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 …

'Gated Communities' For the War-Ravaged  —  U.S. Tries High Walls and High Tech To Bring Safety to Parts of Baghdad  —  BAGHDAD — The U.S. military is walling off at least 10 of Baghdad's most violent neighborhoods and using biometric technology to track some of their residents …

69 Dead in Bombings, Shootings;  —  Al-Maliki Stops Wall-building at Adhamiya  —  Reuters reports that a lot of wounded vets from the Iraq War are having to turn to private care.  A chilling passage: "Of the nearly 24,000 wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan …

Debates Losing a Bit of Luster in a Big Field  —  The last time Jonathan Prince checked, there were nearly 40 requests for John Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate for whom he works, to appear at a candidate debate or forum.  —  They came from state Democratic parties and county Democratic committees.

The GOP: Waiting for Him to Walk  —  The President's Old Friend: The A.G.'s poor performance at the hearings cost him support on the Hill  —  The pressure on Alberto Gonzales to resign intensified last week following his daylong grilling before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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 …

Couric May Be Ousted from Anchor Desk  —  CBS's $15 million experiment of hiring Katie Couric has not paid any dividends.  Six months into her tenure as anchor of the "Evening News," Couric has actually fallen in the ratings from her predecessor, Bob Schieffer, sparking talk within the network …

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.

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.

Ever-Larger Media Matt  —  Okay.  The time has come to let you all in on some changes forthcoming soon in my life and on this blog.  Most notably, I'm leaving my job at The American Prospect to take a position at The Atlantic Monthly where my primary responsibility is going to be . . . producing this blog.

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.''

Bedlam Revisited  —  Why the Virginia Tech shooter was not committed.  —  I was in graduate school, studying clinical psychology when they began shutting down the asylums.  The place was California, the time was the early 1970s, and "they" were an unprecedented confederation of progressives, libertarians and fiscal conservatives.

Democrats Blunder On Iraq - Avoid Briefings By Pentagon  —  This article is the top read at Real Clear Politics, and for good reason.  The article is from someone who advised Bill Clinton when the Rep Congress tried to strong-arm him on the budget.  That turned out to be a political disaster …

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.

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.