Updated: 7:14 AM It's a question that aides to any president seeking re-election should be ready to handle: Are Americans better off now than before he took office?

Posted: 2:14 PM Biden used a Labor Day rally in Detroit to encourage organized labor to take a critical look at Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan.

Posted: 2:12 PM The president was marking Labor Day in union-friendly Toledo, noting that he stepped in to help rescue automakers General Motors and Chrysler in 2009.

Posted: 1:30 PM President Barack Obama's top allies insisted Monday that Americans are surely better off than four years ago despite a slow economic recovery and joblessness of 8.3 percent.

Posted: 8:58 AM The Republican convention behind him, Romney was staying low for a few days, preparing for the October debates as Democratic conventioneers gathered for the opening of their event Tuesday in Charlotte.

Posted: 7:31 AM President Barack Obama will detour deep in the South on Labor Day, long enough to offer a presence and promises of help to those flooded out by Hurricane Isaac.

Posted: 7:29 AM This for a Category 1 storm that killed seven and swamped low-lying areas of Louisiana and dumped more than a foot of rain on its way north.

Posted: 4:09 PM Romney, hoping to project an aura of leadership, surveyed storm damage in Louisiana and declared "people down here need help."

Posted: 3:44 PM With America embroiled in its longest armed conflict, Mitt Romney became the first Republican since 1952 to accept his party's nomination without mentioning war.

Posted: 1:23 PM Biden was speaking about two miles north of the sprawling GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in an event meant to emphasize the importance of the auto bailout to the state, a critical political battleground.

Posted: 10:41 AM Two fellow lunar pioneers have helped launch a children's health fund in memory of Neil Armstrong, whom they praise as an inspirational team player.

Posted: 10:31 AM They're all costly to taxpayers and the next president presumably will have to address them to one degree or another. Yet GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney made no mention of those issues Thursday.

Posted: 10:16 AM Democratic leaders in the state Legislature claim Davidson County election results show a disproportionate number of people voted in the Republican primary election, compared with past years.

Posted: 3:29 PM When Mitt Romney addresses the Republican convention Thursday night, he'll do it from a stage that puts him a little bit closer to the crowd inside the convention hall.

Posted: 3:17 PM The 2012 platform, approved this week by GOP convention-goers who nominated Mitt Romney for president, also endorses "stand your ground" rights for gun owners

Posted: 3:00 PM A federal court on Thursday rejected a Texas law that would require voters to present photo IDs to election officials before being allowed to cast ballots in November.

Posted: 2:55 PM In an interview with Time magazine, Obama says he expects Republicans in Congress to work more cooperatively in a second term, since his re-election would no longer be a factor.

Posted: 2:15 PM Tennessee election officials will review the voting histories of Davidson County residents as they look into how primary ballots were provided to voters.

Posted: 1:34 PM His nomination now official, Romney was free at last to start dipping into his general-election pot of campaign cash.

Posted: 11:49 AM Even before Paul Ryan takes the stage at the Republican convention, President Barack Obama's campaign is seeking to cast the GOP running mate as "out of step" with American voters.

Posted: 11:43 AM Stadiums and hospitals removed from the districts of black congressional members and country clubs newly drawn into those of white incumbents.

Posted: 9:50 AM Wharton won a special election in 2009 to serve that last two years of former Mayor Willie Herenton's term. He then beat out nine challengers to win election to his first full term in 2011 with 65 percent of the vote.

Updated: 9:44 AM Property taxes are going up after votes in one East Tennessee county and one Middle Tennessee County.

Posted: 5:46 PM In a roll call of states Tuesday, New Jersey put Romney over the top, giving him the prize that eluded him four years ago. Romney is scheduled to accept his party's nomination in a speech Thursday night.

Updated: 5:31 PM Lawyers for the city have submitted a notice of voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville.