President Obama complained Tuesday about opposition scare tactics against a proposed health care overhaul but said that failing to fix problems in the current system would be the scariest outcome of all. Obama addressed a supportive town hall meeting that contrasted with combative events held by Democratic Congress members, which have generated heated and sometimes disruptive responses. Also Tuesday, hostile crowds shouted questions and made angry statements against proposed health-care legislation at meetings in Pennsylvania and Missouri led by ...

The Senate's second-ranking Democrat slammed recent town-hall protests over health care on Sunday, insisting they violate "the democratic process," while the Senate's top Republican accused Democrats of "attacking citizens" with such complaints. Speaking to CNN's "State of the Union," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said: "We have these screaming groups on either side. That isn't helpful. Let's be honest about this. Town meetings are not bean bag. I've had hundreds of them, and sometimes folks get upset. And that's part of ...

Sonia Sotomayor will make history Saturday when she is sworn in as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in Sotomayor twice at the Supreme Court. The first ceremony will be private as stipulated in the U.S. Constitution. A second ceremony will be held in front of Sotomayor's friends and family as well as the media. It will also mark the first time the oath-taking ceremony will be open to television cameras ...

In early 2006, a young man named DeJarion Echols stood in a federal courtroom in Waco, Texas, and pleaded for leniency. After police found about 40 grams of crack cocaine, cash and an assault rifle in his bedroom, the promising athlete and father pleaded guilty to crack distribution and gun charges. "I made a bad choice" by dealing crack to pay for college, Echols, then 23, told U.S. District Judge Walter S. Smith Jr. According to a court transcript, ...

A health care town hall meeting in Florida on Thursday dissolved into bouts of heckling and violent pushing and shoving among attendees. The meeting in Tampa, which featured Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor and Florida State Representative Betty Reed, was another example of the tense battle lines that have been created in the passionate health care debate. Hundreds showed for the meeting at the Children's Board of Hillsborough County, some carrying signs railing against President Obama's proposed health care reforms. Hundreds ...

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who rose from the housing projects of the Bronx to the top of the legal profession, made history Thursday when the Senate confirmed her to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. Sotomayor was easily confirmed in a 68-31 vote. Nine Republicans joined a unanimous Democratic caucus in supporting her nomination. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, supported Sotomayor but was not present for the vote because of illness. Sotomayor, a 55-year-old federal appeals court judge, will ...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a "tough but lovingly presented" message to Kenya on Thursday: shun corruption and reform government. African governments should uphold the rule of law to attract investment and ensure economic growth, Clinton said during a town hall meeting at the University of Nairobi. "The fact is Kenya has not fulfilled its economic promise," Clinton said. "I believe it has not realized ... a functioning democracy." Clinton, who arrived at the capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday, ...

Insurance companies have always been an effective villain in the health-care reform debate, but this year the industry thought things might be different. Recognizing the growing sentiment for some kind of change and fully aware that universal coverage would help bulk up their rolls as baby boomers age into the Medicare system, private insurers early on declared their support for President Obama's health reform effort. So when word came last month that the Democrats were drawing up a ...

Al Qaeda's second-in-command has accused President Obama of supporting a Palestinian state that would do the bidding of Israel. "Obama wants a Palestinian state that works as a branch for the Israeli government," Ayman al-Zawahiri said in a nearly 90-minute video called, "The Realities of Jihad and the Fallacies of Hypocrisy." The latest in a series of such videos was posted Monday on radical Islamist Web sites by al Qaeda's production company, As-Sahab Media. "Israel is a crime that needs ...

In his first public appearance since the "Beer Summit" at the White House, Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates joked about his controversial arrest last month in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and said he likes police Sgt. James Crowley. "I offered to get his kids into Harvard if he doesn't arrest me anymore," Gates said. Gates was speaking Sunday at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival where he signed copies of his book, "In Search of our Roots." The professor ...