Ex-Texas Gov. Ann Richards dies  —  AUSTIN, Texas - Former Gov. Ann Richards, the witty and flamboyant Democrat who went from homemaker to national political celebrity, died Wednesday night after a battle with cancer, a family spokeswoman said.  She was 73.  —  She died at home surrounded by her family, the spokeswoman said.

Senate Committee Approves Wiretap Legislation  —  A Senate committee today approved a bill supported by President Bush that would enable the administration to continue a warrantless wiretapping program that the White House launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Let's quit while we're behind  —  "The trouble with our times," Paul Valéry said, "is that the future is not what it used to be."  —  This glum aperçu has been much with me as we move into the home stretch of the 2006 mid-term elections and shimmy into the starting gates of the 2008 presidential campaign.

I'm sorry Karl Rove . . .  I did not want to write this column.  —  After all, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the public exposure of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity as a CIA operative is winding down after more than 2 1/2 years.  The trial of I. Lewis Libby …

Mother of missing boy commits suicide  —  LEESBURG, Fla. - Two weeks after telling police that her son had been snatched from his crib, Melinda Duckett found herself reeling in an interview with TV's famously prosecutorial Nancy Grace.  Before it was over, Grace was pounding her desk and loudly demanding to know: "Where were you?

In R.I., a Model for Voter Turnout  —  Employing Senate Primary Strategy May Give GOP an Edge  —  The turnout campaign that Republican operatives used to help pull Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee to victory in the Rhode Island primary was a potent demonstration of how money and manpower can transform …

Princeton prof hacks e-vote machine  —  Students uploaded viruses able to spread to other machines  —  TRENTON, N.J. - A Princeton University computer science professor added new fuel Wednesday to claims that electronic voting machines used across much of the country are vulnerable to hacking …

Air America Denies Bankruptcy Report  —  Air America Radio, the network that features such liberal mouthpieces as Al Franken and Randi Rhodes, is denying reports that it will declare bankruptcy.  —  The Web site ThinkProgress.org, citing "three independent sources," started a buzz on the Internet …

The Pope Tackles Faith and Terrorism  —  In a provocative speech citing the concept of jihad and referencing the Muslim prophet by name, Benedict sends the world a signal that it's time for hard questions—not hugs and handshakes  —  This past Monday it was Sept. 11 in Bavaria too …

Air Force chief: Test weapons on testy U.S. mobs  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.  —  The object is basically public relations.

Liberalism as Condescension  —  EVERGREEN PARK, Ill. — This suburb, contiguous with Chicago's western edge, is 88 percent white.  A large majority of the customers of the Wal-Mart that sits here, less than a block outside Chicago, are from the city and more than 90 percent of the store's customers are African-American.

ABC's 'Path' Not Taken  —  Does it matter that ABC invented and distorted history in its "warning: this is not a documentary" docudrama, "The Path to 9/11"?  After all, the first night of the faux drama was trounced by the brother-against-brother actual drama of "Sunday Night Football."

Arabs Increasingly See Lebanon As A Loss  —  At the imposition of the UN Security Council cease-fire resolution, the West almost unanimously considered the war in Lebanon a disaster for Israel.  Most analysts insisted that Israel's failure to destroy Hezbollah amounted to a humiliation …

Grim Report Out of Anbar Is Disputed by General  —  The senior Marine commander in Iraq said Tuesday that he had sufficient forces to carry out his mission but that the mission did not include defeating the insurgency.  —  "For what we are trying to achieve out here I think our force levels are about right …

With No Ideas, The GOP Seeks to Scare  —  Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that Republicans were boasting that they were the party of ideas?  They would privatize the commonwealth and globalize democracy, while Democrats clung to the tattered banner of common security in both economics and national defense.

The ISM-Terror Connection  —  As a front group for Palestinian terrorists, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) sends young people from all over the world to the training fields of the West Bank and Gaza to learn from terrorists and to aid them logistically.