WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Barack Obama warned Tuesday of diminished emergency services, longer airport security lines and other problems if Congress fails to reach agreement on avoiding the harshest impacts of automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to begin March 1.

(CNN) -- Hours after her younger sister stood behind President Barack Obama during his gun violence speech last week, an Illinois teen died when a bullet found her in a North Chicago alley.

(CNN) -- Warren Lee Hill, whose defenders say he is mentally disabled, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday for the 1990 killing of Joseph Handspike.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Federal workers could start facing furloughs as early as April, according to federal agencies trying to prepare for the worst.

Pistorius, known as the 'blade runner,' is the man Nike called a bullet and who is now charged with shooting his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, to death.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- MoveOn.org is moving into the TV fight over curbing gun violence.

Passengers fleeing the crippled cruise liner Carnival Triumph aboard a charter bus to New Orleans found themselves stuck -- again -- when the bus taking them from Mobile, Alabama, broke down Friday morning on the side of the highway.

(CNN) -- An ex-girlfriend of slain murder suspect Christopher Dorner said the former L.A. policeman worked in a pressure cooker and she was afraid he would target her after she heard he was the object of a manhunt.

(CNN) -- In a sign the White House is scrambling to keep President Obama's defense secretary nominee afloat in the confirmation process, Vice President Joe Biden is making calls to Republican senators about former Sen. Chuck Hagel, according to a senior Democratic source.

(CNN) -- The Illinois Senate will vote Thursday -- Valentine's Day -- on whether to legalize same-sex marriage.