Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Wednesday that even though the economic recovery has weakened, the Fed plans no new steps for now to try to bolster it.

Updated at 4:46 p.m. ET Prosecutors have concluded their two-year investigation into the Bush administration's firing of U.S. attorneys and will file no charges, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, breaking with the GOP on an election-year Supreme Court nomination, on Wednesday became the second in his party to announce he would vote to confirm Elena Kagan as a justice.The Indiana Republican's position doesn't alter the positive outlook for Kagan, who was already on track to be confirmed early next month.

There were wide smiles, thoughtful gifts and polite -- if corny -- jokes. But away from the cameras, some dark clouds hung over new British leader David Cameron's first trip to the White House for talks with President Barack Obama.

With a GOP filibuster safely broken, the Senate is poised to pass legislation restoring jobless benefits for millions of people unable to find work in the frail economic recovery.

J. Scott Applewhite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is joined by newly sworn-in Sen.

Even large-scale Russian cheating on a new nuclear arms treaty would not hurt U.S. security because U.S. nuclear strengths would more than offset any Russian violations, the Obama administration has concluded.

West Virginia Democrat Carte Goodwin replaced the Senate's oldest member as its youngest Tuesday, becoming part of a small caucus of freshman seat-warmers with little seniority but outsized power in the closely divided chamber.

Attorneys for Rod Blagojevich said Tuesday they disagree about whether the ousted Illinois governor should testify in his own defense -- as he has long promised -- and whether they should call any defense witnesses at all.

A lawmaker in Congress is prodding the Federal Reserve to provide more protection so that credit card users don't get socked by exorbitant interest rates when they fall behind on their payments.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to approve Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court.

The dirt - specifically dirty diapers - is flying in Florida's race for governor.In one television commercial, newcomer Rick Scott suggests his GOP primary opponent, the state attorney general and a former congressman, should be thrown out like a baby's dirty diaper.

Tough questions and blunt answers are likely Tuesday when retired Air Force Gen.

The Obama administration has asked the governments of Scotland and Britain to review the decision last summer to release the Libyan convicted in the Lockerbie airliner bombing.

With a new face and a 60th vote for breaking a Republican filibuster, Senate Democrats are preparing to restore jobless checks for 2.5 million people whose benefits ran out during a congressional standoff over deficit spending.

Updated 3:13 p.m. 7/19/10 JUNEAU, Alaska - An official with the Tea Party Express on Monday blasted its expulsion from a national coalition over its refusal to oust a former chairman who satirized the NAACP in a controversial blog posting.

Sarah Palin incorrectly calls Alaska's Kodiak Island the largest island in America in a Facebook post endorsing a Senate candidate in New Hampshire.

It's election day - sort of. Mail-in ballots for Colorado's Aug. 10 primary elections were going out Monday.

In this April 14, 2010 file photo, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate committee charged with electing Democrats, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington.

In this July 7, 2010 file photo, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich arrives at the federal building in Chicago for his corruption trial.