The Federation of American Hospitals cut its first-quarter spending on federal government lobbying 30 percent from the year-earlier quarter, when Congress debated and then passed the health care overhaul.

Ohio is reporting the nation's largest decline in new applications for unemployment benefits, while the government says the number of claims nationwide is mostly unchanged.

Another unintended consequence of President Barack Obama's health care law has emerged: Older adults of the same age and income with similar medical histories could pay widely different amounts for private health insurance due to a quirk of the complex legislation.

When Connecticut lawmakers return to the state Capitol on Thursday, not only will they be asked to grant Gov. Dannel P. Malloy greater budget-cutting authority, now that state employees have defeated a labor-savings and concessions deal, but to also scale back some of the workers' future benefit