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.

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.

Veto?  Who Needs a Veto?  —  One of the abiding curiosities of the Bush administration is that after more than five years in office, the president has yet to issue a veto.  No one since Thomas Jefferson has stayed in the White House this long without rejecting a single act of Congress.

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 …

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.

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 …

Doctors Object to Gathering of Drug Data  —  Although virtually unknown to consumers, the information has long been considered the most potent weapon in pharmaceutical sales — computerized dossiers showing which physicians are prescribing what drugs.  Armed with such data …

'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.

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.

Senate Defies Bush on Spending  —  $109 Billion Bill for Wars, Storm Relief Disdained in House  —  The Senate ignored President Bush's veto threat yesterday and easily passed a $109 billion emergency spending bill for war and hurricane recovery costs that also brimmed with favors for farmers …

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 …