U.S.A.

SCOTUS-Health-Care-Religion

The Supreme Court has ordered a federal appeals court to take another look at a key requirement in the health care reform law, and whether it violates religious freedoms.

US-Court-Harassment

The Supreme Court on Monday tried to make sense of conflicting standards when determining a key question in workplace discrimination claims: Who is the boss? In an intense oral argument, the justices raised numerous scenarios to explore when a worker's actions were supervisory in nature but appeared uncertain on what approach was best for resolving the central legal question and whether a clear definition could even be established.

US-NASA-Astronaut-Flight

Capt. Scott Kelly, a veteran astronaut, will set the record for the longest single space mission for an American, NASA announced Monday. Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will embark on a one-year mission to the International Space Station in 2015.

US-Space-Travel-Power

For potential power sources on space flights beyond the horizon, scientists are looking back to the future. A team of NASA and Department of Energy researchers has shown that a reliable nuclear reactor based on technology that's been around for decades could be used in spaceships, according to a news release from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where some of the researchers are based.

US-Body-Armor-Plates-Recall

Body armor plates used by special operations forces in combat are being recalled after a manufacturing defect was found in what the military says is a small percentage of the Generation III ballistic armor plates.

US-Combat-Awards-Flap

The U.S. military's combat awards process is in disarray, and because of that official Department of Defense statistics do not accurately reflect the complete list of those who have been awarded combat medals for bravery in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to some members of Congress.

US-New-York-Utility-Bills

The Long Island Power Authority is assuring outraged customers that their latest electric bills with normal monthly charges are no mistake, despite some being in the dark for days or weeks after Superstorm Sandy.

US-Capitol-Christmas-Tree

The official Christmas tree of the U.S. Capitol arrived Monday and will be illuminated at a ceremony on December 4.

Florida-Roach-Eating-Death

A 32-year-old man who died after downing dozens of roaches and worms last month to win a python at a Florida reptile store choked to death, medical officials said Monday.

New-York-Confidential-Confetti

Authorities in Long Island are investigating how shredded confidential police documents ended up as confetti in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City, according to Nassau County Police.

MED-teens-emergency-contraception

The American Academy of Pediatrics is fighting teen pregnancy with revised recommendations on emergency contraception.

MED-medicaid-kaiser

It's flown under the radar, but perhaps the most dramatic element of Obamacare isn't changes to Medicare, or the requirement for millions to purchase insurance --- it's the planned expansion of Medicaid. That expansion would cover an additional 21.3 million people within the next decade, reducing the number of uninsured nearly by half, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, an organization specializing in health care policy. While that sounds like good news, the sheer size of the expansion has many people worried about cost. Since the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot be forced to participate, eight states have said they won't expand their current Medicaid programs, and several others have said they may follow suit. But the KFF report says those states may be making life unnecessarily hard for their poorest citizens.