California lawmakers worked into early Wednesday but couldn't pass a budget to avoid the possibility of laying off 10,000 more state workers. Lawmakers brought blankets and toothbrushes to work Tuesday, planning to stay as long as it took to pass a budget, but as of 2 a.m. PT (5 a.m. ET) Wednesday, it appeared they had taken a step backward. Late Tuesday, Republicans ousted their leader, Sen. Dave Cogdill of Modesto. The move was likely to complicate debate because Cogdill ...

Slurred speech. Long pauses. Answering questions that weren't directed to him and blurting out others. For days, Japan's Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa's appearance, during which he appears to be drunk, has been painfully public on the YouTube video of a G7 press conference in Rome last week. Today, it finally cost him his job. At a press conference in Tokyo, he resigned from his cabinet post, delivering yet another blow to the administration of Prime Minister Taro Aso as he ...

Top Republican lawmakers Sunday called on President Obama to change his political strategy, arguing that the passage of a massive stimulus bill on a party-line vote showed he has failed to deliver the "change" he promised. "If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told ABC's "This Week." "I know bipartisanship when I see it." Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said Obama was off to "a bad beginning," out of step with the vow ...

When Corey Wynsma's wife got laid off a few months ago from her graphic design job, the couple did an inventory of their household budget. Cable TV seemed like an obvious luxury. So the couple, who live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, canceled their cable service and found another way to keep up with their favorite shows: on the Internet. "We were already consuming a good portion of content online, and a quick survey of media sites allowed us to determine ...