptop, which is an Apple, so I don't have to worry too much about viruses, I heard this recorded call between President Barack Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney talking about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the Keystone XL pipeline.

Recently, a thumb-drive with an audio file on it arrived in my mail. When I plugged into the laptop, which is an Apple, so I don't have to worry too much about viruses, I heard this recorded call between President Barack Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney talking about the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the Keystone XL pipeline.

U.S. employment likely grew solidly last month, but the jobless rate probably rose from a 2-1/2 year low as improving conditions lured some Americans who had given up looking for work back into the labor market.

After the closest caucuses in Iowa history -- just eight votes separated Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum in Tuesday's caucuses -- the Republican field has been whittled down to six candidates. How will the Iowa results affect the race?

Investigators are looking into whether or not the White House gave too much information to Hollywood director Katheryn Bigelow and her team working on a movie about the Osama bin Laden raid.

In his first full day as chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray sought to lower the political heat around the agency, saying it would earnestly get to work targeting all the bad actors in the lending industry.

In his first full day as chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray sought to lower the political heat around the agency, saying it would earnestly get to work targeting all the bad actors in the lending industry.

The U.S. Department of Defense and CIA are investigating claims that the Obama administration gave Oscar Award winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow more than a peek at classified information about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Ron Paul supporters and other election-watchers have been debating whether or not he was cut short Monday by the national news network when it stopped airing remarks by the GOP presidential candidate as he went into a discussion of the NDAA bill.

After more than a month of posturing, Iran said it's ready to restart nuclear talks with the European Union, adding that Turkey would be the best place for a dialog.

The president's recess appointment power under the Constitution is not without its ambiguities, and the president's use of this power in light of these ambiguities has given rise to significant political and legal controversy since the beginning of the Republic.

Mitt Romney's win in the Iowa caucuses has slapped him with a once-familiar tag: frontrunner. It may signal a return to the common stasis of any campaign. Where once intra-party bickering sunk many past frontrunners, the common political mantra of punch up has taken hold in the 2012 campaign. Perhaps the era of surging candidates is over?

President Barack Obama unveiled a defense strategy on Thursday that calls for greater U.S. military presence in Asia and envisions cutting troops in Europe as the Pentagon seeks to reduce spending by nearly half a trillion dollars after a decade of war.

In his first speech as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray said his agency will immediately begin overseeing lenders outside the banking industry, and will take a tough stance against any financial players that break the law.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will wield broader powers to crack down on formerly unregulated sectors of the economy that include payday lenders and mortgage brokers after President Barack Obama installed Richard Cordray as head of the nascent agency.

The price of oil has been rising due to mounting tensions between Iran and the United States and other western countries. On Wednesday the pressure on Iran continued to ratchet up, as European Union governments agreed on to ban imports of Iranian oil.