Privately Funded Trips Add Up on Capitol Hill  —  Over 5 1/2 years, Republican and Democratic lawmakers accepted nearly $50 million in trips, often to resorts and exclusive locales, from corporations and groups seeking legislative favors, according to the most comprehensive study to date on the subject of congressional travel.

Ex-President Wins in Peru in Stunning Comeback  —  LIMA, Peru, June 4 — Sixteen years after his presidency ended in economic collapse and heightened guerrilla violence, Alan García was elected president again on Sunday, completing one of Latin America's most astonishing political resurrections.

Court to Weigh Race as Factor in School Rolls  —  WASHINGTON, June 5 — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to rule on what measures, if any, public school systems may use to maintain racial balance in individual schools.  —  The eventual decision on whether they can take race into account …

Creating the Inevitable  —  The CIA visits Iraq in April 2002  —  The Bush Administration continues to claim that war against Iraq was always a last resort, but an overwhelming amount of evidence—such as the Downing Street Memo of July 2002, which said military action was "inevitable"—suggests otherwise.

Devil's date creates infernal jitters  —  THE calendar has clicked over to the sixth day of the sixth month, 2006 and hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia - the fear of the number 666 - is taking hold.  —  Will the world end?  Will someone give birth to the antichrist?  Will Satan reclaim control?

The ties that bind 17 suspects?  —  SURYA BHATTACHARYA, NASREEN GULAMHUSEIN AND HEBA ALY  —  In investigators' offices, an intricate graph plotting the links between the 17 men and teens charged with being members of a homegrown terrorist cell covers at least one wall.

Chill out over global warming  —  You'll often hear the left lecture about the importance of dissent in a free society.  —  Why not give it a whirl?  —  Start by challenging global warming hysteria next time you're at a LoDo cocktail party and see what happens.  —  Admittedly, I possess virtually no expertise in science.

Canadian Terror Probe Expands to 7 Nations  —  TORONTO (AP) - Police said Monday more arrests are likely in an alleged plot to bomb buildings in Canada, while intelligence officers sought ties between the 17 suspects and Islamic terror cells in the United States and five other nations.

The 10 Most Dangerous Democratic Candidates In 2008  —  Just for the fun of it, I decided to put together a list of the Democratic candidates who'd have the best chance to beat a GOP nominee in 2008.  This list is based purely on electability, not on the likelihood the candidate will take the nomination.

Fitzgerald, Scooter and Us  —  The special prosecutor wants to use our editorial as evidence.  Sorry. … Those words appeared in this column on July 17, 2003, under the headline "Yellowcake Remix."  Three years later they show we were right about Joe Wilson and his false allegation …

The wrong target  —  Terrorism, not America, is a real and present threat to our freedoms  —  Al-Haditha, a town on the Euphrates northwest of Baghdad, is still a place where fighters blend into the populace and literally use civilians as cover.  Coalition forces may shoot only when threatened …

Padilla says FBI evidence against him illegally obtained  —  [JURIST] A lawyer for terror suspect Jose Padilla [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] has filed a motion to suppress evidence he claims the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] obtained illegally from two sources …

House at Stake, Midterm Election Gets Early Start  —  WASHINGTON, June 5 — Congressional campaigns have begun early and with unusual intensity this year in many districts across the country, reflecting a consensus in both parties that Republicans could lose control of the House and perhaps the Senate.

U.S. Is Offering Deals on Trade to Entice Iran  —  WASHINGTON, June 5 — The European Union's foreign policy director, Javier Solana, arrived in Tehran on Monday night with incentives intended to resolve the nuclear crisis with Iran, including a proposal to allow Iran to upgrade …

Iraqis Accuse Marines in April Killing Of Civilian  —  Disabled Man's Family Disputes Troops' Story  —  BAGHDAD, June 4 — All parties to the case of Hashim Ibrahim Awad al-Zobaie agree that he was shot dead by Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment on April 26 in the small central Iraqi village of Hamdaniyah.

The Hell of War  —  Why Haditha isn't My Lai.  —  Unjust though the assumption may prove to be, let us imagine that the Marines of Kilo Company did indeed crack up and cut loose in Haditha that day.  Something like this has certainly been waiting to happen.

In Brazen Roundup, 56 Vanish From Baghdad  —  BAGHDAD, June 5 — "Turn back," a friend told Haji Abu Shamaa as he walked Monday morning toward his money-changing shop in the Karkh neighborhood of central Baghdad, a mile north of the heavily guarded Green Zone.  "The Interior Ministry police are rounding up people."

And the Band Played On...  When I was in junior high and high school, my hairdresser was a flaming queen of a man named Rick.  It was the 80s, so he can be forgiven for the bright red jumpsuit and matching cowboy boots ensemble, but for a gay man who lived in West Virginia …

Inside the Cult of Kos  —  What makes the political blogger so mesmerizing to his followers?  —  "If I cared what commenters said, I'd kill myself."  In the high-octane non-stop flame war that is the political blogosphere, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga knows how to get attention.  He's kidding, of course.