The United States of America, also known as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the U.S. of A, the States, and America, is a country in North America. A federal republic, the United States shares land borders with Canada and Mexico, and extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Its capital is Washington, D.C.

The present-day continental United States has been inhabited for at least 15,000 years by Native Americans. After 16th-century European exploration and settlement, the English established new colonies, and gained control of others, in the eastern portion of the continent in the 17th and early 18th centuries. On 4 July 1776, at war with Britain over fair governance, thirteen of these colonies declared their independence; in 1783, the war ended in British acceptance of the new nation. Since then, the country has more than quadrupled in size: it now consists of 50 states, one federal district, and a number of overseas territories.

At over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.1 million km²), the U.S. is the third largest country by area. It is also the world's third most populous nation, with nearly 300 million people.

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USATODAY.com Nation - Top Stories

Statue of Liberty gets her view back
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:38:49 -0000
It's a quintessentially American tradition, suspended since Sept. 11, 2001: to climb to the crown of the Statue of Liberty and ...
Study: Few survive cardiac arrest, even with hospital CPR
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:54:40 -0000
The odds of surviving cardiac arrest after getting CPR in a hospital are slim and have not improved in more than a decade, a ...
'Incredibly unethical': Federal probe finds problems in chelation study
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:24:59 -0000
A federal investigation has found that heart attack survivors enrolled in a study of a controversial alternative medicine treatment ...
$2.7B in stimulus money released for schools
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:03:14 -0000
Education Secretary Arne Duncan is releasing $2.7 billion in stimulus dollars earlier than planned to help states confront increasingly ...
Spiritual adviser: 'Darkness' gripped Sanford
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:45:07 -0000
Each Sunday afternoon in May, Gov. Mark Sanford and his wife hosted five other couples at the executive mansion for a spiritual ...
Religious broadcaster builds $4M home despite layoffs at his ministry
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:45:19 -0000
Inspiration Networks' CEO David Cerullo is building a $4 million home in a gated, lakefront community in western South Carolina ...

