The plan gains support as pressure mounts on both political parties.

The House on Thursday passed the most sweeping government plan yet to shore up the troubled housing market and help people struggling to pay their mortgages, adopting legislation that would underwrite $300 billion in new loans and keep an estimated 500,000 homeowners out of foreclosure.

Her supporters, largely resigned to losing, discuss a way out as she continues to campaign.

She's darting around the country like a full-fledged presidential candidate, but within Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's circle of advisors and donors, the conversation has turned to how she can make a dignified exit from the race.

A company hired to build houses on some of the acreage is run by a man who has given $100,000 to the Republican candidate.

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Rep. Gary G. Miller of Diamond Bar has long been a stalwart Republican, voting the party line 96% of the time last year.

The former O.C. sheriff sought investigative records on three men who were once part of his inner circle. They are expected to testify against him.

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona lost another round in court Thursday as a federal judge rejected his efforts to obtain investigative files and records in cases that involve three former associates who are expected to be chief prosecution witnesses at his August corruption trial.

Democratic lawmakers search far and wide for new revenue to balance the state budget, though Republicans have vowed to stop any tax hikes.

As state leaders hunt for politically palatable solutions to the swelling budget shortfall, some Democrats are proposing unorthodox ways to generate cash.

The Democratic race has clearly turned with her narrow Indiana win and a resounding North Carolina loss, some journalism heavyweights argue.

Hillary Rodham Clinton may be short on delegates, money and time, but she faced an even more ominous and intractable impediment Wednesday: a growing consensus in the media that her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination is doomed.

The party worries that another month of rough campaigning could further hurt Obama's chances in the fall election.

Dogged by defections and signs of financial trouble, Hillary Rodham Clinton faced a significant shift Wednesday even among supporters as talk turned from how she might win to how she can end her presidential campaign gracefully.

She would have to get the DNC to count the Michigan and Florida delegates and then press her case with superdelegates.

Unable to revive her presidential campaign at the polls, Hillary Rodham Clinton now envisions a road to the nomination built on disputes over Democratic Party rules and fights over delegate selections. But on Wednesday even that route looked unattainable, with some key party officials warning that they would not cooperate with Clinton's strategy.

A vote-counting snafu is just the latest misstep for the Indiana city best known for its crime and corruption.

As the nation impatiently waited Tuesday for primary results from Indiana's Lake County -- and the city of Gary in particular -- Hoosiers had a sinking feeling.