Justices, 6-3, Sidestep Ruling on Padilla Case  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Jose Padilla, held as an enemy combatant without traditional legal rights for more than three years, sidestepping a challenge to Bush administration wartime detention powers.

Iraq's Premier Is Asked to Quit as Shiites Split  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 2 — Iraq's dominant Shiite political bloc fractured Sunday when its most powerful faction publicly demanded that the incumbent Shiite prime minister resign over his inability to form a unified government.

2005 Koufax Awards —The Winners  —  I apologize for the delay in posting the winners.  We had a big turn out both in comments and in emails and a number of the categories had excruciatingly close races (one category had an exact tie, more on that below).  The voting was roughly evenly split between comments and email.

Jury Finds Moussaoui Eligible for Execution  —  ALEXANDRIA, Va., April 3 — A federal jury found today that Zacarias Moussaoui was responsible for at least some of the deaths that occurred in the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, meaning that he could be subject to the death penalty.

Democrats' Narrow Vision  —  You can look at the Democrats' national security plan, released last week, as simply a political shield, akin to the upgraded body armor they promise for U.S. troops.  —  The party remains traumatized by the failure of biography to protect Vietnam veterans Max Cleland …

Y is for Yahoo  —  THE HOUSE CAUCUS TO RETURN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO MINORITY STATUS—also known as the House Immigration Reform Caucus—held a press conference Thursday.  The GOP solons were upset.  The Senate Judiciary Committee had not followed the lead of the House in adopting an "enforcement only" immigration bill.

UT professor says death is imminent  —  AUSTIN — A University of Texas professor says the Earth would be better off with 90 percent of the human population dead.  —  Â"Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine,Â" Eric Pianka cautioned students and guests at St. EdwardÂ's University on Friday.

White House shake-up to continue?  —  Sources: Press spokesman, treasury chief may be next  —  CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) — Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan and Treasury Secretary John Snow could be next in a shake-up in the Bush administration, according to White House and GOP sources.

Capitol police ask for arrest warrant for McKinney  —  Black leaders say McKinney victim of racial profiling  —  WASHINGTON — Capitol Hill police on Monday asked a federal prosecutor to approve an arrest warrant for Rep. Cynthia McKinney for her role in a scuffle with a police officer last week, the prosecutor's office confirmed.

Limbaugh called alleged Duke rape victim a "ho[ ]" … During the March 31 broadcast of his national syndicated radio program, Rush Limbaugh referred to the alleged victim of a rape by members of the Duke University lacrosse team as a "ho[]."  During an on-air discussion with a caller …

A Gadfly With Buzz  —  MSNBC's Olbermann, Exercising the Right  —  Night after night, President Bush is being kicked, punched, slapped, poked, stomped and otherwise disrespected in one small corner of the cable television world.  —  And Keith Olbermann doesn't deny it has been good for ratings.

Apostates from Islam  —  THE NEWS THAT, DESPITE the Afghan parliament's last-minute attempts to prevent him from leaving, Abdul Rahman has been given asylum in Italy has drawn a global sigh of relief.  But now is not the time to forget the issue.  The case of Rahman—an Afghan Christian tried …

A Plan to End Child Poverty  —  Britain's Initiative Has Helped 700,000 Kids.  Why Don't We Have a Goal, Too?  —  For anyone interested in reducing child poverty, there was heartening bad news out of Britain last month.  In 1999 the Blair government introduced an initiative to end child poverty by 2020 …

The News Media  —  Let's say you were part of a group designing the news media from scratch.  Someone says that it would be a good idea to have competing news media — daily newspapers and weekly magazines, radio and television news programs.  Sounds like a good start.