Linchpins of Liberty is one of as many as 400 groups, a number of which had conservative goals, whose nonprofit status was scrutinized by the IRS in a growing scandal.

Attorney General Eric Holder defended the Justice Department's subpoena of Associated Press phone records, as the leak on a 2012 counterterrorism operation needed an "aggressive" response.

Analysis: An outburst of controversies threatens to swamp Obama's second-term agenda, while giving Republicans new opportunities to galvanize their base ahead of the battle for control of Congress in 2014.

The Justice Department has opened a criminal probe of the IRS's treatment of tea-party groups, while a report blamed the agency's managers for allowing the practices to continue for months.

Treasury Department Secretary Jacob Lew faces the task of taking action following an inspector general's report that alleged improper targeting of political groups by the Internal Revenue Service.

For the first time in over a decade, California's governor has projected a budget surplus. But that news raises a question: How will its government spend its money now that it no longer has to worry about a deficit?

Vermont is poised to become the third state in the nation to allow physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who want to die.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Jo White is eyeing a Charles Schwab Corp. executive for a top post overseeing trading firms and stock exchanges

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he won't seek a second term as leader of the financially troubled city, which recently became the largest in the country placed under state oversight.

Federal transportation-safety officials Tuesday proposed nearly halving drivers' legal blood-alcohol limit to 0.05% to reduce alcohol-related traffic accidents.

Federal budget cuts are taking a toll on the office parks that have mushroomed for years in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, along with the retailers and restaurants that depend on government workers.

Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, convicted of killing three babies who were born alive, has agreed to give up his right to an appeal and will be spared a potential death sentence.

In the debates over government austerity and deficits, some find it more entertaining to focus on extremes, but the lessons of the past few years are more subtle, writes David Wessel.

More people than previously thought predicted a major change in U.S. health-care policy that led to an insider-trading probe, according to documents assembled by congressional investigators.

Minnesota is set to become the 12th state to allow same-sex marriage after the state Senate voted to legalize it— a swift reversal in a Midwestern state that less than a year ago was weighing a constitutional ban.

Obama said Monday those responsible for any improper scrutiny of conservative groups' tax status would be held "fully accountable," hours before it emerged that the current and former heads of the IRS were informed last May that tea-party groups had been targeted.

The Justice Department seized records of 20 separate phone lines used by Associated Press reporters or editors, in a move that officials familiar with the case said was intended to gather information for a leak probe.

The Navy will take a big step into the drone age Tuesday when it catapults a batwing prototype of an unmanned plane off the deck of an aircraft carrier for the first time.

President Obama again defended the response to an attack on a diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, and called a Republican-led investigation a politically driven "sideshow."

Cleveland officials are calling for a review of the city's missing-persons investigations after the police department disclosed it had long ago removed from a national database one of the three women who reappeared.