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An unexpected decrease in unemployment claims sent stocks slightly higher Thursday even as a stalemate continued in Washington over how to avoid a U.S. debt default.

Lawmakers in the Michigan House and their staff soon will be paying more for their health insurance, the chamber's Republican leader said Wednesday.

Hospital associations, labor groups, tea party supporters and die-hard liberals are plunging into the debt battle between President Barack Obama and Congress as it whirls toward a final showdown.

A union representing state workers proposed changes to a government pension program on Wednesday that could require some employees to stay in their jobs longer before retiring.

Ground zero residents and first responders sick with cancer will continue to be excluded from receiving help from the federal government program created to aid victims of the Sept. 11 World Trade Center terror attacks until at least 2012.

Union leaders issued a report Tuesday that outlines ways Chicago can save $242 million while also saving the jobs of hundreds of city workers whom Mayor Rahm Emanuel has said he must lay off.