Iraq PM asks for halt to Baghdad wall  —  Source: Reuters  —  Iraq's prime minister said on Sunday he had urged the U.S. military to halt work on a wall separating a Baghdad Sunni enclave from nearby Shi'ite areas after sharp criticism from some residents.

Student Government Asks Reporters to Leave by Monday  —  You've seen the news coverage from Blacksburg, complete with prominent network anchors reporting from the scene.  —  And now, the student government at Virginia Tech is asking for all of that to end.

Saving the Earth: The Biodiesel Bus Blog  —  Singer Sheryl Crow and environmentalist Laurie David have been traveling across America on a two-week Stop Global Warming College Tour, which winds up today at George Washington University.  Crow and David (co-producer of the documentary …

FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food  —  Outbreaks Were Not Preventable, Officials Say  —  The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people …

Spitzer Plans to Introduce Gay Marriage Bill  —  Gov. Eliot Spitzer will introduce a bill in the coming weeks to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, his spokeswoman said Friday, a move that would propel New York to the forefront of one of the most contentious issues in politics.

"13yo skool grl is nu US txt mssg chmpN"  —  For those above 30 years of age the above headline means that "13-year-old school girl is new US text messaging champion".  Got it?  —  While competitive text messaging may not have quite gained Olympic status, the hundreds of mostly teenagers …

Democrats Getting Paid  —  Last spring, with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress, I wrote an item saying that for corporations and federal contractors looking for favors in Washington, it was hardly even worth buying a Democrat anymore.  But the November 2006 Democratic victory changed all that.

Let's be realistic about reality  —  Within hours of the Virginia Tech massacre, the New York Times had identified the problem: ''What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.''

Candidates hope ideas strike chords  —  Voters getting an early dose of substance  —  WASHINGTON — Barack Obama is unleashing the fine print.  —  In the political hothouses of town meetings and union gatherings, the Democratic presidential candidate has shared his soothing style and intriguing background.

Interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice  —  (Editor's note: the following interview with Secretary of State Rice took place in her office at the State Department last Thursday, April 19.  It's been slightly edited for length and clarity.)  —  SECRETARY RICE: What can I do for you?

U.S. Knew of China Missile Test in Advance  —  After a Chinese interceptor smashed into a target satellite in January, Bush administration officials criticized the test as a destabilizing development.  —  It was the first successful demonstration of an antisatellite missile by any country in more than 20 years.

Rep. Millender-McDonald dies  —  Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.), 68, who'd taken leave from Congress after being diagnosed with cancer, died Sunday, a congressional source said.  —  House Clerk Lorraine Miller has secured Millender-McDonald's office and is to oversee the office until an election can be held to replace her.

Harry Reid and a 'lost' cause  —  Senator forced to backpedal on remarks  —  The Democratic strategy to use the ongoing violence in Iraq to their political advantage in the run-up to the 2008 elections requires some skill and nuance.  But it's growing harder to believe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid …

The politics of saying 'genocide'  —  More than 90 years after the Armenian genocide, the U.S. is deadlocked in a humiliating linguistic debate.  —  ON TUESDAY, President Bush will be obliged, by law, to wrap his double-talking mouth around one of the most curiously persistent debates in modern geopolitics …

WHO NEEDS A PLAN?:  —  This month's National Journal has a piece looking at the nuts and bolts of withdrawal from Iraq—what it would entail, who would stay behind, etc.  Most of the piece just recaps the battles in Washington over funding and the like, but these two paragraphs are unnerving: