JUNEAU, Alaska — A plane carrying former Sen. Ted Stevens and eight others crashed in remote southwest Alaska, killing the longtime Republican lawmaker and four other people, authorities said Tuesday. Ex-NASA chief Sean O'Keefe was also believed to be aboard, but it was unclear whether he was among the dead. Stevens' family has been notified that the 86-year-old was among ...

STAMFORD, Conn. — World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., the sports entertainment company behind shows such as "Friday Night SmackDown," said Wednesday that Linda McMahon has resigned as its CEO to seek the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd. McMahon's husband, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, will assume her duties as chief executive, the company said ...

WASHINGTON, DC - If you think the word "intern" refers just to the legions of eager young folks who descend on Washington each summer, providing cheap labor by day and guzzling beer at night, think again. When Uncle Sam talks about interns, he might mean the college students who get a few months of valuable on-the-job experience, but he also could ...

President Obama's nominees to lead the Merit Systems Protection Board on Tuesday told senators that if confirmed they would focus on recruiting talent to replace experienced staffers who are retiring and to meet increasing demands for the agency's services. During a confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, they also pledged to improve ...

Between November and January, federal employees tend to think more about how they will use their leave than how they accrue it. But as personnel officials weigh hiring reforms, and existing flexibilities for enticing promising applicants to federal service, one leave policy raises concerns about how managers should be negotiating more strategically with new hires and how accrual rates vary across ...

FORT HOOD, Texas – A soldier opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Fort Hood, Texas on Thursday, unleashing a stream of gunfire that left 12 people dead and 31 wounded. Authorities killed the gunman, and apprehended two other soldiers suspected in the attack. The shooting began around 1:30 p.m., Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said at a news conference. He ...

The State Department will have to hire thousands of contractors to provide security and logistical support as the U.S. military begins to withdraw from Iraq in 2011, according to new findings by a congressional commission. Within 18 months, U.S. troops are scheduled to depart Iraq. But, the difficult work of rebuilding the war-torn nation will continue, with most of the responsibility ...

President Obama signs a memorandum today committing the government to provide 500 MHz worth of new broadband to ease the use of electronic equipment ranging from cell phones to laptop computers. Under the memorandum, the government will begin identifying specific sources of the new spectrum; they will come from both the public and private sectors, including television broadcast and mobile satellite ...

The Senate was moving closer to passage of the $636.3 billion fiscal 2010 Defense Appropriations bill Thursday night, although a long list of amendments awaiting consideration and votes will push a final vote on the measure to Tuesday at the earliest. During floor debate, the chamber approved an amendment offered by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., that requires the Missile Defense Agency ...

Under ordinary circumstances, it would be socially awkward at best to inquire about how much money someone makes. It's simply not a topic for polite conversation. Unless, of course, you work in an environment in which salary data is a matter of public record--as it is in government. The leaders of Bell, Calif., learned that the hard way this month when ...

Federal employees are set to receive smaller raises than they've become accustomed to, and lawmakers failed to secure civilians the same pay hike as their military counterparts next year. But despite that setback, 2009 was a big year for federal pay and benefits. Congress passed long-delayed changes to federal benefits policy and rolled back the Pentagon's controversial pay-for-performance system. A new ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Former Ohio Rep. James Traficant walked out of a Minnesota prison Wednesday morning after serving a seven-year sentence for bribery and racketeering. The nine-term Democrat from Youngstown left the Federal Medical Center in Rochester and stepped into a waiting cab. Traficant, who wore a gray T-shirt, white shorts, white knee-high socks and had his famously wild hair pulled ...

QUANTICO, Va. - Prince William County is looking to attract more defense-related businesses to the areas around nearby military bases. "We're starting to see quite a lot of interest in and around Quantico Marine Corps Base and in the northern part of Route 1, close to Fort Belvoir," says Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart. The county ...

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates' decision announced Wednesday to order a review of the Pentagon's payments to retired senior officers for their advice was prompted in part by how much these "mentors" get paid. A USA TODAY review found: • The Navy pays its mentors an average of about $330 per hour, including expenses, according to its budget. • The ...

WASHINGTON — Local government revenue has withered so drastically that U.S. cities and counties will have to cut hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coming months, leaving communities without basic services and raising jobless rates, according to a survey. The survey, released Tuesday by three government associations, aims to press Congress on pending legislation that would give them $75 ...

Since it first emerged in April, the global swine flu epidemic has sickened more than 1 million Americans and killed about 500. It's also spread around the world, infecting tens of thousands and killing nearly 2,000. This summer, the virus has been surprisingly tenacious in the U.S., refusing to fade away as flu viruses usually do. And health officials predict a ...

The House last week overwhelmingly passed legislation that supporters say will save money for thousands of federal retirees facing a potential increase in their Medicare Part B premiums. The 2009 Medicare Premium Fairness Act would affect many retirees under the Civil Service Retirement System, who do not receive Social Security payments since CSRS was designed to be equivalent to the Social ...

Federal stimulus spending has created or saved thousands of Oregon jobs, state officials boasted Monday, but at least three out of every four positions were in government work, according to the state's own figuring. The lion's share of the money -- about $750 million, went to beefing up entitlement programs, such as Medicaid, unemployment benefits and food stamps. But the remaining ...

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon resigned Wednesday, part of a plea deal that brings a years-long corruption investigation to a close and ends the tenure of the city's first female mayor. Dixon, 56, will leave office Feb. 4, the day she is sentenced both for a guilty plea she entered in a perjury case and for her embezzlement conviction last month. She ...

BALTIMORE, Md. — After days of public displays of profanity and abuse – in Congress, at the U.S. Open tennis championships, during the MTV Video Music Awards – news came Wednesday of another such incident closer to home. Baltimore County police released details of the arrests of two women accused of dispensing an obscenity-laden tirade against a police officer who pulled ...