Barack Obama | featured news

Being a college student at the time, I clearly remember when Nancy Reagan and the conservative wave in national government helped usher in the nation’s War on Drugs in the 1980s. Television news images of drug busts, large and small, along with the wholesale arrests and stiffer sentencing for anyone even suspected of drug involvement sent a clear message that government intended to empty the streets and fill the prisons until drugs were no more.

In a move that would capitalize on provisions under President Barack Obama's health care law but could cost the federal government millions of dollars, Washington state lawmakers have found a creative way to pass a large chunk of their health care expenses along to Washington, D.C. - and analysts say others are likely to follow suit.

A court filing says charges have been dropped against a Mississippi man accused of sending ricin-laced letters to President Barack Obama and others.

Investigators haven't found any ricin in the house of a man accused of mailing poisoned letters.

Along with expected political figures like President Barack Obama (appearing for the eighth time; wife Michelle also holds a slot) and Vice-President Joe Biden, Time also singled out power couple Beyonce and Jay-Z, Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence and Daniel Day-Lewis, musicians including Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Frank Ocean, television stars like "The Mindy Project's" Mindy Kaling and "Breaking Bad's" Bryan Cranston, and entertainers from other countries such as Bassem Youssef, dubbed the Egyptian "Jon Stewart," who is under investigation in that country for his political satire.

Federal agents arrested a Mississippi man suspected of sending letters that showed evidence of ricin in initial testing to President Obama and a Republican senator, according to two officials.

The Senate has rejected a bipartisan effort to expand federal background checks to more firearms buyers in a crucial showdown over gun control. Today's vote was a jarring blow to the drive to curb firearms sparked by December's massacre of children and staff at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. President Barack Obama made broadened background checks the centerpiece of his gun control proposals.

A letter addressed to President Obama, containing a suspicious substance, was intercepted at a screening facility outside the White House, officials said on Wednesday. The letter was intercepted at a screening facility outside the White House, the Secret Service said.

US President Barack Obama has condemned the bombings at the Boston Marathon as a "terrorist act". He said the attack had been a "heinous and cowardly act", but said it was not yet known who carried out the attack and why. The FBI has said there are "no known additional threats" beyond the two bombs which went off. Three people were killed, including an eight-year-old boy, and more than 150 injured by the bombs.

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama paid more than $112,000 in taxes in 2012, an effective federal income tax rate of more than 18% for 2012, according to the White House. The Obamas and Vice President Biden and his wife released their tax returns Friday, three days before the April 15 tax filing deadline. The Obamas' adjusted gross income for the year was $608,611. The president earned more than $394,000 in salary, and the Obamas took in $258,000 in book royalties.