Rick Berg

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...

Past its own New Year’s deadline, a weary Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation to avoid a national ‘‘fiscal cliff’’ of middle class tax increases and spending cuts late Tuesday night in the culmination of a...

Democrats strengthened their hold on the Senate but failed Tuesday to recapture the majority in the House of Representatives they lost two years ago. President Barack Obama, in his freshly authorized second term, will face the same divided Congress in...

WASHINGTON -- Democrats retained a narrow majority in the Senate on Tuesday, but Republicans kept their grip on the House, delivering another divided, and highly polarized, Congress. The balance of power was likely to shift by no more than a seat or two,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans vigorously pursued their last, longshot chances for taking control of the Senate — Pennsylvania topped their list — as Democrats remained cautiously optimistic that they'd retain their narrow majority...

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton is coming to North Dakota to campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp. Clinton is to speak at 7 p.m. Monday in Fargo. The site wasn't immediately announced. Heitkamp is running...

 With the general election less than a month away, many local voters are contemplating their choices.  In the weeks to come, the American News will publish more election-related stories with an emphasis on local races and topics. Below is a list of...

A long, bitter year in the long, bitter Congressional session drifted into the campaign season with the U.S. House of Representatives unable or unwilling to butter the softest piece of legislative toast before them, the 2012 Farm Bill. Speaker of the...

Here's a short list of Democrats who secretly hope Mitt Romney gets his presidential campaign turned around fast and gives President Obama a run for his money: Heidi Heitkamp, the Democratic Senate candidate in North Dakota; Jon Tester, the Democratic...

 A long, bitter year in the long, bitter Congressional session drifted into the campaign season with the U.S. House of Representatives unable or unwilling to butter the softest piece of legislative toast before them, the 2012 Farm Bill.  Speaker of the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Farm-state members of Congress have campaigned for decades on the back of farm bills delivering election-season subsidies and other goodies to rural voters. Not this year. The bill is stalled, primarily because House GOP leaders don'...

 By Bill McAuliffe  Star Tribune, Minneapolis  FARGO, N.D., Dec. 05 — A $1.8 billion flood-diversion ditch around Fargo is expected to get key federal approval before the year is out, but along the banks of the Red River of the North, one man’...