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

Police: Criminals are packing more heat
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:46:46 -0000
Criminals increasingly are choosing high-powered firearms such as assault weapons, a new survey of 166 U.S. police agencies shows.
More thieves target charity groups during holidays
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:48:27 -0000
Thieves are targeting groups that collect toys or raise money for the needy this holiday season fallout from the recession, ...
NTSB fills in details on errant Northwest flight
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:01:18 -0000
Glitches in a system designed to alert the military about security breaches over the nation's skies added more confusion to the ...
States have traveling residents on their Census radar
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:52:58 -0000
With congressional seats on line, Northern states want full count of all migrating residents
Police say 2 dogs fed on Neb. owner's body
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:29:08 -0000
The Nebraska Humane Society is seeking a new home for two small dogs that police say fed on their owner's body after he killed ...
U.S. troops admit abusing prescription drugs
Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:35:11 -0000
About one in four soldiers admit abusing prescription drugs, most of them pain relievers, in a one-year period, according to ...

The Economist: United States

George Bush speaks: The motivator
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:59:12 -0000
Beer, hot dogs and an ex-presidentTHE former president looked healthy and well-rested, and happier than he has in recent years. He said that he had been enjoying walking his dog in his new neighbourhood in Dallas, although he misses being commander-in-chief. It was December 2nd, and George W. Bush was back on stage. Not the world stage, of course. The former vice-president, Dick Cheney, has been nipping at Barack Obama’s heels all year. But Mr Bush has let his successor forge ahead without second-guessing him. This was a temporary stage at the AT&T Centre in San Antonio, Texas, and Mr Bush was the keynote speaker at an event called Get Motivated!, a day of inspirational speeches for personal and business success.Motivational seminars are an interesting corner of American life. They feel a bit like megachurch meetings, but with beer and hot dogs, and seem to be descended from the tent-revivals and circuses of the antebellum era. At the San Antonio event the speakers emphasised self-reliance, faith, and hard work and scoffed at government intervention, higher education, mainstream media and the cult of celebrity. “The world is going to hell in a handbasket and the UN can’t do a frickin’ thing about it,” said Tamara Lowe, one of the founders of the series, before challenging the audience to tackle global poverty themselves. ...
The Texas governor's race : White v right
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:59:11 -0000
The mayor of Houston steps up to the plateHEAVY snow was falling on Houston when Bill White, the Democratic mayor, made his move. “I’ll be a governor who challenges Texans to lead, not leave, the United States,” he said on December 4th, announcing that he would run for governor in 2010. That was a shot at Rick Perry, the Republican incumbent, who got fired up at a tax protest this summer and suggested Texas might consider seceding rather than submit to Washington’s socialism. Observers expect a spirited campaign. Mr White was expected to run. As a big-city mayor he has ample executive experience. But until last week he had focused on the Senate, as Texas will supposedly have an election for that job next year, too. The state’s senior senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, is challenging Mr Perry for the Republican nomination for governor, and insists that she will leave her seat in 2010 either way. ...
Banks and small businesses: For want of a loan
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:59:11 -0000
America’s best job creators are being hit by a credit crunchIT IS basically a second stimulus, though no one wants to call it that. On December 8th President Barack Obama announced a set of proposals to address unemployment and made it clear that he wanted to use some of the unspent TARP funds (money set aside to support failing banks) to help pay for them. No precise figure was given. Some $50 billion will be spent on infrastructure projects; there will also be new rebates for home insulation and other energy-saving incentives. But the linchpin of the administration’s effort is a broad push to support small businesses. That sounds reasonable. Small businesses (firms employing 500 workers or fewer) have accounted for 64% of net new job creation over the past 15 years, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA), an independent government agency. And a recent economic study found that cities with more small firms have done better at creating jobs over the past 20 years. But America’s most recent recession has hit small businesses hard. The very small, with fewer than 50 workers—employing almost one-third of working Americans—have suffered around 45% of the job losses of the downturn. ...
America in the world: Pay any price? Pull the other one
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:59:11 -0000
Both the public and the experts are retreating from foreign involvementGENERAL STANLEY McCHRYSTAL, America’s commander in Afghanistan, and Karl Eikenberry, its ambassador there, turned up on Capitol Hill this week to tell congressmen how satisfied they were with Barack Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more American troops into the fray. But their enthusiasm is not widely shared. It is not just many of the Democrats in Congress who are troubled by their country’s entangling foreign wars. A poll of the foreign-policy attitudes held by Americans at large paints a bleak picture of an America that is no longer sure of its own pre-eminence and fast losing interest in causes such as promoting democracy or defending human rights in the rest of the world. The survey, “America’s Place in the World”, is conducted every four years by the Pew Research Centre and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). It poses its questions not only to 2,000 members of the public but also to 642 members of the CFR, thus tracking both public opinion and the views of foreign-policy experts. ...
Health-care reform: Getting to 60
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:59:11 -0000
Deal by deal, compromise by compromise, the Senate moves closer to a final vote“HEALTH care will pass: the president has his reputation on the line.” That declaration about the congressional prospects for health reform comes not from a Democratic booster, but from Senator Judd Gregg. The Republican budget hawk says this through gritted teeth, though, convinced that the flawed effort will prove fiscally “disastrous”. To prove his point, he announced a proposal this week—in agreement with Kent Conrad, the Democratic head of the Senate Budget Committee—to form a bipartisan commission of worthies to reform all “entitlements”, health-related or otherwise. His fiscal analysis may be contested, but several recent developments suggest that his political prediction may be correct. The Senate now looks likely to pass a health bill in the footsteps of the House. ...
Lexington: Softly softly, charming Huckabee
Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:59:11 -0000
Don't underestimate the rocker of the religious rightSARAH PALIN may be the Republican Party’s rock star, but Mike Huckabee can actually play the bass guitar. While campaigning for the presidency last year, he would often whip it out and start jamming. Lexington heard him a few times. He was at least as good as that other former governor of Arkansas, the one who plays the saxophone. And his latest book has more about rock music in it than the title, “A Simple Christmas”, might suggest. As an eight-year-old boy in 1964, he watched the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show and immediately wanted to be one of them. He put “electric guitar” on his Christmas list, but his parents picked something cheaper. After two years, he drew up a list with only the guitar on it. Alarmed by the price, his parents urged him to reconsider. No, he said, it’s a guitar or nothing. They gave in. “I didn’t know until years later…just how much money $99 was to my parents,” recalls Mr Huckabee. It took them a year to pay for it. The lesson? Christmas is about sacrifice. Several Christmases later, when he was a penniless father-to-be, he sold his precious guitars (he had two by then) to buy a washing machine. ...

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