Verizon Denies Turning Over Local Phone Data  —  Verizon, the country's second-largest phone company, said yesterday that it had not provided local phone records to the National Security Agency as part of efforts to compile a database of calling records to track terrorist activities.

Senate guest worker plan survives attack  —  Boxer, Alabama Republican fail to kill provision, but number of visas is reduced  —  Washington — Seldom do California's liberal Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Alabama's conservative Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions agree on anything.

Conservative Battle Fatique?  The "What If" Issue  —  More bad news for the GOP in today's edition of The Washington Post as 56 percent of the respondents to the latest Post/ABC News survey say they prefer Democrats in control of Congress.  —  There is a distinct, though not quite as deep …

Bush Is Now A Lame Duck  —  CBS' Meyer: Forget November, Forget '08; President Is Done  —  (CBS) This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.  —  The great impulse of the punditocracy right now is to look at President Bush's swelling problems with the public and his party …

'Earthquake in Pennsylvania'  —  TRIBUNE-REVIEW  —  Angry taxpayers on Tuesday tossed out the two Republican Senate leaders who helped engineer last year's legislative pay raise, an issue that apparently cost 15 House members their jobs, too.  —  Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Jubelirer of Altoona …

The Parent Trap  —  Not long ago we worried about baby booms and overpopulation.  Now some people are worrying about a "Global Baby Bust."  Writing in Foreign Affairs, Phillip Longman says it's mostly because of economics: … He's clearly right about the economics.

U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia  —  More than a decade after U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, officials of Somalia's interim government and some U.S. analysts of Africa policy say the United States has returned to the African country …

DHS Does About-Face In Backing Use of National Guard to Seal Border  —  In December of 2005, Fox News talking head Bill O'Reilly floated an unlikely — even brash — idea to the Homeland Security secretary to seal off the porous southwest border.  —  "Why don't you put the National Guard …

Foster Quotes Eminem at Penn Graduation  —  PHILADELPHIA - You can add rapping to the list of Jodie Foster's talents.  The Oscar-winning actress spoke Monday at the University of Pennsylvania's commencement ceremonies, ending her address with the chorus of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from …

Still Dodging Immigration's Truths  —  President Bush's immigration speech mostly missed the true nature of the problem.  We face two interconnected population issues.  One is aging; the other is immigration.  We aren't dealing sensibly with either, and as a result we face a future …

Tackling a Handful of Immigration Myths, Misnomers and Red Herrings  —  There's no topic hotter in the body politic right now than immigration.  —  Everywhere you turn, especially in the blogosphere, somebody has an opinion.  So, since illegal immigration is the topic du jour …

At White House Briefing, Polish Replaces Testiness  —  Tony Snow said he didn't want to "hug the tar baby," and then he did just that by using the expression in his first televised White House press briefing yesterday.  —  The tar-covered doll that Br'er Fox used to ensnare Br'er Rabbit …

Basra carnage escalates as one person killed every hour  —  One person is being assassinated in Basra every hour, as order in Iraq's second city disintegrates, according to an Iraqi Defence Ministry official.  —  And a quarter of all Iraqi children suffer from malnutrition …