U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has called for a federal investigation into “whether Gov. Nikki Haley exploited taxpayer dollars for political purposes” by allegedly dictating the findings of a nonpartisan health care panel, according to a news release.Harkin cited a report last week from the (Charleston) Post and Courier that Haley told the South Carolina Health Planning Committee in an e...

Ever since Richard Nixon's 1973 promise to attain energy independence, successive U.S. presidents all have pledged the same goal, even as foreign supplies composed a larger and larger share of the U.S. energy mix. Now, almost 40 years later, a measure of independence is within reach. But as this booming mountain town in northeastern Pennsylvania shows, the quest for independence involves both ...

As a precaution, six Richland One schools will be operating on a two-hour delayed start schedule this morning while law enforcement authorities continue their search for an armed robbery suspect in the Monticello Road area in the Eau Claire cluster, a district spokesperson said.The schools are: Eau Claire High, Arden Elementary, Heyward Gibbes Middle, Hyatt Park Elementary, Alcorn Middle and E.E. ...

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley took federal funds to study a system to help people get health insurance under the national health care law but immediately undermined the process, according to a report in a Charleston newspaper.Within weeks of a March 10 order setting up the committee, Haley told the author of the final report: “The whole point of this commission should be to figure out how...

Alabama Republicans who pushed through the nation's toughest law against illegal immigrants are having second thoughts amid a backlash from big business, fueled by the embarrassing traffic stops of two foreign employees tied to the state's prized Honda and Mercedes plants.The Republican attorney general is calling for some of the strictest parts of it to be repealed.Some Republican lawmakers say t...

Rod Blagojevich, the ousted Illinois governor whose three-year battle against criminal charges became a national spectacle, was sentenced to 14 years in prison Wednesday, one of the stiffest penalties imposed for corruption in a state with a history of crooked politics.Among his 18 convictions is the explosive charge that he tried to leverage his power to appoint someone to President Barack Obama'...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he will not participate in a debate being hosted this month by real estate mogul and TV personality Donald Trump.Romney told Fox News on Tuesday that he called Trump and told him he would not attend.Several prominent Republicans have urged candidates to skip the Trump debate. They predict it will be a media circus and a distraction from important ...

Michele Bachmann did not intend to be taken literally when she told the Republican presidential debate Tuesday that civil-liberties activists have taken over the interrogation of terrorists from the CIA. But even as a rhetorical point, it didn't hold water.Her hyperbole on the American Civil Liberties Union was one of the more notable stretches in the national security and foreign policy debate. A...

Key moments in Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate:---DEFENSE CUTSFormer Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney warned against future cuts to the nation's defense budget, saying nearly $1 trillion in potential cuts could undermine the nation's military clout. He underscored his support for Israel, saying if elected, his first foreign trip would be to Israel.Texas Gov. Rick Perry noted that Defe...

WASHINGTON — If Sen. Lindsey Graham wants to know why his foreign aid bill has stalled in the Senate, he need only look in the direction of the junior senator from his home state of South Carolina. In an extraordinary clash between Republican senators from the same state, Sen. Jim DeMint forced Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to postpone consideration last week of the $53.3 billio...

Deputies in Lancaster County arrested a man early Friday morning in connection with a restaurant robbery and shooting of an officer.Officer Brandon Rollins, an 11 year veteran with the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, was shot once in the stomach, authorities announced today. He was flown to a hospital and is in serious condition.Rollins is an undercover officer with the department's drug force ...

Oil prices fell to below $99 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude supplies rose unexpectedly last week, suggesting demand may remain weak.Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 80 cents at $98.57 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.23 to settle at $99.37 in New York on Tuesday.Brent crude f...

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain struggled to answer a question during an interview Monday when asked whether he supported President Barack Obama's foreign policy in Libya.A top aide said later Monday that Cain had not had enough sleep.The exchange over Libya with the Georgia businessman came during a meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.Cain hesitated wh...

About 30 Occupy Wall Street protesters have interrupted a foreign policy speech by Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann in South Carolina.Bachmann was delivering the speech Thursday on the deck of the mothballed aircraft carrier USS Yorktown near Charleston when the protesters stood up and began shouting, "Mike check!"They told her she was more concerned with dividing Americans than ...

The Air Force mortuary that receives America's war dead and prepares them for burial lost portions of human remains twice in 2009, prompting the Air Force to discipline three officials for "gross mismanagement," officials said Tuesday.A year-long Air Force investigation reviewed 14 sets of allegations of improper handling of war remains as reported by three whistleblower workers at Dover Air Force...

