The National Labor Committee published a report Tuesday bashing Walmart's sick leave policy for giving workers demerits and pay deductions when they stay home due to illness or to care for a sick child. "I have to do whatever I have to do to keep my job," said a 33-year-old mother of two who works at Walmart. "You get a cold or you get the fever or whatever, you've got to be there." Read More
As House Democrats prepare to vote Saturday on a sweeping bill to overhaul the nation's healthcare system, they have picked up an important endorsement today from the 40-million-member AARP, the nation's largest senior citizens group. Read More
A drop in unemployment claims and an upbeat forecast from Cisco Systems gave investors new reason to be optimistic about the economy and sent stocks to big gains. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 200-plus points Thursday closing above 10,000, while the Nasdaq composite index gained more than 2 percent after Cisco, the maker of computer-networking gear, predicted its revenue would grow.
A military doctor who reportedly feared an impending war deployment is in custody as the sole suspect in a shooting rampage at the Army's Fort Hood that left 12 dead and at least 30 wounded, an Army official said Thursday night. Suspect Major Nidal Malik Hasan is alive and in stable condition, despite early reports that the gunman was among the dead. Read More
Morocco has announced this week the launch of a solar energy project, with an estimated cost of $9 billion, aiming at raising the share of renewable sources in the country's energy production. The plan, unveiled in the southern Moroccan city of Ouarzazate during a ceremony attended by king Mohammed VI and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will, according to the local news agency, enable the country to equally divide its renewable energies' national production between solar, wind and hydroelectric sources by the year 2020.
The actor Willie Aames, who filed for bankruptcy twice since 1997 and was selling his possessions in front of his foreclosed Olathe, Kan., home in March just to make ends meet, is training to become a financial adviser. "As of Dec. 12, I had no wife, no family, no car, no computer, no home, no electricity, no gas and no way to obtain any of it," Aames said this week. "How do you start over from scratch? I didn't know."
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro: I've got a confession to make a deep, dark secret that could get me into a lot of trouble with my conservative friends and something that may even get me thrown out of the Fox News fan club. I'm tired of hating President Obama. One year after he was elected, I hope President Obama shifts closer to the center to become the bipartisan president he said he would be.
Four inmates came to the rescue of a 64-year-old Florida jail guard when he was attacked and choked by another inmate. The inmates who helped guard Kenneth Moon were jailed on charges including home invasion, attempted murder, cocaine trafficking and obstructing an officer. "We're just real lucky we're not dealing with a funeral right now," said Deputy Larry McKinnon.
The second-ranking House Democrat predicted that historic health care legislation will be passed Saturday. Rep. Steny Hoyer said House leaders expect to have the 218 votes needed to pass the sweeping bill, which would extend coverage to tens of millions of uninsured people and ban insurance companies from turning people away.
In a video that has gone viral this week, a fourth grader at Randolph Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas, was about to give a report on her dad, MSgt. Joseph Myers, when she got a surprise. Read More
First-time homebuyers have been getting tax credits of up to $8,000 since January as part of the economic stimulus package enacted earlier this year. But with the program scheduled to expire at the end of November, the Senate voted Wednesday to extend and expand the tax credit to include many buyers who already own homes. The House is scheduled to vote on the bill Thursday.
At lease 12 soldiers are dead and 31 have been wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, the base's the public affairs office told NBC News on Thursday.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who was pushed out of her job in 2005, is running for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Barbara Boxer. "As California's senator, economic recovery and fiscal accountability will be my priorities," said Fiorina, an adviser to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. "I will not settle for a jobless recovery." Read More
Male fiddler crabs will happily defend a female neighbor against intruders because the females will dole out sex in return. "The fact that the neighbor comes over and helps to defend another territorial individual is pretty unusual," said researcher Michael Jennions of Australian National University.
Former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has pleaded guilty to lying to the White House and says he'll also admit tax crimes -- the first of his expected eight pleas on Thursday. The plea bargain includes the prosecution's suggestion that the crimes be punished by 27 to 33 months in prison.
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