5.8-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes East Coast  —  A 5.8-magnitude earthquake based in Virginia sent tremors from the nation's capital to New York City and New England Tuesday afternoon, officials said.  —  Buildings throughout major metropolitan centers in the northeast were evacuated after the quake …

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.

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 …

Perry campaign distances him from book's call for repeal of 16th Amendment  —  Rick Perry's campaign is now distancing him from another controversial claim in his book: That we should repeal the 16th Amendment and replace it with a “Fair Tax,” a radical idea that's still rattling around in some precincts on the right.

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 …

Virginia Nuclear Plant Loses Power After Quake  —  A nuclear power plant in central Virginia has lost offsite power in the wake of a 5.8 earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Va., U.S. nuclear officials said.  —  The North Anna Power Station, which has two nuclear reactors …

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?

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

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Dean of Columbia College Resigns After Two Years  —  The dean of Columbia College has abruptly resigned over what she called administrative changes that would diminish or eliminate her authority, leaving the undergraduate division of Columbia University without a leader two weeks before the start of classes.

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 …

Peter Ackroyd: ‘Rioting has been a london tradition for centuries’  —  The Monday Interview: The capital's greatest chronicler tells Andy McSmith why upsurges of violence are part of the city's texture  —  Peter Ackroyd is the greatest living chronicler of London, particularly its seamy, violent underside.