5.9-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes East Coast  —  An earthquake sent tremors from the nation's capital to New York City and New England Tuesday afternoon, the result of what officials said was a 5.9 magnitude earthquake based in Virginia.  —  Buildings throughout major metropolitan centers …

Perry takes the lead in Iowa  —  Rick Perry is the new leader in Iowa:  —  The race is pretty close four ways in Iowa but Rick Perry is the new favorite among Republican voters in the state.  Among announced candidates he's at 22% to 19% for Mitt Romney, 18% for Michele Bachmann, and 16% for Ron Paul.

Rick Perry holds the record on executions  —  Darren McCollester/GETTY IMAGES - PEMBROKE, NH - AUGUST 18: Republican presidential candidate and Texas Governor Rick Perry speaks to workers at Epoch Homes August 18, 2011 in Pembroke, New Hampshire.  Perry has been campaigning since he declared …

Conservative elites pine for 2012 hero  —  It's a tough time to be a conservative intellectual.  —  From the Weekly Standard to the Wall Street Journal, on the pages of policy periodicals and opinion sections, the egghead right's longing for a presidential candidate of ideas …

Rebels Invade Qaddafi Compound  —  TRIPOLI, Libya — Rebel fighters flooded into Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's sprawling compound on Tuesday, overwhelming what remained of its defenses and running pell-mell through the grounds, as the crackle of gunfire and rumble of explosions spread across …

Here's Why Bank Of America's Stock Is Collapsing Again  —  It's deja vu all over again.  —  The stock of a humongous American bank, Bank of America (BAC), is collapsing.  —  This is stoking fears that Bank of America will go bust, taking the whole economy down with it.  —  Why is Bank of America's stock tanking?

How Democrats Hurt Jobs  —  The airplane's aft section arrived early Monday morning.  That's what they'd been waiting for at the final assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C. They already had the wings, the nose, the tail — all the other major sections of Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner.

Rare Strong Earthquake Hits Colorado  —  DENVER — The largest natural earthquake in Colorado in more than a century struck Monday night in the state's southeast corner, but there had been no reports of damage or injuries.  —  The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 and centered …

Waters to Obama aide: Say ‘black’  —  Rep. Maxine Waters and other black leaders lobbed heated questions at one of President Barack Obama's top jobs advisers Monday, pressing him to confirm the White House is focusing on creating jobs in struggling African-American communities — and to say the word “black.”

New national debt data: It's growing about $3 million a minute, even during his vacation  —  Swallow all liquids in your mouth before reading any further.  —  Updated numbers for the national debt are just out: It's now $14,639,000,000,000.  —  When Barack Obama took the oath of office twice on Jan. 20 …

How Is Warren Buffett Like the Pope?  —  by Richard A. Epstein (Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow and member of the Property Rights, Freedom, and Prosperity Task Force)  —  They are both dead wrong on economic policy.  —  The terrible economic news from both Europe and the United States …

What's Obama Reading?  —  The reports are in about the books President Obama is looking at on his annual trip to Martha's Vineyard.  According to reports from the Los Angeles Times and the AP, Obama purchased five books on his trip to the Vineyard bookseller Bunch of Grapes: Marianna Baer's Frost …

Obama Needs a New Tune  —  It's time for the president to drop his weak hope of a post-partisan politics, argues Clinton speechwriter Jeff Shesol—and lay out a strong new case for his reelection.  —  Call him a neo-post-partisan.  —  “There's something wrong with our politics that we need to fix …

Washington Is Eliminating Red Tape  —  New reforms will save Americans billions without sacrificing public health or safety.  —  Early this year, President Obama ordered an unprecedentedly ambitious government-wide review of existing federal regulations, emphasizing that we must “measure …

Spending, not entitlements, created huge deficit  —  It's conventional wisdom in Washington to blame the federal government's dire financial outlook on runaway entitlement spending.  Unless we rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the conventional wisdom goes, the federal government is headed for disaster.