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President Obama, in one of his most dramatic gestures to business, will propose that companies be allowed to write off 100 percent of their new investment in plant and equipment through 2011, a plan that White House economists say would cut business taxes by nearly $200 billion over two years. The proposal, to be laid out Wednesday in a speech in Cleveland, tops a raft of announcements, from a proposed expansion of the research and experimentation tax credit to $50 billion in additional spending on roads, railways and runways. But unlike those two ideas, both familiar from Obama's 2008 campaign,...

SEATTLE -- Seattle police are investigating what they call an assault of an officer in South Seattle. However, a police officer is seen punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during the incident captured by a video camera on Monday. According to Seattle police, the incident began when an officer spotted a man jaywalking in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S. at approximately 3:10 p.m. The man was some 15 feet away from a pedestrian overpass, police said.

To clarify, so you support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants? I do because I understand why people would want to be in America. To seek the safety and prosperity, the opportunities, the health that is here. It is so important that yes, people follow the rules so that people can be treated equally and fairly in this country.

BOSTON – Scott Brown says he has already told Senate Republican leaders they won't always be able to count on his vote. The man who staged an upset in last week's Massachusetts Senate special election, in part by pledging to be the 41st GOP vote against President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that he staked his claim in early conversations with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip Jon Kyl. "I already told them, you know, `I got here with the help of a close group of friends and very little...

The papacy is among the most misunderstood and therefore wrongly hated institutions in all the world, much like the Catholic Church. I typically cringe when a Protestant pastor or leader decides to step up and call out or denounce the Pope for no good reason, simply on Protestant principal, objecting to the office as they do more so than the man himself, or any sin on his part. Certainly the man who holds the office is not beyond sin, or legitimate criticism, but the criticisms of modern day Popes tend not to be made on the basis of his personal...

Two University of Wisconsin freshmen appeared in court Jan. 17 facing felony charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property as hate crimes. The students, Benjamin Chamberlain and Michael Riha, allegedly vandalized the dorm room door of a UW student and LGBT liaison in Ogg Hall Dec. 21, according to court documents. Also charged and due to appear in Dane County Court Feb. 13 are Purdue University freshman Kevin Cochacki and Auburn University freshman Caleb Moore, both of whom were visiting Riha, their Naperville, Ill., high school friend. According to court documents, Chamberlain is a U.S. Marine ROTC student,...

"What sort of assignments did you get?" I asked. "Well, there's one I probably shouldn't tell you about," he said. My reaction: I have to know. "We were asked to kill the president," he said.

Does anyone have the specific text of what Whoopie Goldberg said at the 'John John' fundraiser the other night? I know that Chevy Chase called President bush a liar. Jon Bon Jovi called him a thug. Whoopie compared President Bush to her anatomy. Despite the fact that the Friday New York Post and New York Times quoted the comments and how while holding a wine bottle Whoopi Goldberg made crude sexual references about the President’s last name and her “bush,” U.S. Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator John Kerry (news - web sites) (D-MA) (R) is joined onstage by singer Jackson...

Disinformation Fuels Ethnic, Religious and Ideological Conflicts, Warns PopeVATICAN CITY, JAN. 24, 2003 (Zenit.org).- In his message for World Communications Day 2003, John Paul II highlights the grave responsibility of the media to promote peace. The "media often do render courageous service to the truth, but sometimes they function as agents of propaganda and misinformation in the service of narrow interests, national, ethnic, racial and religious prejudices, material greed, and false ideologies of various kinds," the papal message states. "It is imperative that the pressures brought to bear on the media to err in such ways be resisted first of...

The Green Leaf Party leadership was hosted by the US Embassy on Thursday to enable the embassy political staff to get to know the party's ideas and plans if it is elected to the Knesset. No. 2 on the Green Party list, Canadian born Dan Goldenblatt said he was buoyed by the invitation, since the embassy usually only invites parties that are already in Knesset. Goldenblatt said the meeting focused mainly on the party's cannabis legalization views and its environmental platform. He said the US officials were interested in knowing whether the party supports other drugs besides cannabis. Green Leaf...

(Reuters) - President Bush delivered a New Year's Eve warning on Tuesday that any attack on the United States by Iraq or a group working on its behalf could cripple the U.S. economy. But as U.N. arms inspectors searched more suspect sites in Iraq, Bush told reporters near his ranch in Crawford, Texas that he still hoped the standoff with Baghdad could be resolved peacefully. More...