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GOP at War With Itself in Florida Senate Race

While his Republican party has been flailing and losing and dwindling to its base, Florida Governor Charlie Crist has remained extremely popular by governing from the middle. He’s stocked his administration with Democrats, appointed a fairly liberal African-American Democrat to the state Supreme Court, expanded voting rights for felons, crusaded against global warming, and enthusiastically supported President Obama’s stimulus package. Crist’s crossover appeal — along with his powerhouse skills as a fundraiser and campaigner — has made him a heavy favorite to join the Senate in 2010.

Iran says it is holding American hikers

The United States has received official confirmation that three Americans have been detained in Iran, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday. Shane Bauer, 27; Sarah Shourd, 31; and Josh Fattal, 27, were picked up by Iranian authorities when they strayed across the border while hiking in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Childless man released from child support debt

A Georgia man who spent a year in jail for nonpayment of child support — despite the fact he has no children — has been cleared of the debt, his attorney said Tuesday. Frank Hatley, 50, spent 13 months in jail for being a deadbeat dad before his release last month. In June 2008, a judge ordered him to jail for failing to reimburse the state for public assistance that was paid to support his “son” — a child who DNA tests proved was not fathered by Hatley

Question riles Clinton; translation might have been off

The question may have been lost in translation, but a visibly angry Secretary of State Hillary Clinton bluntly told a town-hall meeting in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, "I will you tell you my opinion, I’m not going to channel my husband." The unscripted moment happened as Clinton spoke to students at a Congolese university in Kinshasa, the Congo capital. A male student rose to ask a question about Chinese financial contracts with Congo.

Arming Iraq’s Future Street Gangs?

There is growing concern that local militias now allied with the U.S. are turning their guns on each other as the U.S.

Fatal Sunshine: The Plight of California’s Farm Workers

The bountiful harvest of California strawberries, melons, grapes, peaches and nectarines overflows the nation’s summer tables.

Congresswoman: U.S. ties with Xe, formerly Blackwater, must end

A member of Congress Friday called on the State Department to stop doing business with Xe, the North Carolina-based security company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, asked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton whether the State Department had just signed a new $20 million dollar contract with Xe for Iraq, saying she is “very concerned” that the State Department may be signing new security contracts with Xe, both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Clinton says trial shows Iran ‘is afraid of its own people’

Iran’s trial of more than 100 people who it has linked to post-election unrest is a "sign of weakness" and shows that the Islamic republic "is afraid of its own people," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN Thursday.

U.S. delays counternarcotics aid to Mexico

The release of a report that would free up more than $100 million in U.S. aid to Mexico to combat drug cartels has been delayed by Sen

If a Health-Care Bill Passes, Nurse Practitioners Could Be Key

As the House and Senate prepare to embark on their summer recess without having passed any health-care-reform bills, President Obama’s dreams of radically restructuring the system have, at least for now, bumped up against the reality of Washington politics. But even if Congress manages to overcome the many obstacles and pass some kind of meaningful reform this fall, the goal of covering some 50 million currently uninsured Americans will encounter a whole new range of hurdles.