Senate vote: OK $85 billion cuts, avert shutdown

WASHINGTON  — The Senate approved legislation Wednesday to lock in $85 billion in broad federal spending cuts and simultaneously avoid a government shutdown next week — and pointedly rejected a call to even reopen White House tours that the Obama administration says had to be canceled because of the cuts.






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Claims against BP contractors dismissed at trial

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge conducting a trial to assign fault for the nation's worst offshore oil spill dismissed claims Wednesday against a BP contractor and a company that made a key safety device on the drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, triggering the catastrophe.


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Obama vows unwavering support for Israel

JERUSALEM — Renewing U.S. support for the difficult "work of generations," President Barack Obama assured Israel on Wednesday that his administration would pursue an elusive Mideast peace that would allow residents of the Jewish state to live in peace and free from the threat of terror.


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Landmark gun bills signed in Colo.

DENVER  — Gov. John Hickenlooper signed bills Wednesday that place new restrictions on firearms and signaled a change for Democrats who traditionally shied away from gun control debate in Colorado - a state with a moderate streak and pioneer tradition of gun ownership and self-reliance.