Legislation to be outlined next week in the Senate Finance Committee will likely include a new tax on workers with the costliest employer-provided health coverage, officials said Friday, but with implementation delayed until 2013 to minimize any political fallout.

No more “light” cigarettes or candy-flavored smokes. Bigger, scarier warning labels. Fewer ads featuring sexy young smokers.

Japanese are snatching up hybrid cars, solar panels and energy-efficient TVs, wooed by government incentives designed to battle a recession while conserving energy.

IRVINE, Calif.—-An estimated one million Americans will join in the 18th annual Ride to Work Day on Monday, June 15, and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation is asking two-wheel and four-wheel motorists to follow these rules of the road.

Gov. Jay Nixon signed a measure Friday to use federal stimulus money to increase unemployment benefits going to Missourians, but it’s unclear whether part of the plan will be allowed under federal law.

U.S. consumer confidence rises

FALLS CHURCH, Va.—-The Office of the Independent Monitor of the Los Angeles Police Department , which was established by a court order following a Department of Justice investigation into highly publicized police incidents in 1991, has issued its final report.

Dozens of communities nationwide are at risk from a coal ash spill like the one that blanketed a Tennessee neighborhood last year, but the Obama administration has decided not to tell the public about it because of the danger of a terrorist attack.

Will the federal government force people to buy health insurance?

Tired of getting paid piddling interest for CDs, checking accounts and money market funds, many people are turning to an alternative source of income.