Buried in the proposed rewrite of the nation's massive education law are protections for gay and lesbian students that its supporters liken to the landmark 1972 protections for the rights of female athletes in high school and college.

The outcry over the epidemic of sexual assaults in the military is spurring Congress to act, with a House panel moving ahead on Wednesday on stripping commanders of the ability to overturn convictions in rape and assault cases.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on his first trip to Latin America since taking office, gauged prospects Wednesday for improving badly strained ties between the United States and Venezuela that have steadily deteriorated over the past decade.

Senate debate on a far-reaching immigration bill is becoming a test of Sen. Marco Rubio's influence over fellow Republicans, as the Florida conservative works to sell GOP lawmakers on landmark legislation that also may help determine the fate of his presidential ambitions.

The uproar over the Internal Revenue Service's heavy-handed treatment of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status can be traced partly to when New York University Law School went into the noodle business.

Top law enforcement officials from San Francisco and New York plan to meet with some of the nation's largest smartphone makers to help thwart the rise in cellphone thefts and robberies.

A scathing independent scientific review of wild horse roundups in the West concludes the U.S. government should likely instead let nature cull the herds.

Tenacity marked U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg's journey from a childhood so poor his family couldn't afford his bar mitzvah to his life as a multimillionaire businessman who served for decades in the Senate, relatives and dignitaries said Wednesday at his funeral at a New York City synagogue.

Casinos in New Jersey and Nevada are among those forbidding gamblers from wearing Google Glass, the tiny eyeglasses-mounted device capable of shooting photos, filming video and surfing the Internet.

Microsoft will add its popular Outlook email program to more tablets running on a lightweight version of its Windows operating system as part of a free software update this year.

Modern BlackBerrys with physical keyboards are now available in the U.S., months after the touch-screen versions went on sale.

Former Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten has told a California parole hearing that she was committed to the murders he ordered in 1969, but that she has changed her life.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure is canceling half of its 3-day charity races next year because of a drop in participation levels, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based breast cancer organization said Wednesday.

A southeast Missouri man plans to plead guilty to murder in the killing of his estranged wife, a mother of triplets who was missing for almost two years, his lawyer said Wednesday.

Thousands of firefighters from across the country, many with badges shrouded in black, joined Houston residents Wednesday to honor the four firefighters killed last week in a massive hotel fire.

Lawyers for reputed Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger want jurors to hear statements that government prosecutors made about a star witness against Bulger, including that the witness is "sick" and not credible.

A mom sits at her kitchen table when her grade schooler saunters up with a big box of Cheerios.

Drug agents are investigating a narcotics delivery to the home of Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez, authorities said Wednesday.

Major League Baseball is interviewing players linked to a Miami anti-aging clinic that allegedly sold performance-enhancing drugs and has become the focus of the sport's investigation.

Talk about your random testing.