- In early June, negotiators from the Senate and the House of Representatives are expected to begin work on merging two competing but similar visions for revamping the way the government regulates banks and financial markets. How the negotiators work out the differences will decide how tough the new measures will be.
- The worst memories of Hurricane Katrina — the eight feet of water that covered the hardware store and destroyed its inventory — are fading, but now Chalmette, La., is distracted by the oil spill 50 miles south.
- Southern Louisiana's bayou Indians have borne the consequences of the work of oil and gas companies for nearly 100 years, but the oil that is now only a short boat ride away has the potential to slam a death nail into the Pointe-Aux-Chenes fishing village and the cultural identity of Indians who have populated it for centuries.
- A battle at sea between pro-Palestinian activists and Israeli commandos sparks a diplomatic crisis in the Middle East and endangers the Obama administration's attempt to revive talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
- Voters' already sinking confidence in their federal legislators threatens to sink even further — an ominous sign for lawmakers who must face the voters in less than six months.
- With the official start of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season Tuesday, a disaster-prone Haiti is far from ready for what meteorologists predict will be a heightened storm season with at least 15 named storms. Some 1.5 million homeless earthquake victims remain under tents and tarps in at least 1,200 camps across the country.
- Roger Duke is a Vietnam veteran, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and a licensed marriage and family therapist. Since 2006, he's spent at least one weekend a month embedded with a California National Guard unit. He's a trusted face whom the soldiers confide in before and after their deployments.
- The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is attracting another kind of potential disaster: investment fraud. Federal officials are warning investors to be wary of so-called "pump and dump" stock schemes tied to the BP oil spill. In a pump-and-dump scheme, a company ups its stock price by hyping its connection to a disaster, typically products or services that can aid in recovery or rebuilding.
- They came by the hundreds Monday to Alaska's Fort Richardson National Cemetery to honor the soldiers and family members buried there. Little American flags flapped in front of each white marble headstone. The oldest date back to World War II. About a dozen troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried or have gravestones there.
- Many Cubans regard the Granma newspaper as a supremely boring propaganda vehicle worthy of its status as the "Official Organ of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party." Yet in recent months it has published a jarringly lively and often critical set of letters to the editor on how to fix an economy ravaged by decades of over-centralization, inefficiency and corruption.
- By the end of Thursday, nearly all 50 states are expected to be in legal alignment against Fred Phelps.
This is no small feat. Despite the rather bland feeling an amicus brief signed by a bunch of attorney generals may elicit, the importance should be understood. Somehow, a short court document doesn't feel like much of a reply to the decades-long fury of Phelps, his crude signs about gays, the demeaning nature of his disruptive protests at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. - Lots of people embellish.
Benchwarmers promote themselves to the starting lineup. Childhood circumstances become more hardscrabble, youthful adventures more daring and glamorous. But there are limits. The big one is military service.
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