Gov't report: Smooth launch unsure for health law
WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's no guarantee that President Barack Obama's health care law will launch smoothly and on time, congressional investigators say in the first in-depth independent look at its progress....

Chef describes kids' grief over Jackson's death
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Jackson's personal chef described for jurors the home lives of the children during the final months of the singer's life and their ongoing grief over their father's death nearly four years ago....

NSA director says plot against Wall Street foiled
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. foiled a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange because of the sweeping surveillance programs at the heart of a debate over national security and personal privacy, officials said Tuesday at a rare open hearing on intelligence led by lawmakers sympathetic to the spying....

Award-winning journalist Michael Hastings dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Award-winning journalist and war correspondent Michael Hastings, whose unflinching reporting ended the career of a top American army general, died early Tuesday in a car accident in Los Angeles, his employer and family said....

Hoffa mystery still fascinates after 4 decades
OAKLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- The latest possible resting place of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is an overgrown farm field where the normal calm of chirping crickets is being drowned out by a beeping backhoe, the chop of an overhead news helicopter and the bustle of reporters and onlookers....

Search for Hoffa mystery endures for decades
Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance almost 40 years ago has been the stuff of urban legend, prompting numerous theories about what happened to the former Teamsters leader....

FBI digging at former home of famed NY mobster
NEW YORK (AP) -- FBI agents with jackhammers and shovels were digging Tuesday under a New York City house once occupied by a famed gangster who inspired Robert De Niro's character in the movie "Goodfellas."...

18 mayors: Limit use of food stamps to buy soda
NEW YORK (AP) -- The mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and 15 other cities are reviving a push against letting food stamps be used to buy soda and other sugary drinks....

Oklahoma executes inmate for couple's 2000 deaths
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) -- Oklahoma executed a 36-year-old man on Tuesday for taking part in the brutal killing of a ranching couple 13 years ago....

Rural lawmakers push for farm bill votes in House
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Farm-state lawmakers are scrambling to win bipartisan support for a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill on the House floor this week....