MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Wisconsin Democrats who fled the state nearly three weeks ago asked Monday for a meeting with Gov. Scott Walker to talk about changes to his plan to eliminate most public workers' union rights, a request the governor dismissed as "ridiculous."

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices continued to set new post-recession highs Monday as forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi pounded rebels near a key oil port in Libya. It's unclear how long the country's oil exports will be cut off, and traders prepared for a worst-case scenario in which world supplies would be under pressure for months.

Some 300 people gathered in Times Square on Sunday to speak out against a planned congressional hearing on Muslim terrorism, criticizing it as xenophobic and saying that singling out Muslims, rather than extremists, is unfair.

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) -- Clemson University anthropology students will be scratching below the surface of Upstate history in a northern Pickens County cemetery where former slaves were buried and, until recently, forgotten.

University Park, Pa. -- Just as the constant pressure soldiers face on the battlefield can follow them home in the form of debilitating stress, African Americans who face chronic exposure to racial discrimination may have an increased likelihood of suffering a race-based battle fatigue

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Black lawmakers accused Republicans on this week of trying to ``manufacture tension'' between African-Americans and immigrants as Republican members of the House of Representatives argued in a hearing that more minorities would be working were it not for illegal immigration. 

The suspect in the Tucson shootings that critically wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was charged on new counts that include the murders of a federal judge and a congressional aide, according to an indictment released Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's top Republican on Friday blasted the Obama administration's opening move to cut domestic spending and pass a long-overdue plan for the ongoing budget year

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Thousands of Wisconsin state workers were bracing for layoff notices Friday as Republican Gov. Scott Walker and absent Democrats remained in a standoff over a budget balancing bill that would also strip public workers of their collective bargaining rights.

WASHINGTON – Republicans won an early round Wednesday in their fight to shrink the government