Why Bother With Caucuses? Contests in Iowa and Nevada have been plagued by embarrassing snafus. As Minnesota and Colorado head to their caucuses Tuesday, we look at why some states still bother with this primitive but uniquely American way of picking a president.

China's Heir Apparent Rekindles Early Ties To Iowa China's Vice President Xi Jinping is coming to America. Next week, he'll meet with President Obama at the White House. He'll lead a trade delegation to California. And he'll also make a stop in Muscatine, Iowa. Xi visited the town (population 22,886) in the 1980s, as part of an agricultural mission.

Alabama's Immigration Law May Get A Second Look As the Legislature begins its regular session Tuesday, one of the big issues lawmakers will take up is the state's immigration law ? considered the nation's toughest crackdown on illegal immigrants. Business leaders are driving efforts to modify the law now that some say it could cost the state $11 billion.

UC Students Propose Alternative To Tuition Increases Tired of tuition increases within the cash-strapped University of California system, a group of students has suggested eliminating tuition entirely. Instead, they propose that graduates pay the system a percentage of their income over the subsequent 20 years.

Staff Replaced Amid Sex Abuse Claims At L.A. School The entire staff at an elementary school where two teachers were arrested on suspicion of lewd conduct involving students will be removed while the school district investigates, the Los Angeles school superintendent said Monday night.

Congress Passes FAA Bill That Speeds Switch To GPS A bill to speed the nation's switch from radar to an air traffic control system based on GPS technology, and to open U.S. skies to unmanned drone flights within four years, received final congressional approval Monday.

Fight For GOP Soul, SuperPACs Spur Negative Political Ad Explosion While the barrage of negative ads is likely to be bad during the general election, the Republican primaries have seen a confluence of factors that have made for particularly fertile ground for negative ads: the introduction of superPACs collided with a war for control of the GOP between conservatives and hard conservatives.

'Boxing Is The Love Of My Life': A Woman Fights For A Shot At Gold You could say Tyrieshia Douglas' boxing career began at 16, when she was arrested for street fighting. Now, at 23, Douglas is one of 24 fighters competing for three spots on the first ever U.S. Olympic women's boxing team.

Ending Violence Sparked By Baby's Cry About 300 babies die each year after being hospitalized for serious injuries, according to a new report. Researchers are testing ways to help parents cope with the anger and frustration that can be triggered by a crying baby.

Indiana's Top Election Official Convicted of Voter Fraud Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White was accused of lying about his home address on voter registration forms in order to continue receiving a stipend for serving on his town's council.

Remembering Roger Boisjoly: He Tried To Stop Shuttle Challenger Launch Boisjoly was the engineer who boisterously warned about problems with the Challenger's elastic seals. That he couldn't do anything about the launch haunted him and turned him into a crusader for ethics in engineering. Boisjoly died at age 73.

In Battleground Colorado, Independents On The Rise A centrist think tank finds that in several key states, both parties are losing voters relative to the number of newly declared independents. In Colorado, which holds its Republican caucuses Tuesday, declared independents are now about even with registered Republicans or registered Democrats.

Is White, Working Class America 'Coming Apart'? In his new book, Charles Murray, co-author of the controversial The Bell Curve, argues that in an increasingly economically stratified America, the white working class is slipping behind.

Helicopter Parents Hover In The Workplace So-called helicopter parents have hit the workplace, phoning employers to advocate on behalf of their adult children. Human resource managers say more parents are trying to negotiate salary and benefits and are even sitting in on job interviews.

As Olympic Trials Near, Women's Boxing Heats Up Women's boxing will be an Olympic sport for the first time in London later this year and the trials to choose the U.S. competitors will be held in Spokane in February. Tyrieshia Douglas from Baltimore is one of the competitors. When she was 16-years-old, she was arrested for street-fighting and says her juvenile court judge recommended she take her skills into the gym. Now she's 23-years-old and ranked No. 2 in the country in her weight category.