Ken Stanford

Aerial drones, a technology perhaps best known for helping hunt terrorists on the other side of the globe, may soon begin helping U.S. farmers monitor what's happening in their fields.

Republican tea party forces are rejoicing and the party establishment is somber or altogether silent in the wake of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's primary defeat at the hands of political neophyte David Brat, an unflinching foe of loosening immigration laws.

When Rick Scott made his maverick push for Florida governor four years ago, the Republican took a hard line against illegal immigration that he used to assail his main GOP rival for the job. But with a likely tight re-election campaign looming, he is making a concentrated push to win over Hispanic voters.

The GOP-controlled House on Tuesday passed a huge bill providing money for transportation and housing programs despite protests from Democrats that the $105 billion measure shortchanges transit projects, Amtrak and rent subsidies for the poor.

an upset for the ages, Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, the second-most powerful man in the House, was dethroned Tuesday by a little-known, tea party-backed Republican primary challenger carried to victory on a wave of public anger over calls for looser immigration laws.

Some of the nation's leading businesses are prodding lawmakers to act on immigration legislation as the issue enters a critical phase on Capitol Hill.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it has granted the first permission for commercial drone flights over land, the latest effort by the agency to show it is loosening restrictions on commercial uses of the unmanned aircraft.