U.S. Senators Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) and Richard Burr (R-NC) are asking the Federal Highway Administration to authorize emergency funding to repair Highway 12 in Dare County, which badly damaged by Tropical Storm Ida.

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans want to spend weeks debating the health care bill, but they didn’t want to spend days next week having the 2,074-page document read aloud, as U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn had threatened.Though Coburn had to drop that plan, the Oklahoma Republican said he still plans to post a section-by-section explanation of the legislation on his Senate Web site. If the health care ...

WASHINGTON — Americans could pay billions of dollars more in new taxes for a few years before they're likely to see significant change in the nation's health care system under legislation that Congress is considering.

ASHEVILLE — U.S. Sen. Richard Burr said his vote on health care reform will be the most important of his career, but pledged to vote against the bill “if it means the federal government takes a larger role in health care.”

Senate Republicans want to spend weeks debating the health care bill, but they didn't want to spend days next week having the 2,074-page document read aloud, as Sen. Tom Coburn had threatened.

Word about North Carolina's shoddy representation on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals reached U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan last year the way such political concerns often do: by way of a friend of a friend.

WASHINGTON - The Senate is ready to begin a volatile, high-stakes health-care debate that's sure to be punctuated by tense and unpredictable battles over some of the most incendiary issues in American politics today.

The argument over how to reform the national health care system has already prompted fiery emotions this year. But people on both sides of the political aisle seem to agree that discussions are about to become even louder and more passionate. "It...

Senate Democratic leaders celebrated Saturday when their health care reform bill passed a key procedural hurdle, but by Monday deep divisions over some key provisions of the $848 billion legislation were already back in the spotlight.

Debate sure to be volatile