Consumers may have cut their spending in this recession, but they're still buying booze from state liquor stores.

Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International will continue to operate the 222-S Laboratory in central Hanford after winning a second contract.

MILWAUKEE -- Almost three-quarters of U.S. adults, or nearly 171 million people, read a newspaper -- print or online -- during the past week, according to a new study by Scarborough Research.

The Tri-Cities, once again, has made national news.

RICHLAND -- When the United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties reviewed its lists of donors and volunteers, one group was absent.

RICHLAND -- Popular Science magazine was impressed enough with a technology developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland to name it one of 2009's best 100 technologies.

Charter Communications Inc. said Tuesday a bankruptcy judge has confirmed its reorganization plan, clearing the way for the nation's fourth-largest cable TV operator to emerge from Chapter 11 in a few weeks.

PORTLAND -- Oregon's unemployment rate has been falling, but that could be partly because some people can't find a job.

The Tri-Cities has gained 3,000 nonfarm jobs over the past year.

NEW YORK -- Internet phone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp. has agreed to pay $3 million to 32 states to settle an investigation into some of its business practices.

WASHINGTON A bruising debate on health care awaits the Senate after Thanksgiving now that the historic legislation has cleared a key hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama.

WASHINGTON The number of Americans traveling away from home for Thanksgiving will be up only slightly this year from 2008, according to a report from the AAA auto club.

WASHINGTON President Barack Obama's eight-day trip to Asia produced no tangible wins for the United States, though he is citing talks with Asian allies that he says could help create thousands of job and open new markets for American goods in the future.

WASHINGTON The Senate has begun voting on whether to move ahead on a sweeping health care bill.

YERINGTON, Nev. Peggy Pauly lives in a robin-egg blue, two-story house not far from acres of onion fields that make the northern Nevada air smell sweet at harvest time.

SEOUL, South Korea Apple Inc's iPhone is coming to South Korea this week, a local carrier announced Sunday, bringing the iconic communications device to one of the world's most sophisticated mobile phone markets.

NEW YORK The flurry of initial public offerings this week is confirmation that this fall's rebound in the market wasn't a fluke and sets the stage for more companies to raise money through IPOs in 2010. But the response to two of the newly public companies shows that investors continue to be careful about where they place their bets.

NEW YORK Consumers who haven't yet ordered Barnes & Noble's electronic book reader, the Nook, won't see one before Christmas.

MILWAUKEE A lawsuit in Wisconsin is bringing a fresh challenge to the practice of paying for keywords on Google and other search engines to boost one company's link over a rival's.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Microsoft Corp. is giving away nearly 24,000 vouchers to North Carolina residents who want to improve their computer skills so they can improve their lot in the work force.