Rhode Island is home to beautiful beaches, top-notch universities and a thriving arts scene. Beneath the surface, however, the state faces challenges similar to other parts of the country: shrinking revenues, lost jobs and general economic malaise.

The IRS was in the hot seat Friday, with its outgoing acting commissioner testifying before a House committee. A Senate panel is scheduled for Tuesday. Congress is prodding to find out why the agency singled out conservative groups for special scrutiny.

Tesla Motors, the American maker of luxury electric cars, has been riding a wave of good publicity.

Climate change is a stark reality in America's northernmost state. Nearly 90 percent of native Alaskan villages are on the coast, where dramatic erosion and floods have become a part of daily life.

The state of California will seek a court order on Monday to prevent some key unionized hospital workers at UC San Diego from striking on Tuesday, it was reported today.

California will become the first state to offer voter registration through its health insurance marketplace later this year.

It's been a long slog already for the bipartisan immigration overhaul proposed by the Senate's Gang of Eight.

Six years ago, the FBI took on a challenge: To review what it called cold-case killings from the civil rights era. The investigation into 112 cases from the 1950s and 1960s is winding down, and civil rights activists are weighing the FBI's efforts.

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) -- A pair of persistent wildfires continued to burn in the hills and mountains around Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles on Saturday, although authorities were slowly getting the upper hand.

Of all the controversies swirling around the Obama White House, the Internal Revenue Service scandal seems likeliest to have the longest shelf life.

Two Metro-North Railroad trains have collided on a stretch of track near Fairfield, Conn., causing a "major derailment" and "preliminary reports of injuries," according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

City Heights groups seize on Bike to Work Day to advocate for better bike infrastructure.

The unemployment rate in San Diego County in April was 7 percent, down from a revised 7.7 percent in March and below the estimate of 8.6 percent in April 2012, the state Employment Development Department reported today.

Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer ("Spring Awakening") makes his Met debut with a new production of Verdi’s "Rigoletto." The new staging moves the opera’s tragic events from a decadent 16th-century Italian court to the glitzy, depraved setting of the Las Vegas strip circa 1960.

A return visit to the British Museum in London as Fiona Bruce and the team examine family treasures brought in by thousands of visitors. Amongst the pieces under scrutiny are dozens of historic finds dug up by mudlarkers working on the banks of the Thames, a Roman pot which turns out to be the work of Victorian con men, and a collection of unseen images of a young Elvis comes to light.

Elective surgeries are being canceled at University of California Medical Centers in anticipation of a potential strike next week by thousands of patient care workers.

If you're a homeless young adult, chances are good that you're gay, bisexual or transgender. And if you live in the Detroit area, the Ruth Ellis Center is trying to reach you. The center, based in Highland Park, Mich., has taken an unorthodox approach to helping homeless LGBT youth -- and it starts on the dance floor, specifically with the dance form known as "vogue."

An unsolved triple murder in the Boston suburbs is getting a closer look in the wake of the marathon bombings. One of the victims may have been a friend of bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. That's prompting authorities to revisit the 2011 case.

This weekend, President Obama will give a speech that very likely won't be about the controversies of the moment.

President Obama's first term was free from the kind of scandal that consumes every ounce of political oxygen in Washington. Now, in light of a trio of controversies, his supporters find themselves in the uncomfortable and unaccustomed position of having to defend some hard-to-defend events.