U.S. Launches Cruise Missiles Against Qaddafi's Air Defenses  —  The U.S. Navy fires the first U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles against Libyan leader's Muammar al-Qaddafi's air defenses Saturday.  —  The Pentagon says 112 missiles have been launched from U.S. and British ships in the Mediterranean, hitting 20 Libyan targets.

Palin: I could have brought change in '08  —  Republicans would have been more successful in the 2008 presidential elections if she was at the top of the ticket, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin suggested Saturday.  —  Speaking at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi, Palin was asked …

When crisis strikes the world, Obama falls silent  —  There's a great vacancy at the top of the world: A retreat by the American government from its global leadership role.  —  From the end of the First World War right up until about a year ago, there could be no gainsaying the predominant role …

A Clarification  —  Many readers have said that the War Powers Act does indeed give the president the legal right to initiate a war without Congressional vote.  Maybe I wasn't clear enough.  I do not doubt that, even though it seems to me that that Act makes a mockery of the separation of powers.

Japan Finds Tainted Food Up to 90 Miles From Nuclear Sites  —  TOKYO — As Japan edged forward in its battle to contain the damage at its ravaged nuclear power plants on Saturday, the government said it had found higher than normal levels of radioactivity in spinach and milk at farms …

California GOP peeved by proposal to push primary  —  SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Golden State is about as Blue as they come in general elections for president.  But California Republicans still want to influence their own party's nominating process, and they're irked by a Democratic proposal …

Fukushima nuclear accident: Saturday 19 March summary  —  Last Saturday the the crisis level at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station was rapidly on the rise.  Hydrogen explosions, cracks in the wetwell torus and fires in a shutdown unit's building — it seemed the sequence of new problems would never end.

An Advocate Who Scares Republicans  —  The piñata sat alone at the witness table, facing the members of the House subcommittee on financial institutions and consumer credit.  —  The Wednesday morning hearing was titled “Oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

Wisconsin Teacher in Apparent Suicide, “Distraught” Over Walker's Cuts  —  Jeri-Lynn Betts, an early childhood teacher in the Watertown, Wisconsin, school district, died on March 8 of an apparent suicide.  —  A colleague says she was “very distraught” over Gov. Scott Walker's attacks on public sector workers and public education.