Ken Stanford

In a break with tea party-aligned Senate conservatives, Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday he will not vote to block legislation aimed at preventing a partial government shutdown, even though Democrats intend to rewrite it to restore funds needed to keep the nation's three-year-old health care law in existence.

The Obama administration edged close to direct, high-level talks with Iran's new government on Monday, with Secretary of State John Kerry slated to meet his Iranian counterpart this week and the White House weighing the risks and rewards of an encounter between President Barack Obama and Iran's president, Hasan Rouhani.

From mercury to pesticides, Americans are exposed daily to environmental chemicals that could harm reproductive health, the nation's largest groups of obstetricians and fertility specialists said Monday.

As Georgia education officials prepare to set guidelines for a review of national academic standards, some worry that calls for change are being driven by politics -- not education.

Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the agency's tea party scandal, is retiring, the agency confirmed Monday.

Navy officials are moving to close gaps in the security clearance process, recommending that all police reports involving an individual must be included when a background check is done.

Gadget lovers still can't resist the iPhone.

The retiring president of the Georgia Egg Commission, Gainesville native Robert Howell, has been inducted into the commission's hall of fame.

BlackBerry has agreed to sell itself for $4.7 billion to a group led by largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.