WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is ordering federal, state and local prisons to increase efforts to stop prison rape by issuing mandatory screening, enforcement and prevention regulations in hopes of reducing sexual victimization behind bars.

WASHINGTON (AP) - If the Supreme Court strikes down President Barack Obama's health care law, it wouldn't just be politicians dealing with the fallout.

NEW YORK (AP) - President Obama's campaign is calling on Mitt Romney to push back harder against plans by a conservative-leaning independent group to showcase Obama's ties to his controversial pastor.

WASHINGTON (AP) - For Senate Republicans, 2012 is starting a lot like 2010.

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) - In these days of shrinking defense budgets, the U.S. is looking to its southern neighbors to help monitor and protect the Asia Pacific region.

NEW YORK (AP) - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney sought to distance himself Thursday from a GOP-leaning independent group's plan for a $10 million TV ad campaign renewing attention to President Barack Obama's ties to his controversial former pastor. Obama's campaign accused Romney of failing to show "moral leadership in standing up to the very extreme wing of his own party."

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans are pushing ahead with a defense budget that adds billions of dollars, boosts nuclear weapons programs and slows cost-cutting reductions in the force.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - U.S. Senator John Thune says everything he knows about politics that is good he learned from former Senator Jim Abdnor.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama says Congress could help sustain the economy's "momentum" by passing legislation that would give businesses a 10 percent income tax credit if they create new jobs or increase wages this year.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court says a farming family has to pay tax on the bankruptcy sale of their farm.

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the Defense Department has suspended the security clearance of military members who are being investigated for their possible roles in the Secret Service sex scandal that took place in Colombia earlier this month.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Divisive Republican primaries, an out-of-nowhere GOP retirement in Maine and an unexpectedly competitive race in North Dakota add up to an unpredictable battle for control of the Senate this fall. It's confounding early forecasts that Democratic rule is inevitably coming to an end.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House is taking up a Republican-written bill to protect women from violence, but the Obama White House says it doesn't go far enough and is threatening a veto.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) - The White House says a $2 billion trading blunder by JPMorgan Chase shows the continued need for rules that protect the taxpayer when Wall Street makes mistakes.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Sen. John McCain wants the Obama administration to ramp up its free trade agenda in Asia and suspend U.S. economic sanctions on Myanmar.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from residents of Puerto Rico seeking to gain a voting representative in Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Pentagon leaders say the U.S. military continues to plan further ways to try to halt the violence in Syria and will be ready if it's needed.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Mitt Romney is criticizing President Barack Obama's record on debt as he campaigns in Florida, a critical battleground state.

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama will spend Monday in New York City, and his comments in support of same-sex marriage appear likely to be a principal focus of discussion.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -Congresswoman Kristi Noem has introduced a bill that would require the Army Corps of Engineers to notify the public whenever expected high runoff could cause flooding along the Missouri River.