VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The U.S. securities and commodities regulatory agencies pushed the congress to increase their budget. They argued that more fund is needed to do their functions in the growing financial markets and technology in recent years.

New York moved on Wednesday to raise the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15 an hour by the end of 2018 in New York City and by mid-2021 in the rest of the state.

The U.S. Congress has cleared the way for global miners Rio Tinto (RIO.L) (RIO.AX) and BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BLT.L) to swap land with the government, which will allow them to build a long-delayed $6 billion copper mine in Arizona.

Chances that U.S. negotiators can bring home a strong trade deal with Asia-Pacific countries are now much better than 50-50, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday.

The U.S. Congress is moving this week toward putting off until 2015 any conclusive action on a tangle of Internet tax issues, including online access taxes and online state sales taxes.

The two-year U.S. budget deal approved by the U.S. Congress Wednesday gives both Democrats and Republicans something to brag about, starting with the mere fact that they did it.