Stung by an embarrassing electronic leak last month revealing ethics investigations into dozens of lawmakers, Congress moved Tuesday to prohibit federal employees from using the same type of Internet file-sharing software blamed for the disclosure.

The Social Security Administration makes it official Thursday: There will be no cost of living increase for Social Security recipients next year, the first year without one since automatic adjustments were adopted in 1975.

Reverse mortgages are quickly turning into a main source of income for struggling seniors trying to stay financially afloat, industry analysts say.  But the mortgages come with significant drawbacks, such as high fees, complicated paperwork and the possibility of owing more than the value of the home.

Even as the Obama administration braces for another grim report about job losses on Friday, economists say that the president’s $787 billion stimulus package has helped blunt the downturn in limited but discernible ways.

The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

General Motors is using its huge pension fund in a way it never intended. It had planned — and put money aside — for a steady march of retirees over time. But instead, tens of thousands of blue-collar workers, most in their 40s and 50s, are all becoming eligible for retirement benefits now, as the company rapidly downsizes.

Two government officials whose wives are owners of a Mexican day care center where 44 children died in a fire resigned Tuesday, saying they wanted to clear the way for an investigation.

A former San Diego history professor has pleaded not guilty to cashing his dead mother's Social Security and pension checks for 15 years.

People in the business community often argue against expanding public health care and pension benefits, arguing that this would raise taxes and that the private sector can do a better job providing those benefits than the government. But the evidence is mounting that the private sector can't.