On Nov. 6, 2003, then President George W. Bush gave a major foreign policy address in which he called for the spread of democracy across the Middle East, an appeal that seems to be resonating in this year of Arab Spring revolts. Yet less than three years after leaving office, Bush's name isn't associated with the uprisings from Cairo to Tripoli, and he gets little credit for having inspire...

Responding to his insurgent campaign’s first crisis, Herman Cain was upbeat and defiant. “To quote my chief of staff and all the people around this country, ‘Let Herman be Herman,’“ he said Monday. “And Herman is gonna stay Herman.” I was afraid of that. Cain’s policy positions range from the ignorant to the unworkable to the just plain goofy...

The U.S. Department of Justice has challenged South Carolina’s new immigration law in federal court, saying it undermines federal authority.The Justice Department filed this afternoon for a temporary injunction that would prevent the state’s law from taking effect in January. The lawsuit argues that the U.S. government is the only entity that can implement immigration policy, and the...

Iran has formally complained to the U.S. over claims the Iranian government was involved in an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, a U.S. official said Sunday.The official said the U.S. received a diplomatic note on Friday expressing displeasure with the charges that were leveled earlier this month. Iran has already denied the allegations. The official said the not...

BP PLC reported Tuesday that third-quarter profits more than doubled thanks to higher oil prices, with the chief executive saying the results marked a turnaround from the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.BP also announced that it now aims to dispose of $45 billion in assets, up from the $30 billion it originally set to raise money to pay for damage from the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon dril...

The Senate has rejected a Republican effort to prohibit the U.S. from prosecuting foreign terrorist suspects in civilian courts.The effort was defeated 52-47 early Friday, handing a victory to President Barack Obama. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Attorney General Eric Holder had sent a letter to Senate leaders Thursday saying the measure would deprive them of a potent weapon against terrorism...

A 73-year-old Greenville County man has been sentenced to five years in prison for wounding a sheriff's deputy during a raid.Deputies said they were raiding a gambling house in Taylors when a man opened fire, wounding a deputy. Aaron Awtry was also wounded in the exchange of gunfire.Awtry pleaded guilty to a variety of charges including gambling and attempted murder.Awtry says he thought he was be...

The alleged Iranian plot against the Saudi ambassador to Washington was "amateur hour," an unusually clumsy operation for Iran's elite foreign action unit, the Quds Force, U.S. officials said Wednesday as further stranger-than-fiction details emerged of the assassination gone wrong.The Iranians' would-be covert operative turned to a woman he met while working as a used car dealer, hoping to find a...

China criticized an American currency bill as a threat to a shaky global economic recovery and warned Wednesday that trade ties will be "severely damaged" if it becomes law.Beijing rejected the measure passed Tuesday by the Senate as a form of damaging protectionism at a time when other nations are trying to sustain free trade. The bill would allow Washington to raise tariffs on Chinese imports th...

The Obama administration accused Iranian government agents Tuesday of plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in the United States and immediately used the thwarted plot to ratchet up sanctions and recruit international allies to try to further isolate Tehran.Two men, including a member of Iran's special foreign actions unit known as the Quds Force, were charged in New York federal court with...

Looking to set himself apart from his better-known rivals, Republican presidential contender Jon Huntsman is dismissing their approaches to foreign policy as ill-defined and overly ambitious.Huntsman, a veteran diplomat and former Utah governor struggling to win over voters in the GOP nominating contests, looked to paint himself as uniquely qualified to address foreign policy questions that, so fa...

Former South Carolina House member and Circuit Court Judge James "Tee" Ferguson, who served prison time after an FBI investigation into Statehouse corruption, has died, his daughter said Sunday.Ferguson, 60, died Friday in Virginia of natural causes, his daughter Stinson Ferguson said. She declined to give further details.Ferguson was born in Kingsport, Tenn., and graduated from Wofford College an...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised Friday to bolster the U.S. Navy and strengthen ties with Mexico, and hinted at a willingness to reverse U.S. troop withdrawals from Afghanistan in his first major foreign policy speech of the 2012 campaign.With gray-clad cadets from The Citadel surrounding him beneath a “Believe in America” banner, the former Massachusetts governor s...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney promised today to bolster the country’s naval fleet, strengthen U.S. ties with Mexico and restore funding to the missile defense program in his first major foreign policy speech of the 2012 campaign at The Citadel.With gray-clad cadets surrounding him beneath a “Believe in America” banner, the former Massachusetts governor said: &#...

Their chief target is Wall Street, but many of the demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. also are thoroughly disgusted with Washington, blaming politicians of both major parties for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the middle class."At this point I don't see any difference between George Bush and Obama. The middle class is a lot worse than when Obama was electe...