Former IRS commissioner heads to Hill amid scandal
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lawmakers are getting their first chance to question the former head of the Internal Revenue Service, the man who ran the agency when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups....

Policy, discretion guide media sources probes
WASHINGTON (AP) -- It was a rare moment in relations between the media and the government: In 2008, FBI Director Robert Mueller called the top editors at The New York Times and The Washington Post to apologize because the bureau had improperly obtained reporters' telephone records four years earlier....

Committee nears final big immigration decisions
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate Judiciary Committee hopes to nail down an elusive compromise on high-tech visas and may punt a controversy over gay marriage to the full Senate as it makes final drafting decisions on immigration legislation that grants a shot at citizenship to millions living in the country illegally....

Senate to debate crop insurance in farm bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate is debating cuts to the federally subsidized crop insurance program as it considers a massive farm bill this week....

O'Malley using agenda, fundraising to explore 2016
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- His latest legislative achievements put him in the vanguard of his party's liberal base. He's been a top fundraiser for President Barack Obama. And he's ramping up his travel to help fellow Democrats around the country....

President Obama to speak on Oklahoma disaster
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama will be meeting with his disaster response team, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, on Tuesday before delivering a statement on the devastating tornado that tore through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday....

Panel: Apple uses firms outside US to avoid taxes
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Apple Inc. employs a group of affiliate companies located outside the United States to avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes, a Senate investigation has found....

Gov't presses ahead on another leak case
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In another case of the Obama administration investigating classified information improperly disclosed to reporters, the government is prosecuting a State Department expert on North Korea in a probe that appears to step into uncharted territory - by declaring that a journalist is committing a crime in disclosing leaked information....

Penn urges US to pressure Bolivia to free US man
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Actor Sean Penn on Monday urged the U.S. government to pressure Bolivia to free an American businessman detained without charge since 2011 in a case that has drawn accusations he was the victim of corrupt local prosecutors....

China's Xi will meet Obama earlier than expected
BEIJING (AP) -- China's new leader Xi Jinping will confer with President Barack Obama next month in California, months earlier than expected, as both sides seek to stem a drift in relations, troubled by issues from cyberspying to North Korea....