The Economist: United States

Unemployment insurance: More money, more problems
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:22 -0000
A few Republicans are holding out against more unemployment insuranceMARK SANFORD, the Republican governor of South Carolina, is a strict fiscal disciplinarian. When Washington announced its economic stimulus plans last year, he opposed the whole idea. At the time his state’s unemployment rate was among the highest in the nation, and in December the fund that doles out unemployment benefits ran out of money. As the months went on South Carolina’s situation only worsened and Mr Sanford accepted bits of federal money here and there, complaining all the while. And in June the South Carolina Supreme Court ordered him to request the unemployment money.Critics accused him of grandstanding with an eye to the 2012 presidential election—at least until his chances were sunk by a scandal involving adultery, Argentina and the Appalachian Trail: Mr Sanford may have to stand down as governor. But Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi, is ready to take his spot. Earlier this year he said he did not want federal money for unemployment insurance because it would force Mississippi to pony up for people who are “not willing” to take a full-time job. Mississippi’s malingering rate has soared to 9.6%, but Mr Barbour has not relented. ...
State budgets in crisis: Happy new year
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:22 -0000
The pain of balancing budgetsTHE mantra in Washington, DC, is simple: spend billions now, pay later. Congress has been crafting ambitious plans for energy, health care and transport. But the mood in state capitals has been different. Forty-six states had a deadline of June 30th to pass their budgets. Just as important, those budgets had to be balanced. With the sole exemption of Vermont America’s state governments, unlike the federal one, are not allowed to run deficits. For many states June was an agonising month. Every state but two, commodity-rich North Dakota and Montana, has faced a deficit this year. One legislator in New Jersey described her state as “functionally bankrupt”. More than 5,000 Illinoisans gathered on June 23rd to protest against cuts to social services, with a child placed in a coffin for dramatic effect. In California, which faces a $24 billion gap, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor, sent the leader of the state Senate a metallic pair of bull testicles to urge him to cut spending. ...
Captain Hudson’s journey: Fair to foul and back again
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:22 -0000
The Hudson River, 400 years onAS AMERICA celebrates its birthday on July 4th, New York is celebrating the discovery of its Hudson river. The Dutch East India Company hired Henry Hudson, an English explorer, to find a north-west passage to Asia. He failed: the route defied all explorers until Roald Amundsen in 1906. But Hudson’s journey of 1609 up the river that would later bear his name led to a valuable trade in furs and eventually to settlement by the Dutch. His shipmate recorded abundant fish and that the surrounding lands “were as pleasant with Grasse and Flowers, and goodly Trees, as euer they had seene, and very sweet smells came from them.” The smells unfortunately, have not always been so sweet. The Hudson has been exploited and abused. Factories used the river as a dumping-ground. At one time a 20-mile stretch of the Hudson had little or no aquatic life. “You could tell what colour the GM plant in Sleepy Hollow was painting its cars by the colour of the water,” recalls Alex Matthiessen, president of Riverkeeper, an environmental watchdog. Since the 1960s, groups like Riverkeeper and advocates such as Pete Seeger, a folk singer, have fought to restore the river’s ecosystem. The 1972 Clean Water Act helped deter polluters. And in 1984 the federal Environmental Protection Agency classified 200 miles of the river as a Superfund site, eligible for special attention. As a result of all this the river has begun to look like its old self. Water quality has improved. Some fish populations look healthier. The Bald Eagle once again nests nearby. ...
A year at the Supreme Court : Fairness for firefighters
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:21 -0000
The court grapples with baffling racial laws, and much elseTHEY celebrated with a Stars-and-Stripes-iced cake. On June 29th the Supreme Court ruled in favour of white and Hispanic firefighters who were discriminated against by the city of New Haven, Connecticut. Six years ago the city put them through an exam to decide whom to promote. When no black scored highly enough, it scrapped the test and promoted no one. The passed-over firefighters sued. The city said the test must have been unfair. By a 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court disagreed, finding it both fair and relevant. The ruling added a little clarity to America’s incomprehensible racial laws. Employers sometimes face a Catch-22: they are barred from treating employees differently because of their race, but forbidden from treating everyone the same if that has a “disparate impact” on one group. ...
Green spending and stimulus: Curiously slow
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:21 -0000
The energy secretary continues to show his frustrationTHE economy is wobbly, oil prices are rising and voters have climate change on their minds. What better, surely, than a “green stimulus”? Barack Obama duly set aside some $39 billion of February’s $787 billion stimulus bill for the Department of Energy, hoping to create lots of sustainable, high-tech “green jobs”. Steven Chu, the secretary of energy, was in Iowa on June 22nd to announce $16m in spending—soon to grow to $40m—on green fuels and energy efficiency there. “I want to shove this money out the door as quickly as possible,” said the secretary. And well he might. Just $5.8 billion of that $39 billion had been allocated as of June 19th. The department is trying hard to spend the cash faster, and has since then made a flurry of announcements (see article).Why has spending money proved so hard, when the whole point of the stimulus was to jolt the economy quickly? One problem is structural: the department has historically focused mainly on America’s nuclear-weapons stockpile. The modern role of funding green-energy projects has grown in prominence, but that old priority still sucks up the biggest share of the department’s people and money. ...
Climate change, health care and the budget: A squeaker, with more to come
Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:54:21 -0000
So many challenges. So little spare cashHAVING campaigned in poetry, Barack Obama doubtless expected to govern in prose. But it is arithmetic that threatens to cramp his ambitions. Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its long-term budget outlook. If current policies are continued, federal debt held by the public will rise from 41% of GDP at the end of 2008 to 87% by 2020, and (theoretically) to a staggering 716% by 2080. Meanwhile, Mr Obama is trying to save the planet and reshape America’s health-care system. The first task will be fantastically expensive. The second does not have to be, but probably will be. A president who refused to put off unpleasant decisions, as Mr Obama promised during his inauguration, would be honest about all this. He would tell Americans that stopping global warming means higher energy prices, and that arresting health-care inflation means cutting back on medical procedures that people want but don’t need. ...

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