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NASCAR star Tony Stewart hit and killed another driver who was walking on the track in a sprint car race on Saturday night. The other driver, Kevin Ward Jr., had collided with Stewart on the previous lap, leaving Ward’s car with a flat tire and pushed into the wall. As officials threw a caution, Ward left his car and began walking down the track — gesturing angrily toward Stewart — before being clipped and dragged 50 feet by Stewart’s car. Several spectators told Bob Pockrass of The Sporting News that Stewart appeared to throttle his car before colliding with Ward.

The Supreme Court on Monday mostly validated the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to regulate power plant and factory emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, while imposing some limits on the agency’s reach. The justices said the EPA could not rewrite specific standards written into the law, but they still handed the Obama administration and environmentalists a big victory by agreeing there was another way for the EPA to carry out its program.

The Internal Revenue Service, already facing accusations that its workers improperly snooped through tax files, has hired a former police officer convicted just a few years ago of illegally accessing FBI records and providing information to a subject of a counterterrorism investigation involving an infamous al Qaeda figure. Mohammad Weiss Rasool, or Weiss Russell as he is known at the IRS, was sentenced to two years of probation in 2008 after pleading guilty in federal court to illegally accessing the FBI's National Crime Information Center database to run license tag numbers for a friend he thought was being followed. That...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A day after receiving a stinging rebuke from a powerful Albany lawmaker who threatened to block his prekindergarten tax hike plan, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio angrily demanded a vote while coordinating a show of force to defend his signature proposal that now appears to be in substantial jeopardy. De Blasio rallied with dozens of influential African-American clergy leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, in Brooklyn, while his close ally Melissa Mark-Viverito, the city council speaker, did the same with local elected officials and parents at City Hall, all urging lawmakers 150 miles to...

Just in; Caleb Jacoby has been found. Safe and well more to follow as details become available.

After a gay server at a New Jersey restaurant said a customer denied her a tip and wrote her a hateful note on the receipt, a local family contacted NBC 4 New York and said their receipt shows they paid a tip and didn't write any such note. Dayna Morales, a former Marine and a server at Gallop Asian Bistro in Bridgewater, posted a photo on Facebook earlier this month, showing the bill with a line through the space for a tip. The photo of the receipt showed someone had written, "I'm sorry but I cannot tip because I do...

U.S. officials have given the thumbs-up to four Chinese poultry plants, paving the way for the country to send processed chicken to American markets, according to audit reports obtained by POLITICO. The audit reports expected to be made public Friday show that the Chinese processing plants passed U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections performed in March and the positive results make it likely the foreign producers soon will become eligible to export to the U.S According to the audit, at first, China will only be able to process chicken that has been slaughtered in the U.S. or other certified countries.

“Sopranos” star James Gandolfini, who struggled with booze addiction in his final weeks, scarfed down a decadent final meal that included at least eight alcoholic drinks, The Post has learned. Gandolfini guzzled four shots of rum, two pina coladas, and two beers at dinner with his son — while he chowed down on two orders of fried king prawns and a “large portion” of foie gras, a hotel source in Rome said. The Emmy Award winner had attended several Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on Perry Street in the West Village, but people who saw him there “didn’t think that he was...

MY MOTHER fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was. We often speak of “Mommy’s mommy,” and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me. I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a “faulty” gene, BRCA1,...

The final Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll of Election 2012 shows Mitt Romney attracting support from 49% of voters nationwide, while President Obama earns the vote from 48%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate. See daily tracking history. Rasmussen Reports will continue tracking the president’s job approval rating and other topics, and new results will be updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Both candidates are viewed favorably by 50% of voters nationwide. When it comes to the economy, 50% trust Romney more, while 47% have more confidence in the president.

Despite a dip in support, Barack Obama retains a narrow 46-43 percent edge over Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the Buckeye state. Obama topped Romney by seven percentage points in Ohio a month ago (49-42 percent). The president has lost ground among independents (down 10 points from September), women (down eight points) and voters under age 35 (down six points).

On the eve of their second debate, President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney remain locked in a virtual dead heat nationally, with Republicans showing increased enthusiasm for their nominee after his big win in the first debate, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Likely voters in the new poll split 49 percent for Obama to 46 percent for Romney, basically unmoved from the poll two weeks ago, just before the two candidates met in Denver for their first debate. On topic after topic, the survey portrays an electorate that remains deeply divided along partisan lines and locked in...

Mitt Romney now holds a narrow advantage over Barack Obama in the race for the White House -- 46 percent to 45 percent, if the election were held today, according to a Fox News national poll of likely voters released Wednesday. That’s a six-point turnaround and a three-point “debate bounce” for Romney. Before the first presidential debate in Denver last Wednesday, Romney had 43 percent to Obama’s 48 percent (September 24-26, 2012). Romney’s edge comes mainly from independents, white voters and men. Just over half of men (51 percent) back Romney now, the highest level of support he’s received among...

The Gallup poll indicates that Obama held a 50%-45% advantage over Romney from September 30-October 2, the three days leading up to last Wednesday's presidential debate in Denver, Colorado. According to the survey, Romney and Obama were deadlocked at 47% each in the three days after the debate, from October 4-6.

Uh-oh. In its fourth airing on Thursday, Katie Couric’s new syndicated talk show dropped 26% in households to a 1.7/5 in the metered markets and 38% to a 0.8/5 in the key Women 25-54 demographic. In households, Katie still finished first among the freshman daytime talk shows but by a smaller margin. In W25-54, it was edged by Steve Harvey (0.9/6 in W 25-54, 1.3/4 in HH), which finished as No.1 for the first time since the launch of Katie.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows President Obama attracting support from 47% of voters nationwide, while Mitt Romney earns 44% of the vote. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) are undecided. A president’s job approval rating is one of the best indicators for assessing his chances of reelection. Typically, the president’s job approval rating on Election Day will be close to the share of the vote he receives. Currently, 50% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's job performance. Forty-nine percent (49%) at least somewhat disapprove of...

After Mitt Romney selected his vice presidential running mate, and just days before the political conventions kick off next week, President Barack Obama maintains his advantage in the race for the White House, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. A Democratic ticket featuring Obama and Vice President Joe Biden gets support from 48 percent of registered voters, and a Republican ticket of Romney and new running mate Paul Ryan gets 44 percent. These numbers are only slightly changed from July, when Obama led Romney by six points in the survey, 49 percent to 43 percent, suggesting a...

Michigan's attorney general has charged four of former U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter's campaign staffers in an investigation into fake and duplicate signatures on nominating petitions. Attorney General Bill Schuette announced charges Thursday ranging from forgery and conspiracy to falsely signing election documents.

Are you better off than you were four years ago? Ronald Reagan asked Americans voters that in a pivotal 1980 debate with then-President Jimmy Carter. Today, fewer than four voters in ten answer yes to the question. Thirty-seven percent of voters say they are better off than four years ago. Nearly half -- 48 percent -- say they aren’t. Another 13 percent say their situation is unchanged.

(CBS News) President Obama and Mitt Romney are effectively tied in the race for the presidency, according to a new CBS News/New York Times survey. Forty-seven percent of registered voters nationwide who lean towards a candidate back Romney, while 46 percent support the president. Four percent are undecided. The one percentage point difference is within the survey's three point margin of error. Romney leads by eight points among men; the president leads by five points among women. The president's supporters are more likely to strongly back their candidate. Fifty-two percent strongly favor Mr. Obama, while just 29 percent of Romney...