WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democrats are pushing to the brink of passage a landmark, $940 billion health care overhaul bill that would simultaneously deliver on President Barack Obama's promise to expand coverage while slashing the deficit, a strategy aimed at winning over the party's fiscal conservatives.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Legislation approved by the Senate Wednesday would significantly reduce the disparity in sentences handed out to those convicted of crack and powder cocaine.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) -- The Facebook group, "I hate the Somalians at Tech High," didn't live online for a long time, but word traveled fast among high school students in the St. Cloud area.

 Public mistakes can sink promising political careers. Nobody can understand that better than former Obama advisor Van Jones, who had to step down from his White House position as the go-to guy on green jobs and environmental justice issues only months into his tenure. But now Princeton University has appointed Jones to a year-long fellowship in the Center for African American studies and the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democratic leaders Thursday walked their rank-and-file members through last-minute agreements that could move President Barack Obama's overhaul of the nation's health care system a step closer to reality...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats facing strong headwinds this election season have at least one reason for optimism, according to polling that found the party's large African-American voting bloc eager to stay involved even without Barack Obama on the ballot...

DETROIT (AP) – Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick turned himself into the court over an alleged probation violation. Prosecutors say he didn't make good on $79,011 he was ordered to pay by Feb. 19.

PHOENIX (NNPA) - February, Black History Month, held a special meaning for Charles F. Long II, and his family. The Arizona State Department of Corrections released him from behind prison walls.
Founder and president of America's Buffalo Soldiers Re-Enactors Association (ABSRA), Colonel Long, as he is fondly called, was convicted of reckless manslaughter and aggravated assault in January of 2005 by an all White jury, for the death of 14-year-old Anthony Haynes, at a tough love boot camp near Buckeye Arizona run by Long.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hispanic and Black businesses are receiving a disproportionately small number of federal stimulus contracts, creating a rising chorus of demands for the Obama administration to be more inclusive and more closely track who receives government-financed work.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In private pitches to Democrats, President Barack Obama says he will persuade Congress to pass his health care overhaul even if it kills him and even if he has to ask deeply distrustful lawmakers to trust him on a promise the White House doesn't have the power to keep.