WASHINGTON (AP) -- Ten months into President Barack Obama's first economic stimulus plan, a surge in spending on U.S. roads and bridges has had no effect on local unemployment and only barely helped the beleaguered construction industry, an Associated Press analysis has found.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eric Holder, the nation's first Black attorney general, defended Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Monday over racial remarks the senator made about Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign...

FRESNO, Calif (AP) -- A 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California Saturday afternoon, shaking buildings south of the Oregon border and knocking out power in several coastal communities.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Security officials flagged the name of the Nigerian airline bombing suspect for extra screening after he was already in the air, U.S. officials said Thursday, as President Barack Obama got ready to outline government missteps in the near-catastrophe and order fixes...

In December, the American Law Institute voted to drop wording from their law manual instructing states on how to best implement the death penalty. The Institute is now taking a neutral stand on capital punishment in their Model Penal Code, which will no longer provide basic guidelines on who is eligible for execution...

(NNPA) - Much of the research published by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) has revealed discrepancies in lending patterns in communities of color, most notably, Latinos and African-Americans. For example, in mortgage lending, CRL was one of the first research organizations to find that many people of color were steered to higher cost, subprime loans, even when they qualified for a lower-cost loan. As a result, today many African-Americans suffer disproportionately from foreclosures.

YORK, Pa. (AP) -- A woman who watched National Guard troops patrol this central Pennsylvania city during racial unrest four decades ago was sworn in Monday as its first Black mayor.

PLAINS, Georgia (AP) -- The mayor of former President Jimmy Carter's hometown said Monday that the city acted immediately to remove an effigy of President Barack Obama that was found hanging from a building...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Bobby DeLaughter, a former Mississippi prosecutor and judge whose legal conquests became the subject of books and a movie, is set to report to federal prison Monday for lying to the FBI in a judicial bribery investigation...

LOS ANGELES (NNPA) - More than 90 days after her disappearance, Michael Richardson, father of Mitrice Richardson, has announced that he's selling his two custom designed cars in an effort to raise money to independently search for his daughter's whereabouts. Mitrice Richardson, 24, a Cal State Fullerton graduate, mysteriously disappeared following her Sept. 17 predawn release from a sheriff's substation near Malibu where she was booked for allegedly failing to pay a restaurant bill and possession of personal use marijuana.