Employee-Paid

House Republicans unveiled a bill Friday renewing the Social Security payroll tax cut and extending but trimming unemployment benefits but barreled toward a showdown with President Barack Obama by including language jumpstarting work on a controversial oil pipeline.

President Barack Obama vowed to delay Congress' year-end vacation as well as his own Thursday for "as long as it takes" to extend Social Security payroll tax cuts and long-term jobless benefits, his second challenge in as many days to conservative Republicans.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he's confident that congressional Republicans are ready to move ahead with legislation that would continue a payroll tax cut.

The number of major U.S. companies covering the cost of gender reassignment surgery for transgender workers has more than doubled in the past year, according to a new scorecard compiled by the nation's largest gay rights group.

President Barack Obama delivered a sweeping indictment of economic inequality in the U.S. on Tuesday as he summoned the memory of President Theodore Roosevelt and pledged to fight for fairness at a "make or break moment for the middle class."

President Barack Obama accepted a move by Senate Democrats to scale back his Social Security payroll tax cut extension on Monday, then prodded Republicans to support it despite a requirement for the very wealthy to pay more taxes.