Politics - Top Stories latest news

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. Air Force officials sought to spend millions of dollars in counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" for military planes used by senior officers and civilian leaders, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

AUSTIN, July 17 -- Now this is some serious smackdown, blogger style.

REDDING, Calif., July 17 -- President Bush joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday for a helicopter tour over the charred landscape of Shasta-Trinity National Forest, surveying a small part of the devastation left behind by the largest single "fire event" in California history.

Senate Democrats plan to unveil a second fiscal stimulus plan next week, this one worth at least $50 billion, arguing that soaring energy prices and the crisis in the housing market require a major jobs program to kick-start a faltering economy.

Rep. Charles B. Rangel, facing two controversies in as many weeks, called yesterday for an ethics committee investigation of his fundraising for an academic center that bears his name. But he said the panel should not delve into his rental of four New York apartments at below-market rates.

When it comes to hosting congressional delegations, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad likes to think of itself as the eHarmony of Iraq -- lawmakers outline what they're looking for, and officials try to set up the perfect date.

Sen. Barack obama reversed a three-month fundraising slide by raising $52 million in June, a monthly total that has been surpassed only by his own performance in February in the history of presidential campaigns, aides announced yesterday.

Climate change will pose "substantial" threats to human health in the coming decades, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday -- issuing its warnings about heat waves, hurricanes and pathogens just days after the agency declined to regulate the pollutants blamed for warming.

Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft defended his approach to forestalling terrorist attacks but told lawmakers yesterday that he moved quickly to respond to concerns that some Justice Department memos employed shoddy reasoning.

Starting Friday, doctors in South Dakota must tell women seeking abortions that the procedure ends a human life and may cause them psychological harm, the state attorney general said.