The two elementary schools leveled by the deadly tornado that swept through the Oklahoma City area Monday lacked designated safe rooms designed to protect children and teachers, despite state warnings that the absence of such facilities imperils lives.

At least two other schools in Moore -- the epicenter...

When a patient arrives at Bayonne Hospital Center in New Jersey requiring treatment for the respiratory ailment known as COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she faces an official price tag of $99,690.

Less than 30 miles away in the Bronx, N.Y., the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center charges...

WEST, Texas -- Long before it captured national headlines as the scene of a lethal industrial explosion, the fertilizer plant on the edge of this central Texas town had been a community fixture, a crucial supply depot for farmers and ranchers who worked the surrounding pastures.

No one seemed to...

BOSTON -- For nearly three hours Wednesday afternoon, the federal courthouse overlooking Boston Harbor was swarmed by hundreds of reporters, cameramen and spectators waiting for a drama that never unfolded.

As unconfirmed reports spread throughout the media about an arrest in the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, Boston Police and...

BOSTON -- Near a baseball diamond and a grassy field where 8-year-old Martin Richard used to play, hundreds of neighbors with American flags and candles gathered Tuesday night to remember a young life cut short by the Boston Marathon bombing.

Many of those from the proud, close-knit neighborhood...

President Barack Obama's proposed budget for next year would reduce interest rates on federal student loans in an attempt to remove staggering burdens confronting graduates facing one of the weakest job markets in recent times.

The White House proposal would tie interest rates on student loans to the...

It was a move that baffled sports marketing experts: Florida Atlantic University struck a deal in February to name its football stadium after a private prison company.

But after more than a month of backlash from students, faculty and human rights groups, the GEO Group Inc. pulled out...

The corporate owner of a 1,700-bed private prison in Ohio has replaced its current warden after the state documented widespread gang-related violence and drug use at the facility over the past year.

The management change comes on the heels of a scathing inspection released last month by an...

A new report detailing a state inspection of a private prison in Ohio describes gang-related violence so commonplace and drug use so rampant that many guards are afraid to intervene -- instead, they are leaving their jobs at an alarming rate.

The harrowing report released last month on...

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released data on Thursday showing skyrocketing levels of student debt over the past decade. But the real picture may be worse.

Excluding student loan borrowers who delay repaying debts through so-called forbearance and deferral plans, the New York Fed's...

A team of accreditors reviewing the University of Phoenix has recommended that the school be placed on probation, the university's parent said Monday, jeopardizing the reputation of the nation's largest for-profit college and its ability to collect federal student aid dollars crucial to the school's bottom line.
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GEO Group Inc., the nation's second-largest private prison conglomerate, has until now mostly kept its brand far from the law-abiding public's consciousness.

But this week, as the company donated $6 million as part of a naming rights deal for a college football stadium in Florida, brand...

For more than two years, Florida Atlantic University has been searching for the name of a corporate sponsor to adorn its new 30,000-seat, palm-ringed football stadium.

The public university on Tuesday announced an unconventional partner: the nation's second-largest operator of for-profit prisons, the GEO Group Inc....

Starbucks had already mastered the art of doing business on multiple continents as it grew from a niche coffee retailer in Seattle into a global brand with thousands of outlets from Saudi Arabia to Peru. Now the company smelled a fresh opportunity that required a presence in mysterious territory with...

In terms of rhetoric, President Obama's latest State of the Union address offered an ambitious call to action, aiming for no less than the restoration of middle-class security for millions of Americans who have grown accustomed to sliding toward poverty.

"No one who works full-time should have to...

In terms of rhetoric, President Obama's latest State of the Union address offered an ambitious call to action, aiming for no less than the restoration of middle-class security for millions of Americans who have grown accustomed to sliding toward poverty.

"No one who works full-time should have to...

President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech included far-reaching economic proposals -- comprehensive tax reform and a multi-billion dollar jobs plan that stalled in 2011. Both will certainly require the cooperation of a gridlocked Congress.

But Obama signaled his intent to get around congressional inaction by using private-sector dollars...

When President Barack Obama steps to the podium for Tuesday night's State of the Union address, nearly everyone expects him to lay out proposals to generate job growth.

But nearly everyone also expects Republicans in the House to oppose whatever the president proposes, citing the need...

When a private prison corporation paid Ohio $72.7 million in 2011 to purchase one of the state's facilities, the company touted the deal as a "groundbreaking" move that would serve as a model for other states looking to cut costs.

But in the year since Corrections Corporation of...

Less than a week before Tuesday's shooting at a Texas community college, a national organization of college students proposed its answer to campus gun violence: Allow more students to be armed.

Students for Concealed Carry, which got its start after the Virginia Tech massacre in...