Posted: 11:04 AM Efforts to save the nation from going over a year-end "fiscal cliff" were still in disarray as lawmakers returned to the Capitol to confront the tax-and-spend crisis.

Posted: 11:01 AM Appearing on the same show Friday, Republican Sen. John Thune noted a meeting later Friday among President Barack Obama and congressional leaders, saying, "It's encouraging that people are talking."

Posted: 9:09 AM The Tennessee Republican shared his grim forecast Friday on "CBS This Morning," calling the Friday afternoon meeting "optics to make it look like we're doing something."

Posted: 6:47 AM The Friday afternoon meeting among congressional leaders and the president stood as a make-or-break moment for negotiations to avoid across-the-board first of the year tax increases and deep spending cuts.

Posted: 6:44 AM The State Department has closed its embassy in the Central African Republic and ordered the ambassador and his diplomatic team to leave the country as rebels there continue to advance and violence escalates

Posted: 6:43 AM The House Ethics Committee said Thursday it found no violations among House members whose mortgage loans went through the VIP section of the former Countrywide Financial Corp

Posted: 6:40 AM The House will be back in session Sunday evening as the "fiscal cliff" looms, threatening across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts with the new year.

Posted: 6:36 AM If more than 14,000 longshoremen go on strike as threatened — a wide-ranging work stoppage that would immediately close cargo ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico to container ships.

Posted: 7:18 AM President Barack Obama returns from Hawaii Thursday to this increasingly familiar deadline showdown in the nation's capital, with even a stopgap solution now in doubt.

Posted: 7:16 AM Hawaii's lieutenant governor and former head of President Obama's 2008 election effort there has been named the state's newest U.S. senator, a choice that went against the dying wish of revered longtime Sen. Daniel Inouye.

Posted: 6:21 AM For years, Republicans have adhered fiercely to their bedrock conservative principles, resisting Democratic calls for tax hikes, comprehensive immigration reform and gun control.

Posted: 6:19 AM Obama was expected to arrive in Washington early Thursday, the White House said Tuesday night. First lady Michelle Obama and the couple's two daughters will remain in Hawaii.

Posted: 7:59 AM The tax hikes already on the books, taking effect in 2013, fall mainly on people who make lots of money and on the health care industry.

Posted: 1:41 PM He draws political strength from his surprisingly easy re-election in a bad economy. It's partly offset, however, by Republicans' continued control of the House, plus their filibuster powers in the Senate.

Posted: 11:40 AM Depositions in a court case challenging the referendum that allowed liquor-by-the-drink in Pigeon Forge show that some people likely did vote illegally.

Posted: 11:00 AM Organizer Sherrie Orange told supporters in an email last Monday that after three-plus years of work, the group was calling it quits immediately.

Posted: 7:17 AM A conservative U.S. senator from Idaho who has said he doesn't drink because of his Mormon faith has been charged with drunken driving.

Posted: 7:01 AM An unwavering National Rifle Association said Sunday that new gun regulations would not make children safer and that a White House task force on gun violence may try to undermine the Second Amendment.

Posted: 6:58 AM Senators bickered Sunday over who's to blame for lurching the country toward a year-end "fiscal cliff," bemoaning the lack of a deal days before the deadline but bridging no differences in the debate.

Posted: 6:51 AM He says putting trained guards such as retired police officers or military persons at schools will help protect students. Hutchinson says hiring guards to defend schools is a "very reasonable approach

Posted: 6:48 AM Two senators predicted Sunday that former Sen. Chuck Hagel would face a difficult confirmation if nominated by President Barack Obama to be defense secretary.

Posted: 6:46 AM U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reached its highest number yet of companies audited for illegal immigrants on their payrolls this past fiscal year.

Posted: 11:19 AM President Barack Obama on Friday will nominate Sen. John Kerry as his next secretary of state, a senior administration official said.

Posted: 11:13 AM House Speaker John Boehner says he's still open to talks with President Barack Obama on avoiding the double economic hit of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts

Posted: 6:25 AM In their cliff standoff, Obama wants to raise taxes by about $20 billion a year more than Boehner. The two men differ over spending cuts by roughly the same amount.