Mitt Romney raises $18.25 million  —  Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney talks with reporters outside Allentown Metal Works in Allentown, Pa., last week.  (AP Photo/Rich Schultz)Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney raised $18.25 million …

Worse Than O.J.!  —  While the stunning Casey Anthony acquittal defied logic, O.J. Simpson prosecutor Marcia Clark details how juries often delude themselves—and why this verdict trumps even her case.  —  Sick, shaken, in disbelief.  As I listened to the verdicts in the Casey Anthony case …

What became of ‘repeal and replace’?  —  When they took control of the House, Republicans could barely stop talking about their plans to “repeal and replace” the health care reform law.  —  Six months later, they hardly talk publicly about those plans at all.  And they're nowhere close to “replacing” the law.

Invoke the 14th — and end the debt standoff  —  On its current course, the United States is four weeks away from defaulting on its debt for the first time in its history.  If that happens, businesses will fail.  Financial institutions will fail.  Home values will decline.  Mortgage rates will skyrocket.

Barack Obama's Dangerous Embrace Of Economic Fatalism  —  Even as the Obama administration continues to defend the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act from its critics, the White House appears to have sincerely pivoted away from the idea that a higher level of aggregate demand …

WHY CLIMATE CHANGE HAS BECOME THE “DEAD PARROT SKETCH” OF AMERICAN POLITICS  —  For years now the climate campaign and the politicized science community has been complaining that it has a “communications problem,” which can be solved if only they shout louder, or get the human car alarm former …

Pawlenty's Homespun Tale  —  SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minn.—Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty brings a biographical peculiarity to his quest for the White House.  Were he to win, he'd be the first president who had never lived outside his home state.  —  In fact, Mr. Pawlenty has lived …

Better Lives for Mexicans Cut Allure of Going North  —  AGUA NEGRA, Mexico — The extraordinary Mexican migration that delivered millions of illegal immigrants to the United States over the past 30 years has sputtered to a trickle, and research points to a surprising cause …

Watch a 50-Mile Wide Dust Storm Devour Phoenix  —  Now, we have a new reason to compare the Great Recession to the Great Depression: Steinbeck-style dust storms.  Tuesday evening, a massive cloud of darkness known as a “habub” overtook Phoenix.  The National Weather Service reports that the wall …

Michele Bachmann's husband shares her strong conservative values  —  Lake Elmo, Minn. — In an interview last year with a Christian-  —  radio talk show, Marcus Bachmann, a therapist who runs a faith-infused counseling center here, compared homosexuals to “barbarians” who “need to be educated, need to be disciplined.”

Families of 7/7 victims ‘were targets of phone hacking’  —  New revelation deepens crisis at News of the World after it emerges that officers will review child murder cases  —  The phone-hacking crisis enveloping the News of the World intensified on Tuesday night after it emerged …

The 2012 Horse Whisperers  —  Who's giving foreign-policy advice to the crop of GOP front-runners?  —  Michele Bachmann: The Tea Party's new hawk  —  Despite all of Bachmann's Tea Party credentials, she's not looking like an isolationist when it comes to foreign policy.

Investigation Finds ‘Widespread’ Cheating in Atlanta Schools  —  At least 178 teachers and principals at nearly four dozen schools in Atlanta have been implicated in what is likely the largest cheating scandal in U.S. history to date.  —  The report found that teachers …

U.S. willing to leave 10,000 troops in Iraq past year's end, officials say  —  Keeping U.S. troops in Iraq after the departure deadline would require accord of Iraq's deeply divided government.  The Iraqis have not made a formal request for U.S. troops to stay.

Obama Summons G.O.P. and Democratic Leaders for Deficit Reduction Talks  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama stepped up pressure on Congressional Republicans on Tuesday to agree to a broad deficit-cutting deal, pledging to put popular entitlement programs like Medicare on the table in return …

DNC boss, president at odds on Cuba policy  —  Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), tapped by President Obama to head the Democratic National Committee, is a hard-liner on Cuba, which means the chairwoman of the organization intent on reelecting the president disagrees with Obama …

Is Jiang Zemin Dead?  Real-time Illustration of News Control in China  —  For the past 24+ hours, anyone following various social-media feeds* about China has seen rumors, then official denials, then silence, about the possible demise of former president Jiang Zemin, shown in his prime at right.

Fiscal stimulus doesn't work, claims Harvard economics professor Robert Barro  —  Keynesian-style fiscal stimulus programmes do not work, leading Harvard economist Robert Barro has warned, adding that large spending plans should be undertaken only if they can be justified financially on their own merits.