Outspent but hardly outgunned, online and high-tech companies triggered an avalanche of Internet clicks to force Congress to shelve legislation that would curb online piracy.

Partisan to the core, Congress careened toward a holiday-season standoff Monday on legislation to prevent a Social Security payroll tax increase for 160 million workers on Jan. 1.

Congressional negotiators reached agreement Thursday on a compromise spending bill to avert a weekend federal shutdown.

It's just about over for a special deficit-reduction supercommittee, which appears set to admit failure on Monday in its quest to sop up at least $1.2 trillion in government red ink over the coming decade.

Senate Democrats are scrambling to rewrite portions of President Barack Obama's jobs bill, even as Obama tries to blame Republicans for Congress' failure to act.

Congress' latest must-pass bill is prompting a new House-Senate showdown, highlighting a partisan rift so raw that an effort to help disaster victims has become mired in disputes over jobs, the national debt and the discredited Solyndra solar energy company.

President Barack Obama is keeping up his appeal for public support of his $447 billion proposal to boost jobs and consumer spending by urging Americans to press Congress to pass the legislation. "No more division or delay," he said.

A vintage World War II-era fighter plane plunged into the edge of the grandstands Friday during a popular air racing show, killing three people, injuring more than 50 spectators and creating a horrific scene strewn with body parts and smoking debris.