WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and congressional leaders worked Monday to align lawmakers from both parties behind their formula for averting a financial meltdown and halting the government’s prolific spending habits. Despite resistance from both liberals and conservatives, momentum appeared to be building in support of the compromise deficit-reduction plan.

In an apparent show of confidence, leaders in the House said they planned to bring the plan to the floor for a vote Monday afternoon. Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., said there would be an hour of debate before moving to a vote.

(CNN) — A 130-year-old photo, billed as the only authenticated picture of legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, sold for $2.3 million at a Denver auction Saturday night.

The Kid reportedly paid 25 cents to have the photo taken in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

The Old West Show & Auction had estimated the tintype — an early photographic technique that used metal plates — to bring in between $300,000 and $400,000.

Atlanta (CNN) — Imagine paying as much for water as you do for your mortgage.

Residents throughout Atlanta are outraged by hundreds, even thousands of dollars in monthly spikes in their water bills, and have questioned the legitimacy of the charges for years. Now, they’re demanding answers.

“I thought we were sinking in a hole of water,” said Debbi Scarborough. “It scared me to death. I thought we had a major leak when I got the bill.”

Washington (CNN) — If the government does not take drastic steps, another deepwater oil spill like the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico could devastate the coastal areas of the United States, an oversight commission warned Tuesday in a long-awaited report to the president.

More research, funding and oversight are needed to help prevent another disaster, concluded the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Sunday passed a sweeping bill to make food safer, sending it to the House in the waning days of Congress.

It was the second time the Senate passed the bill, which would give the government broad new powers to increase inspections of food processing facilities and force companies to recall tainted food. The chamber passed the bill for the first time three weeks ago, but it was caught in a constitutional snag when senators mistakenly included tax provisions that are by law supposed to originate in the House.

The version of the legislation passed by the Senate on Sunday is amended to avoid another such mishap.

(CNN) — San Francisco, California, Mayor Gavin Newsom vetoed Friday the city’s ban on most McDonald’s Happy Meals with toys.

In making the veto, the mayor released a new report on how a public-private partnership is combating childhood obesity and how San Francisco’s more than 55,000 public school students are now eating fresher and healthier foods.

“Parents, not politicians, should decide what their children eat, especially when it comes to spending their own money,” said Newsom. “Despite its good intentions, I cannot support this unwise and unprecedented governmental intrusion into parental responsibilities and private choices.”

SEOUL, South Korea — The United States and South Korea failed on Thursday to revive a stalled free trade agreement, dealing a blow to both countries’ leaders and putting a brake on bilateral trade.

President Barack Obama and South Korea’s Lee Myung-bak said negotiators would continue talks to address U.S. concerns that the deal does not do enough to open South Korean markets to U.S. beef and autos.

NEW YORK – President Barack Obama’s call for a longer school day and year for America’s kids echoes a similar call he made a year ago to little effect, illustrating just how deeply entrenched the traditional school calendar is and how little power the federal government has to change it.

Education reformers have long called for U.S. kids to log more time in the classroom so they can catch up with their peers elsewhere in the world, but resistance from leisure-loving teenagers isn’t the only reason there is no mass movement to keep schoolchildren in their seats.

(CNN) — After the recall of more than 500 million eggs from a salmonella outbreak this summer, food safety advocates and survivors of foodborne illness will call for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill that has been in limbo since last year.

The groups will release a report Wednesday afternoon detailing the food recalls that have occurred since the U.S. House of Representatives passed Food and Drug Administration reform legislation in July 2009.

Since then, the bill has been awaiting action in the Senate.

WASHINGTON – President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid “massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters” and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.