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Congress likes to say it no longer does earmarks, the provisions that direct federal dollars to serve local interests or campaign supporters. And though that may be true, it's also a fact that targeted provisions are still useful in moving legislation -- even critical legislation like the bill that pulled Washington back from the fiscal cliff last month.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will announce this week that the Pentagon will extend some benefits to same-sex spouses, according to several media reports.

The California Highway Patrol says a bus that careened out of control down a mountain before crashing and killing seven people --three of them from San Diego -- has been towed from the highway, nearly 24 hours after the accident.

Twenty years after President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, workers' rights groups say many employees still must choose between their family or their job.

The new Congress will hold its first hearing on overhauling immigration laws on Tuesday, and some pro-immigrant groups and Democrats already are grumbling that the makeup of witnesses scheduled to testify before a House panel is weighted toward conservatives who oppose citizenship for illegal immigrants and support a limited flow of newcomers.

Home health care aides are waiting to find out if they will be entitled to receive minimum wage. A decades-old amendment in labor law means that the workers, approximately 2.5 million people, do not always receive minimum wage or overtime.

Starting next year, everyone will be required to have health insurance, or pay a fine.

Under the health care overhaul, many people who find their job-based health coverage too expensive can get help buying insurance through exchanges. But rules just finalized by the Internal Revenue Service will limit who is eligible for a subsidy and could leave some families shut out.

Quite a few families with expensive job-based health insurance may be ineligible for federal subsidies to help them buy cheaper coverage through new online insurance markets, under final rules released Wednesday by the Internal Revenue Service.

There’s a push in the California legislature to provide tax relief for struggling homeowners who are forced into short sales. The new legislation has bipartisan support.