BARACK OBAMA

U.S. health officials will allow states to select the basic set of medical benefits that must be offered by insurance plans participating in new exchanges mandated by the federal healthcare overhaul, the U.S. government said on Friday.

Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina have sought to halt Department of Justice challenges to their Arizona-style immigration laws, pending a U.S. Supreme Court review.

As longtime manager Lupe De Leon confirms that the legendary blues and R&B singer is dying of leukemia, Etta James' live-in doctor is asking fans to pray for her, saying her cancer is now incurable. James, best known for instant classics like love song At Last, released a final album, The Dreamer, only two and half years ago.

After Congressional negotiators signed off Thursday night on a $1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would avert a shutdown and fund the federal government through September, lawmakers' focus returned to the ongoing negotiations over the extension of the payroll tax cut.

Steven Rattner, the former head of the United States auto task force and dubbed President Barack Obama's car czar, called the auto industry's 2009 bailout an unambiguous success Thursday. But he acknowledged that taxpayers, footing the $82 billion bill to bail out Chrysler, General Motors and Ally Financial, will lose about $14 billion of their investment.

Europe's debt crisis has deepened and become more entrenched, posing a serious risk to the economic outlook, a senior Treasury official told lawmakers on Friday.

The professional commentary and coverage of the National Defense Authorization Act (aka NDAA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (aka SOPA) has been coming hard and fast even since before President Barack Obama signaled he would not veto the NDAA. Much of the old-guard media has done appallingly little on the topic, so the blogosphere and web-based columnists are picking up the slack and churning out the most compelling content on these issues.

We have the ability to rein in excessive judges, Mitt Romney said.

The video includes lengthy tributes to Steve Jobs, Amy Winehouse and others.

Rick Perry related himself to Tebow, saying he hoped to perform well in the key Iowa caucuses upcoming in early January. I hope I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses, Perry said.

The Republican frontrunner in the run up to the U.S. Presidential elections, Newt Gingrich, had to face considerable criticism from his rivals, in the final GOP debate of the year and before the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3. Gingrich, throughout the debate, fought back allegations levied against him and compared himself to former Republican President, Ronald Reagan.

U.S. lawmakers Thursday night reached a tentative deal to fund an array of government agencies through Sept. 30 and avert shutting down many of Washington's operations starting this weekend.

Congress Thursday approved a defense bill requiring the military to handle suspected foreign militants allied with al-Qaida, sending it to President Barack Obama for his expected signature.

Buoyed by renewed pledges of customer support, TransCanada Corp said on Thursday it not only wants to proceed with its stalled Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline but to undertake a $600 million expansion and extension.

Cain then fell from the polls and bowed out of the race. But he's told Barbara Walters in an interview that aired Wednesday night as one of the 10 Most Fascinating People of the year that if given the opportunity for a cabinet position, he would choose this one -- Secretary of Defense.

Republican U.S presidential contender Ron Paul is in real trouble if the new national poll by NBC/Wall Street Journal is any indicator to go by. But does it really look that bad? The answer has to be 'No' if we analyze certain key factors that determine the poll results as well as the campaign strategy of the other leading Republican presidential candidates.

Something has to change. Consider only that a government shutdown threat is with us again. Seems we can't have a good old-fashioned budget battle in Washington these days without the threat of government shutdown. As President Barack Obama and Congress battle over an extension of the payroll tax cut which expires at the end of this year, Congress must pass a temporary spending measure before the U.S. government runs out of money at midnight on Friday.

So how is it like to be in the White House? There is no Facebook! Well... at least for U.S. President Barack Obama's daughters - Sasha and Malia.

Ron Paul is the most virtuous candidate in the 2012 presidential race. This fact is not lost on the American public; a recent poll of Republicans and independents selected Paul as the most “principled” candidate.

That's sure to be the rumor once (if?) the ubiquitous website goes back online after going down shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday amid news that the Obama administration will not be vetoing the bill.

Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania who has been hanging out with Jon Huntsman at the bottom of the Republican pack, said in Waterloo, Iowa, on Tuesday that the United States was not so gradually beginning to resemble fascist Italy.