By all the commentaries I have seen, Black Friday two days ago is about to be followed by a darker, tougher and meaner year for millions of Americans, including a lot of us in the Tampa Bay region. ...more

November 30, 2008

The Iraqi Parliament ratified a long-delayed security agreement on Thursday that lays out a three-year timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. ...more

November 28, 2008

The U.S. economy's health has completely deteriorated. Our market activity and that of our major global trade partners has slowed significantly, leading to a decrease in U.S. exports and consumer expenditures. America endured negative growth in GDP down to -.03 percent in the third quarter. The unemployment rate grew at an alarmingly rapid rate in the last quarter. When the fourth quarter statistics emerge, the U.S. economy will likely be in a full blown recession. ...more

November 25, 2008

A heated parliamentary debate on the U.S.-Iraq security treaty was called to an early close Wednesday as lawmakers loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr scuffled with security guards for the foreign minister and the speaker of the legislature and his two deputies. ...more

November 20, 2008

Nebraska lawmakers got to work Friday in a rare special legislative session designed to repair a unique "safe haven" law that has unintentionally allowed parents to abandon nearly three dozen children as old as 17. ...more

November 15, 2008

The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven law. ...more

November 14, 2008

LINCOLN, Neb. - The mother was running out of more than patience when she abandoned her 18-year-old daughter at a hospital over the weekend under Nebraska's safe-haven law. She was also running out of time: She knew that state lawmakers would soon meet in a special session to amend the ill-fated law so that it applies to newborns only. ...more

November 13, 2008

Jamaican pastor Terrence Brown wants killers put to death - he's even offered to trade his collar for a hangman's hood to confront a crime wave that has been terrorizing his parishioners. ...more

November 12, 2008

A half-century ago, an East German communist demanded that the people exhibit more confidence in their rulers. "Would it not be easier," the poet Bertolt Brecht responded, "for the government to dissolve the people and elect another?" Though aimed at a long-ago Stalinist, Brecht's gibe comes alarmingly close to describing how legislators in many states keep themselves in power. ...more

November 8, 2008

I am appalled that Mr. Grimming has employed the PBA to slander and misrepresent the facts regarding Sheriff Benton. Mr. Grimming was hired as director of the Florida Highway Patrol because the PBA lobbied for his hiring. Mr. Grimming has been in bed with the PBA for many, many years. While Mr. Grimming was the director of FHP, he was instrumental in a movement to regulate the sheriff's offices in Florida to nothing more than a processing agency. This aroused the ire of the sheriff's association, and immense political pressure was brought against the governor, cabinet and some legislators, by the Sheriff's association, and the movement was stopped. Because of the above political pressure, Mr. Grimming was only the director of the Florida Highway Patrol for just over four years. In other words he was asked to resign, or (you fill in the blank.) ...more

November 4, 2008