A Royal Dutch Shell oil drilling barge remained grounded Tuesday on an island off southern Alaska amid a fierce winter storm that hindered recovery efforts, Coast Guard and Alaskan authorities reported.

Maryland-Same-Sex-Marriage

Jim Scales and William Tasker have been a couple for 35 years, but only on Tuesday were they able to legally marry, thanks to Maryland's new same-sex marriage law, which went into effect on New Year's. Seven couples exchanged vows at Baltimore city hall past midnight.

Colorado-Marijuana-Clubs

A small group of New Year's Eve revelers here ditched the traditional champagne toast, lighting up joints instead at a newly opened marijuana club. The members-only Club 64 is the first of its kind to open in Colorado since November when voters approved Amendment 64, which legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use.

California-New-Year's-Eve-Shooting

A 22-year-old man was in custody as a suspect in a shooting during a New Year's Eve fireworks show in Sacramento, California, where two people were fatally shot and three were wounded, police said Tuesday.

US-Hannah-Storm-Returns-After-Injury

Less than a month after suffering serious burns in a propane grill accident, sports broadcasting pioneer Hannah Storm returned to TV Tuesday, hosting Southern California's historic Rose Parade.

TRAVEL-Airplane-Collision

2012 ended for 162 passengers on a Spirit Airlines plane with an unexpected bump.

FISCAL CLIFF

POL-Fiscal-Cliff

A last-ditch Senate compromise to avert the fiscal cliff appeared to be in jeopardy with House Republicans slamming the deal negotiated with the White House and demanding more must be done to cut spending.

MONEY-fiscal-cliff-deal-cbo

The fiscal cliff deal passed by the Senate Tuesday morning would increase deficits over the next decade by close to $4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

POL-Fiscal-Cliff-5-Things

It's complex, dense, and filled with compromise. And the deal passed by the Senate to avert the "fiscal cliff" might not even become law, depending what actions the House takes. Here are five things to know about the bill that passed the Senate overwhelmingly in the middle of the night.

MONEY-fiscal-cliff-senate-bill

The fiscal cliff compromise passed by the Senate in the early morning hours Tuesday would mute much but not all of the negative economic impact of going over the cliff.

MONEY-fiscal-cliff-rich

The rich would see a much bigger tax bill under the fiscal cliff deal that passed the Senate early Tuesday morning, but even they would get some nice breaks.

MONEY-more-fiscal-cliffs

Think the fiscal cliff is causing uncertainty and holding back the economy? How about three more cliff-like deadlines over the next three months?

FEATURES AND COMMENTARY

US-American-Chinese-Rose-Parade-Bands

Some 20 years ago, when Troy Gunter was a new band director, he had the crazy idea that his high school students should someday march in the Rose Parade. It's a lofty goal for any band. The annual march through Pasadena began in 1890 and evolved into a New Year's Day spectacle of music, flowers and football watched by 700,000 along the route and 39 million more on TV.

ENT-T-Boz-Reality

Reality for TLC's T-Boz has been a challenge, starting at age 7, when she was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia. Reality called again five years ago when doctors found a brain tumor, which left her partially blind and deaf. "But after losing my sight, hearing, balance and speech, yes, I'm returning," said T-Boz, whose real name is Tionne Watkins. "I had to take three years to heal and fight for everything that I wanted back. T-Boz is sharing the lessons learned from hard reality in a reality TV show that premieres Tuesday night, coincidentally on a network with the same name as her group -- TLC.

SPORT-Dakar-Rally-Afghanistan-Veteran