WASHINGTON — The recession that ended three years ago this summer has been followed by the feeblest economic recovery since the Great Depression. Since World War II, 10 U.S. recessions have been followed by a recovery that lasted at least three years.
An Associated Press analysis shows that by just about any measure, the one that began in June 2009 is the weakest. The ugliness goes well beyond unemployment, which at 8.3 percent is the highest this long after a recession ended.
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Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. That was Vice President Joe Biden’s message for Republican Mitt Romney in a campaign speech Thursday that blended a robust defense of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy record with a harsh attack on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s positions.
The first-graders in Ohio Pack 109’s Tiger Scouts didn’t know or care their den mother was a lesbian — at least not until the Boy Scouts of America threw her out over the organization’s ban on gays.
A mutt who sat on doggy death row for more than a year before given a reprieve is now officially free from government captivity and headed toward TV stardom.
John Edwards’ former aide acknowledged Thursday that much of nearly $1 million in campaign supporters’ cash went to build his North Carolina dream house, not to buy the silence of the presidential candidate’s pregnant mistress.
More than 100 large fires have swept across the nation this year, and the head of the U.S. Forest Service said Thursday the rest of the 2012 fire season is expected to be just as active as 2011, which saw historic wildfires on hundreds of square miles in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and elsewhere.
The Senate overcame election-year gender politics Thursday to pass a bill renewing the government’s main domestic violence program.
Any new arrival to New York City wants to see the sights — and the space shuttle Enterprise is no different.
A sergeant will be discharged for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook in a case that called into question the Pentagon’s policies about social media and its limits on the speech of active duty military personnel, the Marine Corps said Wednesday.
A federal judge in New Orleans said Wednesday that he is leaning in favor of granting preliminary approval to a proposed class-action settlement that would resolve billions of dollars in claims against BP over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
A New York woman admitted Wednesday that she faked cancer to con donors out of money and services for her wedding and Caribbean honeymoon.
Andrew Young, testifying Wednesday at his longtime boss’ corruption trial, said John Edwards masterminded a scheme to use nearly $1 million from wealthy campaign donors to conceal his affair with Rielle Hunter from voters as he sought the White House.
The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl who became hysterical during a security screening at a Kansas airport said Wednesday that the child was forced to undergo a pat-down after hugging her, with security agents yelling and calling the crying girl an uncooperative suspect.
President Barack Obama went after the college vote Tuesday, pitching cheaper student loans as he courted the one age group where he has a decided advantage over Republican rival Mitt Romney. The twist? Romney, too, has endorsed the idea, though it’s unclear whether deficit-leery Republicans in Congress will go along.
The trial of the man charged with murdering three of Jennifer Hudson’s family members resumed Tuesday with the Oscar-winner shutting her eyes as a police officer described finding her dead family members and later leaving the courtroom before photos of their bodies were shown.
Rocker Ted Nugent is scheduled for a court hearing in Alaska on Tuesday, when he is expected to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed.
The mysterious caller claimed to be from Microsoft and offered step-by-step instructions to repair damage from a software virus. The electric power companies weren’t falling for it.
The number of Mexican immigrants living illegally in the U.S. has dropped significantly for the first time in decades, a dramatic shift as many illegal workers, already in the U.S. and seeing few job opportunities, return to Mexico.
A pilot flying a Cessna across the Gulf of Mexico stopped responding to radio calls including those from two F-15 aviators who flew alongside and monitored the plane for hours as it made a corkscrew path through the sky before crashing into the ocean Thursday, authorities said.
Mitt Romney sought to inoculate himself Tuesday against Democratic charges that he favors the rich, saying his as yet-to-be disclosed tax plans will not benefit the well-to-do at the expense of others.
A federal judge on Monday extended a deadline for BP and a team of plaintiffs’ attorneys to file details of a proposed settlement designed to resolve billions of dollars in economic damage claims spawned by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The son of Sen. Robert Kennedy invoked his father’s assassination Thursday in a case stemming from his attempt to take his newborn son from a hospital maternity ward.
Two Coast Guard members were fatally shot Thursday at a communications station on an island off Alaska in what officials said appeared to be a double homicide. They have yet to identify a suspect.
The neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed Trayvon Martin had been out of touch and, his ex-lawyer says, “a little bit over the edge” before his arrest on a second-degree murder charge.
The price of natural gas has fallen below $2 per 1,000 cubic feet for the first time in more than a decade, a remarkable decline for a commodity that not long ago was believed to be in short supply.
Rick Santorum cleared the way for Mitt Romney to claim victory in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, giving up his “against all odds” campaign as Romney’s tenacious conservative rival.
The Trayvon Martin case took a bizarre turn Tuesday when George Zimmerman’s attorneys said they were dropping the neighborhood watch captain as a client, complaining they have lost all contact with him.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday that the Justice Department will respond “appropriately” to a federal appellate judge in Texas who demanded a letter recognizing federal courts’ authority to strike down laws passed by Congress.
Mitt Romney tightened his grip on the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night, sweeping primaries in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C., with time left over to swap charges with President Barack Obama.
A gunman opened fire at a Christian university in California Monday before being captured hours later at a shopping center in a nearby city, authorities said. At least seven people were killed and three more sustained injuries in the shooting.
