AP - Nearly two years after a Wall Street meltdown left the economy reeling, the House on Wednesday passed a massive overhaul of financial regulations that would extend the government’s reach from storefront thrifts to the executive suites of Manhattan.
AP - Sensitive to election-year resentment over big government, President Barack Obama declared Wednesday he intends to get “our debt and our deficits under control.” With fears alive of a double-dip recession, Obama warned that he won’t slash spending at the expense of the economic rebound.
AP - Hurricane Alex made landfall on Mexico’s Gulf coast as a powerful Category 2 storm Wednesday, spawning tornadoes in nearby Texas, forcing evacuations in both countries and whipping up high waves that frustrated oil-spill cleanup efforts and pushed crude onto beaches.
Reuters - Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban castaway boy who became the object of an international custody battle a decade ago in Miami, said on Wednesday he was happy he ended up back in Cuba.
AP - Republican Scott Brown owes his election in part to the public furor over the so-called Cornhusker Kickback, the backroom deal that Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska struck for his vote to pass the health care bill. Now he is following Nelson’s example, winning concessions in the financial overhaul bill on behalf of Massachusetts banks.
AP - Three men face assault charges after they allegedly attacked an off-duty Harrisburg police officer in a dispute over dog waste. Police said brothers Matthew Stauffer, 33, and Daniel Stauffer, 31, attacked police Officer John Doll earlier this month.
AP - Tiger Woods has been interviewed by federal authorities investigating a Canadian doctor accused of distributing human growth hormone, a person familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
AP - It wasn’t snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night that stopped Chester Arthur Reed from his appointed round. The mail handler just felt it was time to call it quits at age 95.
Reuters - Alex strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday and was due to hit the Mexican coast in a few hours, but it stayed clear of oil fields to the relief of crude markets.
Reuters - The U.S. Senate unanimously voted on Wednesday to confirm David Petraeus as commander of the troubled Afghan war, pinning U.S. hopes on the four-star general who helped turn around the conflict in Iraq.