The state Legislature has passed a major piece of the federal Affordable Care Act, opting to expand Medicaid to 1.4 million low-income Californians.

Mounting scandals at the Internal Revenue Service are jeopardizing critical funding for the agency as it gears up to play a big role in President Barack Obama's health care law.

As the United States prepares to supply Syrian rebels with small arms through a CIA-run program, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Saturday that U.S. troops temporarily in neighboring Jordan will leave behind fighter jets and a cache of Patriot missiles.

Senate Democrats who backed President Obama's health care law and now face re-election in Republican-leaning states are reinforcing their support for the overhaul -- as Republicans intensify their criticism.

The Legislature's first overtime session this year was the most unproductive gathering of lawmakers in state history. That doesn't mean it didn't cost taxpayers.

Budget cuts have hampered the U.S. Border Patrol's work in its busiest sector on the Southwest border, agents said Friday, with the agency introducing fuel conservation measures in the Rio Grande Valley that have agents patrolling on foot and doubling up in vehicles.

Facebook's top attorney said Friday night that after negotiations with national security officials the company has been given permission to make new but still very limited revelations about government orders to turn over user data.

Attorney General Eric Holder has agreed to meet with House Republicans next week to explain questionable testimony he gave on reporter surveillance.

While some initially championed Edward Snowden, the 21st century mole holed up in Hong Kong, as a martyr, there also appears to be a growing backlash against the former NSA contractor. And as the story slowly unfolds, one key question stands out: is Snowden the heroic whistleblower he claims to be or something more sinister?

President Obama will discuss how to help Syria find ways to end its civil war during the G8 conference in Northern Ireland next week, the White House said on Friday.

Former state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. will spend five years in prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud charges. Espada was sentenced Friday in Brooklyn.

CBS News has confirmed a computer of reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who has doggedly pursued the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi terror attacks, was hacked into in late 2012.

The only time that the impending involvement of U.S. forces in a genocidal Middle Eastern civil war can be considered good political news is when the alternative story is bad enough.

Six months after the Newtown school shooting, the tragedy will be marked with a moment of silence, the reading of thousands of names of gun violence victims and calls around the country to pass legislation expanding background checks for gun purchases.

Those misusing the cards in the time period documented on the report, which includes fiscal years 2010 and 2011, include an executive-level official, a criminal investigator, and multiple employees with security clearances.

It's called the Affordable Care Act, but President Obama's health care law may turn out to be unaffordable for many low-wage workers, including employees at big chain restaurants, retail stores and hotels.

Assembly Republicans approved a package of bills Thursday designed to make it more difficult to get abortions in Wisconsin, joining a renewed conservative drive to impose tougher restrictions on the procedure nationwide.

A popular Communist Party-backed newspaper is urging China's leadership to get more information from former defense contractor Edward Snowden rather than send him back to the U.S., because his revelations about secret U.S. surveillance programs concern China's national interest.

The Syrian government on Friday dismissed U.S. charges that it used chemical weapons as "full of lies," accusing President Obama of resorting to fabrications to justify his decision to arm Syrian rebels. The commander of the main rebel umbrella group welcomed the U.S. move, saying it would lift his fighters' morale.

Surrounded by sleigh bell-ringing Santa Claus impersonators, Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday signed a law protecting Christmas and other holiday celebrations in Texas public schools from legal challenges - but also stressed that freedom of religion is not the same thing as freedom from religion.