Pat cites pills in car wreck  —  WASHINGTON -U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy insisted yesterday that he had consumed "no alcohol" before he slammed his Mustang convertible into a concrete barrier near his office, but a hostess at a popular Capitol Hill watering hole told the Herald she saw him drinking in the hours before the crash.

CIA Director Porter Goss Resigns  —  WASHINGTON — CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly Friday, leaving behind a spy agency still struggling to recover from the scars of intelligence failures before America's worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S. rationale for invading Iraq.

'United 93' and the 20th Hijacker  —  Moussaoui will never rot in prison.  —  Need an antidote to the Moussaoui verdict?  Go out this weekend to see "United 93."  —  Zacarias Moussaoui is lucky the jurors at his sentencing trial weren't allowed to see the movie "United 93" the day before reaching a verdict.

Poll: Bush's Approval Falls to New Low  —  WASHINGTON - Angry conservatives are driving the approval ratings of President Bush and the GOP-led Congress to dismal new lows, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that underscores why Republicans fear an Election Day massacre.

Unwanted Pregnancies Rise for Poor Women  —  Rate Drops for Those Well Above Poverty Level, Report Indicates  —  Poor women in America are increasingly likely to have unwanted pregnancies, whereas relatively affluent women are succeeding more and more in getting pregnant only when they want to …

Sudan, Main Rebel Group to Sign Peace Plan  —  The government of Sudan and the biggest Darfur rebel faction agreed early this morning to strike a peace deal, raising hopes for a breakthrough in the bloody conflict that has left more than 2 million people homeless.

Never Again?  —  When something happens for the first time in 1,871 years, it is worth noting.  In A.D. 70, and again in 135, the Roman Empire brutally put down Jewish revolts in Judea, destroying Jerusalem, killing hundreds of thousands of Jews and sending hundreds of thousands more into slavery and exile.

RUMSFELD'S FOLLY  —  Donald Rumsfeld told a bald faced lie yesterday.  In the process of telling the lie, the Secretary of Defense showed that public officials still don't get it, that with the advent of the internet and its powerful search engines, every utterance made in public yesterday …

US seizes on Zarqawi out-takes  —  The US military has released "out-takes" of a video of al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, hoping to cast him in a new light.  —  In the video, Zarqawi was shown wearing black fatigues and confidently firing long bursts from a machine gun.

The Incredible Shrinking CIA  —  Recent moves by Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte have continued to chip away at the spy agency's role  —  It's more than a bureaucratic battle.  Ever since John Negroponte was appointed Director of National Intelligence a year ago and given …

Why Isn't Socialism Dead?  —  The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, celebrated May Day by ordering soldiers to occupy his country's natural gas fields.  The purpose of this exercise was not military, but economic: Morales has demanded that all foreign companies currently operating …

Committee OKs bill to add gays, lesbians to textbooks Hotly debated measure heads to state Senate  —  Sacramento — After a sometimes emotional debate centering on discrimination and sexual orientation, a Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would require that the contributions of gays and lesbians be included in textbooks.

Watergate Subpoenaed in Hooker Probe  —  I stopped by the Watergate Hotel this afternoon and chatted with Josh Graham, the assistant general manager, about the recent stories swirling around his establishment.  —  According to Graham, the Watergate has received multiple subpoenas in connection with the Wilkes Hookergate scandal.

Hiding Good News  —  During the Clinton years, network journalists argued (correctly) that strong economic growth, a rising stock market, low unemployment and low inflation were the benchmark indicators of a good economy.  Today, economic growth is a phenomenal 4.8 percent …

Memorial Cost at Ground Zero Nears $1 Billion  —  The projected cost of building the World Trade Center memorial complex at ground zero has soared to nearly $1 billion, according to the most authoritative estimate to date.  —  Rebuilding officials concede that the new price tag is breathtaking …