Nothing Improper  —  My decision some months ago to privately seek the resignations of a small number of U.S. attorneys has erupted into a public firestorm.  First and foremost, I appreciate the public service of these fine lawyers and dedicated professionals, each of whom served his or her full four-year term as U.S. attorney.

Case Closed  —  Tax cuts mean growth.  —  It's that time again, and I was thinking of the old joke about paying your taxes with a smile.  The punch line is that the IRS doesn't accept smiles.  They want your money.  —  So it's not that funny, but there is reason to smile this tax season.

Russian police beat, detain protesters  —  MOSCOW - Riot police beat and detained protesters as thousands defied an official ban and attempted to stage a rally Saturday against President Vladimir Putin's government, which opponents accuse of rolling back freedoms Russians have enjoyed since the end of Soviet communism.

Researchers explore scrapping Internet  —  NEW YORK - Although it has already taken nearly four decades to get this far in building the Internet, some university researchers with the federal government's blessing want to scrap all that and start over.  —  The idea may seem unthinkable …

Abstinence students still having sex  —  Study tracked 2,057 young people in government-funded programs  —  WASHINGTON - Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex a few years later as those who did not, according to a long-awaited study mandated by Congress.

TD Blog Interview with Knut Royce  —  Knut Royce is a journalist who was a major contributor to three Pulitzer Prize winning stories for such publications as Long Island's Newsday before joining the Center for Public Integrity as a Senior Fellow.  He has won numerous journalism awards …

Administration Seeks to Expand Surveillance Law  —  The Bush administration yesterday asked Congress to make more non-citizens subject to intelligence surveillance and to authorize the interception of foreign communications routed through the United States.  —  Currently, under …

Witnesses for the Persecution  —  IN an echo of the final episode of "Seinfeld," which involved a violation of a "good Samaritan law" that required a witness to a crime to come to the victim's assistance, a recent lawsuit in a United States federal court demands consideration of a related law …

Suing A Blogger: Fifth Update  —  WKRN's Brittney Gilbert reports on the saga of JL Kirk Associates, a critical blogger, and a lawsuit threat that backfired big time.  Also, "S-Town Mike" at Enclave has more on JL Kirk Associates' new-found online fame.  —  And it's not good fame: the story …

Conservatism's third failure  —  THREE TIMES in my political adulthood, we have seen the exhaustion of a conservative ideology and presidency.  Under Presidents Nixon and Bush II, the ingredients were corruption, corporate excess, and overreach of presidential power.

Eye on Iran, Rivals Pursuing Nuclear Power  —  Two years ago, the leaders of Saudi Arabia told international atomic regulators that they could foresee no need for the kingdom to develop nuclear power.  Today, they are scrambling to hire atomic contractors, buy nuclear hardware and build support for a regional system of reactors.

McCain Sees 'No Plan B' for Iraq War  —  Senator John McCain said that the buildup of American forces in Iraq represented the only viable option to avoid failure in Iraq and that he had yet to identify an effective fallback if the current strategy failed.  —  "I have no Plan B," Mr. McCain said in an interview.