The union representing the nation's letter carriers has hired a former Obama administration adviser as it faces proposals that could lead to layoffs of thousands of its members. Ron Bloom oversaw the administration's auto industry task force. His hiring by the National Association of Letter Carriers comes as the union is negotiating a new contract with the U.S. Postal Service, which cannot find a way to make delivering mail by hand profitable. It is losing billions of dollars and is considering drastic steps to cut costs.

A huge deal in the energy business is just the latest signal that natural gas is a hot commodity. One of the largest natural gas pipeline operators, Kinder Morgan, is buying its rival El Paso for $21 billion.

Quick: What's the first thing you'd grab for a day trip to Liberty Island to get an up-close look at the Statue of Liberty?

With the 2012 farm bill coming up fast, we're taking a closer look at what it is and how it shapes food policy and land use in an occasional series. This is part three.

Capitol Hill is a scrum of lobbyists fighting over a shrinking budget these days, and farm subsidies are under attack as never before. Some of those subsidies appear likely to die.

Walmart announced today that its chief executive in China was resigning for personal reasons. Ed Chan's resignation, however, comes about a week after China arrested Walmart employees and forced the retail giant to close 13 stores over allegations it was selling regular pork but labeling it as organic.

On Sunday, the Arab League called a meeting to discuss whether to suspend Syria from the organization. When the meeting wrapped, reports the AP, the league — made up of 22 nations — made no mention of a suspension but asked the government of Bashar Assad to talk with his opposition and come to a cease-fire agreement within 15 days.

Last week, Research in Motion apologized for the service outages that swept around the world last week, leaving millions of its BlackBerry users unable to send or receive messages.