The federal government once considered whistle-blowers a nuisance, or worse. But over the past few years, that attitude has slowly started to change. More agencies have been reaching out for tips about fraud and abuse, even if digging through the stacks of complaints can present a challenge.

Zuoxiao Zuzhou is a controversial rock musician: He's hardly ever in tune. But in China he's become the ersatz voice of a generation, sometimes working alongside his close friend Ai Weiwei.

Gov. Sam Brownback plans to get rid of Kansas' income tax and cut the size of state government. Some lawmakers say it's a great experiment that will show that lower tax rates and streamlined bureaucracy can stimulate growth; others are concerned about overreaching.

Norma and Norman Burmah got married in 1931. This year they became the longest known married couple in the U.S. Norma is 99 years old. Norman is 102.

A restaurant in Sapporo, Japan, tells its customers to clean their plates. If they order the signature dish, which is all you can eat, they must eat it all or pay a fine which goes to fishermen.

The documentary Raising Adam Lanza seeks a more complete view of Nancy Lanza and her son, a young man who was described as smart and awkward as a teen — and who later killed 27 people in Newtown, Conn. The documentary is built on the work of PBS Frontline and The Hartford Courant.

The documentary Raising Adam Lanza seeks a more complete view of Nancy Lanza and her son, a young man who was described as smart and awkward as a teen — and who later killed 27 people in Newtown, Conn. The documentary is built on the work of PBS Frontline and The Hartford Courant.

Warren Buffett is one of the investors in a $23 billion bid to buy HJ Heinz Company. Lesser known is one of Buffet's partners in the acquisition. Jorge Paulo Lemann is Brazil's richest man, according to Bloomberg.

It looks like the across the board spending cuts that were never supposed to happen are going to — at least for a while. It's another sign of Washington's dysfunction.

The clock is ticking on the sequester. That's the Washington term for the across the board spending cuts that will take effect March 1st unless Congress acts to put them off.

Chuck Hagel will have to wait at least another 10 days to find out if the Senate will confirm him as the next secretary of defense. That's because Senate Democrats failed to muster the 60 vote supermajority needed to break a GOP filibuster of the former Nebraska Republican senator's nomination.

This week's debacle on the Carnival Triumph is a setback that may cost the company as much as $80 million and hurt the industry's image. Carnival says passengers who were on the Triumph the last five days without power were miserable, but at least they were safe. Industry watchers say Carnival generally has handled the mishap well, but that the industry may need to rethink how it deal with events like power outages on floating cities than can carry more than 5,000 people.

The latest economic numbers from Europe are in and they are not encouraging. The countries that make up the eurozone say their economies shrank at a 2.3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter. Italy and Spain had especially sharp declines.

Several anti-violence activists have been calling for President Obama to visit his hometown after a series of deadly incidents involved guns. They want to hear the president's plans to curb a gun problem many consider an epidemic.

Conventional wisdom says fewer airlines mean higher fares and fewer flights. But experts say the American Airlines-U.S. Airways proposed merger is a mixed bag. Past mergers haven't led to significantly higher fares, but will this time be different?

The Palestinian Authority has been running on fumes since November. The group's successful bid to be recognized as a "state" by the U.N. has led to financial sanctions by Israel and the U.S., and pledges from the Arab world have not shown up.

The International Olympic Committee's unexpected move to eliminate wrestling as of the 2020 games was a particular shock to Turkey. Turks love the ancient sport, and two-thirds of Turkey's Olympic medals are in wrestling.

The owner of an oil and natural gas drilling company in Youngstown, Ohio, has been charged with violating the federal Clean Water Act. He's accused of dumping tens of thousands of gallons of drilling waste water into a storm sewer that eventually runs into a local river.

Scientists are learning what artists have already figured out: there's money out there. Specifically, there's money among the users of the Internet, and they are willing to donate it for what they consider to be good causes.

Given how much money the Die Hard franchise has made, it's not surprising that A Good Day To Die Hard plays like an extended victory lap for star Bruce Willis. Not surprising, but not a whole lot of fun either.