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California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency on Friday, a move that will allow the parched state to seek federal aid as it grapples with what could turn out to be the driest year in recorded state history for many areas. The dry year California experienced in 2013 has left fresh water reservoirs with a fraction of their normal reserves and slowed the normally full American River so dramatically that brush and dry riverbed are showing through in areas normally teeming with fish. "We can't make it rain, but we can be much better prepared for the terrible consequences that California's drought now threatens, including dramatically less water for our farms and communities and increased fires in both urban and rural areas," Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement. "I've declared this emergency and I'm calling all Californians to conserve water in every way possible," he said, in a move that will allow him to call for conservation measu

Senior members of the influential U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee urged South Sudan's leaders on Friday to stop violence threatening to spiral into civil war in a country that has received billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds. In letters obtained by Reuters, Democratic Senators Robert Menendez, chairman of the committee, and Chris Coons, chairman of the Africa subcommittee, wrote to South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar expressing deep concern about the turmoil. Fighting since mid-December, often along ethnic lines, has pitted Kiir's SPLA government forces against rebels loyal to Machar, raising fears the oil-exporting country could become Africa's next failed state. At least 1,000 people have been killed, with some estimates as high as 10,000, and more than 200,000 have been displaced. Oil exports - key to South Sudan's economy - have plummeted, adding to regional instability. "As long-time friends of South S

Twenty New Jersey officials, including top aides to Governor Chris Christie, were served with subpoenas on Friday as the state assembly begins its investigation into a massive bridge traffic jam that was apparently politically motivated. Christie, seen as a likely Republican candidate for the White House in 2016, has denied any involvement in the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal that is dogging his second term in office. Assembly Democrats said 20 subpoenas had gone out seeking information related to the September traffic snarl, created by the abrupt closing of access lanes to the busy George Washington Bridge, which spans the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey. Among those receiving subpoenas were Christie spokesmen Michael Drewniak and Colin Reed, communications director Maria Comella, the governor's incoming chief of staff Regina Egea, and Christie's former campaign manager Bill Stepien. The list also includes David Samson, chairman of the Port Aut

President Barack Obama on Friday took a swipe at Edward Snowden, the former U.S. spy contractor whose revelations about American surveillance practices tarnished relations with foreign allies and prompted reforms in Washington. Obama unveiled those reforms during a long-awaited speech that balanced pledges to increase privacy protections with a warning that intelligence gathering would continue. But the president could not get through his remarks without mentioning the man who, to the Obama administration's chagrin, forced its hand in changing the system. "Given the fact of an open investigation, I'm not going to dwell on Mr. Snowden's actions or his motivations," Obama said in his address at the Department of Justice, taking the somewhat unusual step of mentioning the former National Security Agency contractor by name. "I will say that our nation's defense depends in part on the fidelity of those entrusted with our nation's secrets." The

Lawmakers for at least two U.S. states say they should conduct executions by firing squad if opposition to capital punishment by pharmaceutical companies makes it hard to obtain drugs for lethal injections. States have turned to pharmacies that customize drugs and adopted untested new mixes after supplies of traditional execution drugs were cut off by manufacturers opposed to their use for the procedure. The debate over lethal injections was reignited on Thursday when an inmate gasped and convulsed violently during his execution in Ohio as the state used a two-drug method for the first time in the United States. Missouri state Representative Rick Brattin, said Friday the controversy over lethal injections forces families of murder victims to wait too long for justice so he introduced his bill Thursday to add "firing squad" as an execution option. "A lot of folks may picture the 1850s and everyone lining up to shoot, but the reality is that people suffer with every

A Mississippi man accused of sending poisoned letters to President Barack Obama and two other public officials, and then pinning them on an Elvis impersonator, pleaded guilty in U.S. court and agreed to a 25-year jail sentence, the Justice Department announced on Friday. James Everett Dutschke, 41, has been jailed since his arrest last April, when authorities accused him of sending ricin-tainted letters to Obama, U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi and a local Lee County judge, Sadie Holland. Ricin is a highly toxic protein found in castor oil plants that can kill an adult human in tiny doses. Dutschke, a former martial arts instructor and one-time political candidate, originally had denied the charges but on Friday changed his plea in U.S. District Court in Oxford, Mississippi, according to a Justice Department press release. "It's closure, and any time you can get that it's a good thing," said Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson, whose department had assisted

The Obama administration is delaying enforcement of a provision of the new healthcare law that prohibits employers from providing better health benefits to top executives than to other employees, the New York Times reported on Saturday. _0"> Tax officials said they would not enforce the provision this year because they had yet to issue regulations for employers to follow, according to the Times. Internal Revenue Service spokesman Bruce Friedland said employers would not have to comply until the agency issued regulations or other guidance, the newspaper reported. The IRS was not immediately available to confirm the Times story. The rollout of the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, has been marked by a number of delays in implementing certain parts of the law. In November, the administration announced a one-year delay in online insurance enrollment for small businesses. Technical problems with the enrollment website plagued its launch on October 1, but they have larg