Mississippi now has highest teen birth rate
Mississippi now has the nation's highest teen birth rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title, according to a new federal report.

5 reasons to be cautious about stocks
With the stock market up 25 percent from November lows, a lot of individual investors are asking: Is this rally for real?

CBO sees record $1.2 trillion '09 deficit
The federal budget deficit will hit an unprecedented $1.2 trillion for the 2009 budget year, according to grim new Congressional Budget Office figures.

Holiday shoppers stuck to spending pledge

When it comes to holiday shopping, Americans have been great at saying they were going to cut back — but not so good at actually doing it. This year appears to be an exception.

Man wants estranged wife to pay for kidney
A New York doctor is demanding that his estranged wife pay him $1.5 million to compensate him for the kidney he gave her while they were still on good terms.

Gaza Palestinians: ‘Everywhere is dangerous'

Msnbc.com's Kari Huus on Wednesday interviewed two young Palestinians in Gaza by phone to hear their accounts of life in the battle zone.

'God' author faces plagiarism claim

Neale Donald Walsch, best-selling author of "Conversations with God," said that he unwittingly passed off another writer's Christmas anecdote as his own in a recent blog post.

'Sno-maggedon' has Spokane on edge

More than 6 feet of snow in the past three weeks has left Spokane residents frustrated. Tempers are so frayed that a man was arrested for shooting at a snow plow operator.

Ice storm in Northeast, floods in South

Storms had people on edge across the U.S. Wednesday, with ice and freezing rain  in the Northeast, flooding and power outages in the South and the Pacific Northwest watching for avalanches.