Cost-Containment

Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked a state court Monday to force Chicago school teachers back to work and end a week-long strike he calls illegal.

Higher gas prices are crimping consumer spending and slowing the already-weak U.S. economy. And they could get worse in the coming months.

A White House report issued Friday warns that $109 billion in across-the-board spending cuts at the start of the new year would be "deeply destructive" to the military and core government responsibilities like patrolling U.S. borders and air traffic control.

New York City's Board of Health opened up a new, experimental front in the war on obesity Thursday, passing a rule banning sales of big sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, concession stands, and other eateries.

The U.S. health care system squanders $750 billion a year roughly 30 cents of every medical dollar through unneeded care, byzantine paperwork, fraud and other waste, the influential Institute of Medicine said Thursday in a report that ties directly into the presidential campaign.

The Federal Trade Commission says it is mailing refund checks to 13,000 Medicare beneficiaries who were overcharged for drugs because a CVS Caremark Corp. business understated the price of the products.