Bill Chappell

President Obama has signed a $1.1 trillion funding bill that will keep the federal government running until Sept. 30, 2016. Earlier on Friday, the Senate gave final congressional approval to the bill, which includes nearly $700 billion in tax breaks.

The Senate adopted the Omnibus Appropriations Act by a vote ...

In a finding that suggests "considerable water activity" on Mars, NASA says its Curiosity rover has found very high concentrations of silica on the red planet. The agency says it also found "a mineral named tridymite, rare on Earth and never seen before on Mars."

The discoveries took place on ...

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who devoted herself to helping the poor, will be canonized as a saint, after Pope Francis issued a decree attributing a second miracle to the founder of the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

The canonization is expected to occur ...

More than a year after his arrest on terrorism-related charges, Mufid A. Elfgeeh of Rochester, N.Y., has pleaded guilty to trying to provide material support and resources to ISIS. Elfgeeh admitted to raising money and recruiting for the extremist group.

U.S. officials say that Elfgeeh used social media to send ...

It ranges from the serious — even the wonky — to the (arguably) absurd. The list of the Two-Way's most popular stories for 2015 covers that ground, and also includes our coverage of the shocking and tragic attacks in Paris.

The Web traffic to these stories ranges from 624,000 page ...

What stories on the Two-Way did readers respond to the most this year? That's a question we wanted to answer in looking at end-of-year statistics for 2015.

These aren't the stories that were shared the most in 2015 in terms of sheer volume — a lineup that largely mirrors the ...

Martin Shkreli, the drug executive who was widely criticized for sharply raising the price of a drug used by HIV patients, was arrested Thursday by federal agents on charges that he misused funds at the company he founded.

Shkreli entered a not guilty plea and was released on a $5 ...

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia and the United States can work together on a plan for Syria and defeating ISIS, saying the group "is posing a threat to everyone. So the sooner we do this, the sooner we settle the conflict, the better."

Speaking in a large auditorium at ...

One day after jurors in the trial of Baltimore Police Officer William Porter announced they were deadlocked, the judge in the case has declared a mistrial. The jury couldn't reach a verdict on involuntary manslaughter and three other charges Porter faced over the death of Freddie Gray last April.

On ...

Fuel economy is at record highs and carmakers have surpassed strict greenhouse gas emissions standards for the third straight year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which released a pair of annual reports about the U.S. fleet of cars and trucks Wednesday.

Overall, fuel economy for vehicles in the U.S. ...

Finalizing the settlement of a class-action lawsuit that alleged overuse of solitary confinement, New York will change the way it handles such confinement in its prison system. The changes center on improving prisoners' socialization and rehabilitation.

The 79-page agreement ends a lawsuit filed by New York's ACLU chapter, which ...

On the second day of deliberations in the trial of a Baltimore police officer who's accused of involuntary manslaughter and other charges in the death of Freddie Gray, the jury sent a note to the judge saying they're deadlocked.

Judge Barry G. Williams instructed the jurors to keep working toward ...

Fans of the Memphis Grizzlies can exult, after ranking first in a new national study. And there's a good chance they'll spell "exult" correctly: The team's fans were found to make the fewest grammatical mistakes in a review of comments about three of America's major sports.

NBA fans made the ...

French politician Marine Le Pen, the head of the far-right National Front party, has been cleared of charges that she incited hatred when she compared Muslim street prayers to the Nazi occupation of her country during World War II.

If found guilty, Le Pen could have faced a penalty of ...

One week after Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced women in the U.S. military can serve in any combat role, a federal appeals court is considering a lawsuit from a men's group that says a male-only draft is unconstitutional.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California will ...

It's a historic day in Saudi Arabia, where officials are touting municipal elections in which women are not only voting for the first time, but also standing for office. But if they want to cast a vote, they'll have to catch a ride: the kingdom still forbids women from driving.

In what supporters are calling a historic achievement, 196 nations attending the COP21 climate meetings outside Paris voted to adopt an agreement Saturday that covers both developed and developing countries. Their respective governments will now need to adopt the deal.

Presenting the plan aimed at curbing global warming ahead of ...

A New York state appeals court is temporarily allowing daily fantasy sports sites FanDuel and DraftKings to continue operating in the state, blocking a lower court's ruling to bar the websites that was handed down earlier in the day.

The order allows the companies to continue business while the issue ...

Months after he was fired from the Oklahoma City police force, Daniel Holtzclaw was found guilty of four counts of first-degree rape and numerous other sexual offenses against eight victims.

The 12-member jury in the case — eight men and four women — had deliberated since Monday. They found the ...

The two largest chemical companies in America will become one entity named DowDuPont, as Dow Chemical and DuPont say they're joining in a "merger of equals." The new company will have a market capitalization of around $130 billion.

After the merger, the resulting behemoth would be split into what Dow ...