By DARLENE SUPERVILLE 2010-09-04T11:47:19Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- A healthy economy needs bustling Main Streets and a thriving middle class even more than a healthy stock market, President Barack Obama said as he reaffirmed his commitment to work hard for America's hardworking men and women....

Joe Miller, who upset Senator Lisa Murkowski in the Republican primary, has devoted much of his life to institutions and isolation.

Democrats have yet to find a unifying message to address the lackluster economy and are scrambling to come up with job-creating remedies before voters go to the polls.

The security firm created shell companies to obtain U.S. contracts after it was criticized for its conduct in Iraq, investigators said.

By 2010-09-04T10:23:02Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- The security company Blackwater Worldwide formed a network of 30 shell companies and subsidiaries to try to get millions of dollars in government business after the company faced strong criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, The New York Times reported Friday....

By PAUL DAVENPORT and AMANDA LEE MYERS 2010-09-04T08:11:33Z PHOENIX (AP) -- A claim by Arizona's governor that rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border has led to headless bodies turning up in the desert came back to haunt her during a stammering debate performance in which she failed to back it up....

By PHILIP ELLIOTT 2010-09-04T07:56:52Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who rode voter anger to office in New Jersey last year, is endorsing Mike Castle's bid to win the GOP primary in Delaware and is joining a pack of party leaders trying to block a tea party-backed candidate's bid....

Despite the advantage a 2000 law gives to religious institutions, disputes over mosque construction spread.

American businesses added more jobs in the last three months than originally estimated, calming fears of a double-dip recession.

The five Democrats running for attorney general in New York State are planning an 11th-hour blitz before the Sept. 14 primary.

Michelle Obama, who arrived at the White House as the self-described “mom-in-chief,” is extending her policy agenda and stepping up visibility.

Thomas Butler, 70, detained because of a suspicious item in his luggage, had once been charged with illegally transporting bubonic plague.

Gov. Jan Brewer says she was wrong when she claimed that headless bodies were turning up in the Arizona desert as part of border-related violence.

Christopher J. Ward, National Republican Congressional Committee treasurer from 2003 to 2007, pleaded guilty Friday to embezzling more than $840,000 from several political committees.

After being flooded with complaints, the agency said it would continue to allow the sale of the drug midodrine.

The decision was based on concerns that the country was not doing enough to protect its people from abuses by the police and the military.

Robert M. Gates seems to be trying to lower expectations for a coming review of war policy.

Andrew J. Bacevich forcefully denounces 60 years of American militarism in this bracing and intelligent polemic.

By MATTHEW DALY 2010-09-04T03:24:18Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- What now for the Gulf? News of another oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico, so soon after the BP oil spill, has set off a wave of anxiety along the Gulf Coast and prompted calls for the government to extend its six-month ban on deepwater drilling....

By MATTHEW LEE 2010-09-04T03:21:15Z WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to inject urgency into Israeli-Palestinian peace talks Friday, warning the negotiations may be "the last chance for a very long time" to reach an agreement....