A National Park Service employee posts a sign reading "Because of the Federal Government SHUTDOWN All National Parks are Closed" on a barricade closing access to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) by David Espo and Donna CassataAssociated Press Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — First slowed, then stalled by political gridlock, the vast machinery of government clanged into partial shutdown mode on Tuesday and President Barack Obama warned the longer it goes "the more families will be hurt." Republicans said it was his fault, not theirs. Ominously, there were suggestions from leaders in both parties that the shutdown, heading for its second day, could last for weeks and grow to encompass a possible default by the Treasury if Congress fails to raise the nation's debt ceiling. "This is now all together," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill..
In a June 30, 1982 file photo, President Ronald Reagan signs an expansion of the 1965 Voting Rights Bill during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House. The Justice Department will sue the state of North Carolina for alleged racial discrimination over tough new voting rules, the latest effort by the Obama administration to fight back against a Supreme Court decision that struck down the most powerful part of the landmark Voting Rights Act and freed southern states from strict federal oversight of their elections. North Carolina has a new law scaling back the period for early voting and imposing stringent voter identification requirements. It is among at least five Southern states adopting stricter voter ID and other election laws. (AP Photo, File) by Michel Biesecker and Pete Yost RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's Republican governor and GOP lawmakers are vowing to fight a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department challenging the state's tough new elections law on the grounds it disproportionately impacts minority voters.
This undated file photo released by the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections shows Harry Mitts. (AP Photo/Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, File) by Julie Carr SmithAP Statehouse Correspondent LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A White gunman who spewed racial slurs before fatally shooting a Black man and a police officer in a 1994 rampage that prosecutors called one of Ohio's worst crimes was put to death Wednesday with the state's last dose of its execution drug.
Veronica, the child at the center of an international adoption dispute, smiles in a bathroom of the Cherokee Nation Jack Brown Center in Tahlequah, Okla. (AP Photo/Tulsa World, Mike Simons, File) by Kristi EatonAssociated Press Writer OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A South Carolina couple who vowed last month to not leave Oklahoma unless they went home with a 4-year-old Cherokee girl they have been trying to adopt since her birth were given custody of the girl Monday night after the Oklahoma Supreme Court said it didn't have jurisdiction over the child.
In this July 9, 2013 photo, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton applauds international delegates to the during the Women in Public Service Project leadership symposium, at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) by Ken Thomas Associated Press Writer CHICAGO (AP) — Whether she runs for president or not in 2016, Hillary Rodham Clinton is making sure she stays connected to important Democratic constituencies, from college students and Black women to the gay and lesbian community.
In this 1928 file photo, Actress Joan Crawford is seen dancing the Charleston in "Our Dancing Daughters" in Hollywood, Calif. (AP Photo/File) by Paul WisemanAP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The income gap between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America last year reached the widest point since the Roaring Twenties.
This photo provided by Jameson Hsieh shows a clown wearing a mask intended to look like President Obama at the Missouri State Fair. The announcer asked the crowd if anyone wanted to see “Obama run down by a bull,” according to a spectator. “So then everybody screamed. ... They just went wild,” said Perry Beam, who attended the rodeo at the State Fair in Sedalia on Saturday Aug. 10, 2013. (AP Photo/Jameson Hsieh) by David LiebAssociated Press Writer JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri State Fair on Monday imposed a lifetime ban on a rodeo clown whose depiction of President Barack Obama getting charged by a bull was widely criticized by Democratic and Republican officials alike.
Rep. Adrienne Wooten, D-Jackson addresses the House chamber during debate over a Medicaid reauthorization bill at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss. Wooten voted against a cord blood bill that says if a girl younger than 16 gives birth in Mississippi and won’t name the father authorities must collect umbilical cord blood and run DNA tests to prove paternity. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — If a girl younger than 16 gives birth and won't name the father, a new Mississippi law — likely the first of its kind in the country — says authorities must collect umbilical cord blood and run DNA tests to prove paternity as a step toward prosecuting statutory rape cases. Supporters say the law is intended to chip away at Mississippi's teen pregnancy rate, which has long been one of the highest in the nation. But critics say that though the procedure is painless, it invades the medical privacy of the mother, father and baby. And questions abound: At roughly $1,000 a pop, who will pay for the DNA tests in the country's poorest state? Even after test results arrive, can prosecutors compel a potential father to submit his own DNA and possibly implicate himself in a crime? How long will the state keep the DNA on file?
An April 22, 2013, file photo shows singer Lauryn Hill walking from federal court in Newark, N.J. Hill has started serving a three-month prison sentence in Connecticut for failing to pay about $1 million in taxes over the past decade. (AP Photo/Mel Evans, file) DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill began serving a three-month prison sentence in Connecticut on Monday for failing to pay about $1 million in taxes over the past decade.
