Young writers show an appetite for risk in college application essays about money, class and the economy, submitted at a columnist’s invitation.    

The announcement by the basketball star Brittney Griner that she is a lesbian has altered an awkward relationship between Baylor University and its gay students.    

F.B.I. agents investigating the Boston Marathon bombing have repeatedly questioned a former separatist fighter who says he had a passing social relationship with a bombing suspect.    

A number of controversies have put Jay Carney, a former reporter turned White House press secretary, under a white-hot spotlight, but he says he likes it.    

The ride that spurred a redesign of presidential travel.    

In the beginning, my dream of attending college in the United States with limited funds seemed to be just that: a dream. However, I am grateful to have had friends and family who were always supportive.    

Sgt. John Russell was sentenced on Thursday after being convicted on Monday of killing five fellow service members at a combat stress clinic in Iraq in 2009.    

A House bipartisan group working on legislation to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws reached a deal in principle Thursday evening, aides said.    

Republican lawmakers took to the floor to register their complaints about President Obama’s signature legislative achievement.    

The New Orleans police charged two brothers with 20 counts of attempted murder in connection with a parade shooting spree on Sunday that wounded 20 people.    

More than half of water samples from about 150 public swimming pools in Atlanta contained traces of fecal matter, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.    

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has settled a lawsuit for $600,000 brought by the family of a girl who was 2 years old when Rev. Shawn Ratigan took pornographic pictures of her in 2006.    

Officials said the defendants profited by buying the goods in low-tax states in the South and selling them illegally in New York, avoiding the state’s high taxes.    

A crucial question for Republicans is how heavily they can press their cases against President Obama without triggering a backlash.    

Harry Reid, the majority leader, has been trying to gauge whether there is sufficient support among Democrats to limit the filibuster on presidential nominees.    

If ever a White House news conference fit the metaphorical moment, it was Thursday’s rainy-day affair in the Rose Garden.    

A Pentagon official urged Congress not to modify the statute providing the legal basis for battling the perpetrators of 9/11.    

The worst-hit town was Granbury, Tex., where six people were known dead and seven were missing.    

At a meeting at the White House, the president said the crisis of sexual assaults and harassment undermined trust in the military’s mission.    

Federal authorities arrested an Uzbek man in Boise on charges that he assisted a foreign terrorist group and possessed bomb-making materials.