President Obama makes a new offer in the fiscal cliff negotiations. The new offer drops the amount of revenue generated by new taxes and includes deeper spending cuts. It would keep the Bush tax cuts for households making less than $400,000. House Speaker John Boehner's office rejected the deal, but vows to keep talking. And the two sides are now much closer together, renewing optimism that we're getting nearer to a deal. This as a new poll comes out showing seven in ten disapprove of the Republican Party's handling of the fiscal cliff talks.
The tragedy of the Newtown school shootings may cool partisanship in Washington, at least for a little while.
Will pro-gun Democrats like West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin lead the way to curb the gun epidemic in this country?
The NRA has gone silent after the Newtown shootings.
South Carolina Rep. Tim Scott becomes the first Republican African-American senator from the South since the late 19th Century.
The long-serving Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii has died at 88. Inouye was a hero of World War II and he went to Washington when Hawaii became a state in 1959. He became the Senate's senior member after the death of Robert Byrd in 2010 and, as Senate president pro tempore, was third in line for the presidency.
Finally, our NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his crew have been freed from captors in Syria. They had been held since last week. Engel and his colleagues recounted their ordeal this morning on the Today show.