Ken Stanford

Stocks closed lower Monday as Wall Street braced for a government shutdown.

David Nichol of Gainesville weighed in a two-day total of 10 bass totaling 23 pounds, 15 ounces Sunday to win the Walmart Bass Fishing League (BFL) Savannah River Division Super Tournament on Clarks Hill Lake. For his victory, Nichol earned $5,504.

Republican unity showed unmistakable signs of fraying Monday as the Senate swatted aside the latest tea party-driven demand to delay the nation's health care overhaul in exchange for averting a partial government shutdown at midnight.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urged President Barack Obama to keep tough economic sanctions on Iran in place, even as the U.S. weighs a potential warming of relations and a restart of nuclear negotiations with Tehran's new government.

North Carolina's Republican governor and GOP lawmakers are vowing to fight a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Justice Department challenging the state's tough new elections law on the grounds it disproportionately impacts minority voters.

The state School Superintendent's new Parent Advisory Council includes representatives from Hall, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Barrow,and Rabun counties among its 36 members.

Compromise elusive, Republicans and Democrats blamed each other Monday as they took the federal government to the brink of a shutdown in an intractable budget dispute over President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Contentious from its conception, President Barack Obama's health care law has survived the Supreme Court, a battle for the White House and rounds of budget brinkmanship. Now comes the ultimate test: the verdict of the American people.

Stocks sank Monday as Wall Street worried that a budget fight in Washington could lead to something much worse for the economy- a failure to raise the nation's borrowing limit.