Frank Lautenberg

As the Obama administration launches a broad investigation of flame retardants used in furniture and other household goods, the nation's top environmental regulators are running into the limitations of a federal law that makes it practically impossible to...

He thought his wife was in love with another man, police say, so James L. McFillin of Baltimore decided to blow up the other man. It was 1979. McFillin wired two sticks of an explosive called Tovex 220 into the electrical system of a truck belonging...

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee who steered President Barack Obama's health care overhaul into law but recently broke with his party on gun control legislation, has decided to retire, Democratic...

WASHINGTON -- The gun bill was going down, but Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who reached a compromise to try to save it, went to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to give it one more try. In an unorthodox tactic, he appealed directly...

WASHINGTON — A single conversation on the Senate floor Monday illustrated the challenges senators face in pushing a bipartisan measure to extend background checks to most gun sales. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), the chief author of the proposal,...

WASHINGTON — After four months of debate and maneuvering, the Senate headed for a showdown over gun control — a series of back-to-back votes on rival plans Wednesday afternoon that could end in the collapse of the entire effort. The...

WASHINGTON -- Democrats’ efforts to maintain a majority in the U.S. Senate after next year’s midterm elections were thrown into further doubt Tuesday when Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., became the fifth senior member of the party to announce his...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson was expected to announce his retirement Tuesday, making the state the fifth where Democrats will have to defend a seat without an incumbent seeking re-election. The decision opens up a 2014 race...

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a surprising string of victories last fall, Democrats now face a challenging terrain as they look to hold onto their Senate majority in 2014 and prevent Republicans from gaining full control of Congress during President...

WASHINGTON -- Michigan Democrat Carl Levin announced Thursday that he would not run for reelection in 2014, adding to an exodus of experience in the chamber.  Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is the sixth sitting senator to decide...

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, the last of the World War II veterans in the Senate, is retiring at the end of this term, he said Thursday. Lautenberg, who turned 89 last month, had been planning to run for reelection in...

TRENTON, N.J. -- Coyness is not part of Chris Christie's repertoire, which does not stress subtlety, delicacy and intimation. New Jersey's governor is more Mickey Spillane than Jane Austen and his persona, which sometimes is that of a bulldog who got up...