Open government in the heart of Silicon Valley is starting to mean turn off, tune out, power down. When the San Jose City Council meets just miles from the Apple and Google campuses, its members shut down all portable electronic ...

President Barack Obama's top political adviser says lobbyists are gathering on Capitol Hill "like locusts" to try to derail health care legislation. But David Axelrod says he's confident the overhaul will soon become law, but it will be a struggle. He says the public understands that "this is the moment" for major changes to the country's health ...

A leading German think-tank says it expects the country's economy — Europe's biggest — to contract in the first quarter because of an unusually harsh winter. The IfW group said Thursday that the economy should make up for the expected contraction in first-quarter gross domestic product during the ...

House GOP leaders are pushing rank-and-file Republicans to break their addiction to pet projects by going cold turkey and giving up the long-cherished practice of directing federal dollars to their home districts. The move is an election-year appeal to voters frustrated with Washington's free-spending ways and seeks ...