WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress lurched toward Grinch-like gridlock on Tuesday as the Republican-controlled House rejected a two-month extension of Social Security tax cuts that President Barack Obama said was "the only viable way" to prevent a drop in take-home pay for 160 million workers on Jan. 1.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida A&M's president will keep his job after the university board of trustees Monday rejected a call from Gov. Rick Scott that James Ammons be suspended while the hazing death of a band member is investigated.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With neither side showing signs of yielding, a bitterly divided House debated a Republican effort Tuesday to force the Senate to negotiate a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits due to expire on New Year's Day.

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut (AP) The growing scrutiny of the rich dominated this year's best quotes in the United States, according to a Yale University librarian who anointed the Occupy Wall Street protesters' slogan -- ``We are the 99 percent'' -- as the year's best.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Just a year ago, tea party activists came roaring out of the congressional elections eager to shape the looming race for the White House. Things have not gone as planned.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional investigators said Monday that four House members received VIP discounted loans from the former Countrywide Financial Corp., the lender whose subprime mortgages was largely responsible for the nation's foreclosure crisis.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House intends to vote down a bipartisan two-month extension of the payroll tax cut that has cleared the Senate and is backed by President Barack Obama, and request immediate negotiations on a full-year renewal, Speaker John Boehner said Monday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At least two New Hampshire Republicans are accusing Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign of making illegal political telephone calls.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A driver in the next lane is moving his lips. Is he on a hands-free cellphone? Talking to someone in the car? To himself? Singing along to the radio? If lawmakers follow the advice of a federal board, police officers will have to start figuring that out - somehow.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A federal judge on Friday dismissed a Utah company's $1 billion federal antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in a case so important to the computer giant that it put Bill Gates on the stand for two days last month.