Texas governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry is not backing down from his threat against Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve. At an event in Iowa on Monday, Perry said that it would be treason if the Fed were to print more money. The Federal Reserve is no stranger from receiving criticism, but where left-wing politicians were formerly it's biggest critics, more recently conservatives like Ron Paul have been lashing out against the Fed.

U.S. officials believe Pakistan may have allowed China to study and take samples of the stealth helicopter that crashed during the Osama bin Laden raid in May, before they returned it to the U.S. If the allegations are true, it continues a long history of China trying to obtain U.S. military secrets. How will this latest story affect relations not only between China and the U.S., but between the U.S. and Pakistan?

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's trial resumes today. Mubarak is charged with conspiring to kill protesters who drove him from office in February, and could face the death penalty if he's convicted. There are many Egyptians who want to see Mubarak found guilty and punished for the alleged crimes he committed during his 30 years of power. Could such overwhelming disdain for this man keep him from receiving a fair trial?

After a homeless man was shot dead by Bay Area Rapid Transit system police last month, outraged citizens planned protests for last Thursday at a BART station, planning to organize via their mobile devices. To prevent the demonstrations, BART cut off cell phone service to its passengers. Many called this action censorship, and retaliated. The hacker group Anonymous broke into the BART website, defaced it and released user information to the public. Another protest is set to take place at a BART station today. How will BART handle it this time?

President Obama is departing today for his three-day bus tour through the Midwest, where he will stop in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. With his poll numbers slipping, Obama will be talking with Americans about ways to improve the economy and job growth. While Obama is on the road, Texas Governor Rick Perry, who announced this weekend that he will seek the 2012 Republican nomination, will begin fundraising for his campaign. As the race to for the presidency kicks up a notch, a Congressional twelve-member 'super committee' will begin work on a debt-reduction strategy, aiming to come up with a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion by Thanksgiving of this year.

In the wake of Standard and Poor's decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating, and an economy still struggling to keep its head above water, the Federal Reserve decided yesterday to keep the nation's interest rate close to zero through 2013. The rate has been static for the past two years. The response on Wall Street seemed mixed. At first stocks took a bit of a dive, but they recovered.  The Dow closed up 429 points yesterday after a late rally.

Stock markets went into a free-fall yesterday, witnessing drops reminiscent of the great economic collapse of 2008 that the world has still yet to recover from. The S&P 500 saw all of its stock fall and the Dow Jones industrials fell 634.76 points, the sixth worst drop in over a century. How informative is the S&P downgrade? What can we take from their assessment of Washington?

The markets continued their volatile ways yesterday with stocks taking a major nose-dive. Investors went into panic-mode trying to find anything safe to put their money into. Most put their money into the U.S. government's debt, but uncertainty remains. With so many factors affecting the global markets, how do we decide how investors will react and influence the markets?

Markets had severe case of the Monday's yesterday as stocks plunged. The Dow Jones industrials saw a drop of 634.76 points and not one stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 index saw an increase. In a word, investors were in a panic, desperately trying to find anything with value to put their money in.

The credit rating agency Standard and Poor's downgraded the United States' credit rating for the first time in its history, from AAA to AA+, last Friday. This news sent shock-waves around the globe, sending markets into free-fall, and forcing global leaders into emergency meetings.

There are reports of fresh artillery fire early this morning in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, Syria, following a bloody weekend that killed dozens and forced thousands to flee as the Syrian regime continues its violent crackdown on protesters. In response to the violence, Saudi Arabia joined the chorus of international condemnations, removing their ambassador from Syria. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has called for an end to the bloodshed. The crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has left more than 2,000 people killed by the count of some human rights groups.

Credit ratings agency Standard and Poor's downgraded the U.S.'s credit rating for the first time in history on Friday, causing jaws to drop across the country, and raising the blood-pressures of leaders worldwide as many held emergency meetings to fend off any backlash this news might create. President Obama will be preparing this week for his upcoming bus tour to reconnect with voters in the Midwest. Meanwhile, News Corp. will release their fourth quarter results on Wednesday, the PGA Championship kicks off on Thursday, and Dennis Rodman will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday.

Despite Congress finally passing a debt deal and President Obama signing off on the plan yesterday, the national mood was not celebratory. It's been a bad week for the economy, and it appears that it will only get worse. Last Friday, G.D.P. data showed disappointing economic activity in the nation's second quarter, and this week the Commerce Department released a report showing consumer spending fell in June. New employment figures, the economic indicator used to gauge growth, will be released Friday, and many are expecting them to be dismal.

The debt deal President Obama signed into law yesterday may bring about the end of years of huge Pentagon budgets. The Pentagon will need to slash $350 billion from the defense budget over the next decade, and that number could potentially increase to $600 billion. If the joint bipartisan committee created under the debt plan fails to reach an agreement on future spending cuts, a "trigger" mechanism will force across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade. While supporters say this is these cuts are overdue, critics and defense hawks argue they will undermine national security.

On May 1, a group of U.S. Navy SEALs entered Pakistan in Blackhawk helicopters and raided a compound in Abottobad, where they found and killed the world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden. An extraordinary story has now emerged of what is perhaps the most successful covert operation in U.S. history. 

The House of Representatives passed a landmark deal yesterday as the United States inched closer to defaulting on its debts. As the bill makes its way over to the Senate many are noting the influence that the Tea Party had on the outcome. During the debate, some Republican freshman members were urging leaders not to make any concessions, and some felt any increase in the debt ceiling was out of the question. How will these new Tea Party members react to Speaker Boehner's compromise?

The nation's debt crisis has all eyes on the politicians on Capitol Hill. But we wanted to know how the debt crisis is playing out in different cities across the country — what local fears and concerns are, and what people have to say about what's happening in the District of Columbia. We headed to Denver, Colo., Detroit, Mich., and Miami, Fla. to hear what people have to say about the current debt crisis.

The August 2 deadline for Congress to agree on a budget deal and avoid defaulting is looming uncomfortably close. Last night, President Obama and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid said tonight that congressional leaders of both parties have agreed on a plan to lift the debt ceiling. They will present the plan to their caucuses this morning, and hope for the measure to pass through votes by both the House and Senate, in order to avoid a U.S. default by August 2.

American Sign Language could be a dying form of communication, thanks to dwindling education funding and technological alternatives. Many deaf people are adamant that sign language will always be essential, but state budget cuts are threatening to close schools that teach it. This adds to the existing debate in the deaf community, between those who communicate with sounds and high-tech cochlear implants, and those who utilize sign language.

Yesterday, the United States Postal Service released a list of 3,653 post offices it will be reviewing and could potentially close because of low activity and workload. Most of these threatened branches are in rural areas of the United States.