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We all run out to get our tickets when the lottery jackpots get high. We figure we’ll take a chance and maybe our couple dollars will turn into something we always dreamed of; even if it’s only the consolation prize of a few thousand or a couple dollars for getting some of the numbers. Well […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s new budget offers Medicare cuts to entice Republicans into tax negotiations, while plowing ahead to cover the uninsured next year under the health care law the GOP has bitterly fought to repeal. But the biggest health consequences from any proposal in Obama’s plan could come from nearly doubling the […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service backed down from its plan to eliminate Saturday mail delivery because Congress barred it, officials said Wednesday. But its governing board said it’s not possible for the financially ailing agency to meet cost-cutting goals without altering its delivery schedule. Delaying “responsible changes,” the board said, only makes it […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — African-Americans have achieved tremendous gains in education over the past 50 years, but that has yet to translate into major progress toward economic equality, the National Urban League says in its latest State of Black America report. This year’s report, “Redeem the Dream: Jobs Rebuild America,” identifies unemployment as the biggest barrier […]

Two 27-year-old South African men, Tshepo Cameron Modisane (pictured left) and Thoba Calvin Sithole (pictured right), tied the knot Saturday in a ceremony that is being heralded as the nation’s first gay wedding, according to the Huffington Post. The couple was married in the town of KwaDukuza and stood before 200 guests as they exchanged their vows. On a continent that […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two key senators have reached a bipartisan deal on expanding background checks to more gun buyers, a Senate aide and lobbyist said Wednesday, an agreement that could build support for President Barack Obama‘s drive to curb firearms violence in the wake of the elementary school shootings in Connecticut. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., […]

Nine-year-old Justice Williams (pictured center) was found hanging in the bathroom of her Bronx, N. Y., home on Sunday night. Police investigators suspect that the child committed suicide after she repeatedly told relatives she wanted to die and had problems adjusting to the birth of her half-brother, reports the New York Daily News. Williams’ mother, Tamiqua Torres, 31 (pictured left), made […]

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Authorities say a Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus elephant was hit by a bullet in a drive-by shooting in Tupelo, Miss. Circus spokeswoman Melinda Hartline says the elephant was not seriously hurt Tuesday. She says no other animals were harmed. The elephant, Carol, is part of a circus in […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S employers have more job openings than at any other time in nearly five years. Yet they seem in no hurry to fill them. That disparity helps explain why the job market remains tight and unemployment high. Even as openings have surged 11 percent in the past year, the number of people […]

TOMS RIVER, N.J. (AP) — A 4-year-old child who brought a gun outside his home shot and seriously wounded a 6-year-old neighbor when the weapon somehow discharged as they played together, authorities said Tuesday. The child got the .22-caliber rifle from inside his home in Toms River in southern New Jersey and it discharged accidently […]

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nineteen years after the end of apartheid, South Africans are still passionately divided over whether Margaret Thatcher helped or hindered the cruel system of white rule and prolonged the incarceration of Nelson Mandela. The heated discussions triggered by Thatcher’s death show how influential South Africans believe she was on the fate of […]

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Campaign aides to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell proposed using actress Ashley Judd‘s past bouts with depression against her if she had decided to challenge him in his re-election bid next year, according to a secret recording posted by a magazine. Mother Jones released a recording Tuesday along with an article […]