Congress expended a lot of energy debating how to solve the energy crisis before running off for summer recess for five weeks. It ended up accomplishing nothing. Now Congress is back and seemingly ready for more of the same. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will present an energy bill next week that would expand offshore drilling. But Republicans rejected the legislation on the basis of the outlines Pelosi released Tuesday. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will hold hearings today with an eye to bringing energy bills to a vote sometime next week. But don't expect anything to happen. ...more

September 15, 2008

Nothing stokes our anger better than a convenient villain who probably drives a cool car. So it was that, through much of this summer's understandable angst over gasoline prices, flailing politicians tried to help the rest of us - hey, it's an election year - point the blame gun. ...more

September 10, 2008

Responding to criticism from Democrats, campaign aides to Gov. Sarah Palin on Tuesday defended her practice of billing Alaska taxpayers for more than 300 nights she spent at home during her first year-and-a-half in office. ...more

September 10, 2008

Gov. Sarah Palin was for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" before she was against it, a change of position the GOP vice presidential running mate ignored Saturday when she bragged about telling Congress "thanks but no thanks" to the pork barrel project. ...more

September 1, 2008

Despite efforts to add Border Patrol agents to areas where immigrant traffic is high and drug violence is flaring, officers assigned to the 2,000-mile boundary with Mexico are bunched up near the California coast. And some critics see politics at play. ...more

August 31, 2008

U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis and Adam Putnam, who represent parts of Brandon, Valrico, Riverview, Lithia, Plant City and Seffner, hoped to vote to rescind the congressional ban on offshore oil drilling. The area Republicans will have to wait, however, until the House returns from its summer recess. ...more

August 20, 2008

Drill And Reduce Demand Regarding Paul Krugman's article "Know-Nothing Politics And A Party Of Stupid" (Other Views, Aug. 13): ...more

August 17, 2008

Anthony J. Russo, a researcher who helped leak the Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers to the media and prompted wider public questioning of the war, has died, police said. ...more

August 11, 2008

A gun-control activist who, from Sarasota, championed the cause for more than a decade and served on the boards of two anti-violence organizations is suspected of working as a paid spy for the National Rifle Association. Now, those organizations are expelling her and sweeping their offices for bugs. ...more

August 7, 2008

It has been a bruiser of a summer for small businesses that must use the roads every day. ...more

August 4, 2008