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WASHINGTON – After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits a requirement for businesses to offer coverage to their workers and lacks a government insurance option that President Barack Obama favors, according to numerous officials. Like bills drafted by Democrats, the proposal under discussion by six members on the Senate Finance Committee would bar insurance companies from denying coverage to any applicant. Nor could insurers charge higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. But it jettisons other core Democratic provisions in a reach for bipartisanship...

WASHINGTON – August means beaches and barbecues. And for some, a chance to rally the troops for this fall's health care showdown. Senate postponement of work on health care until September gives interest groups on both sides an entire month to whip up supporters, and pushes off crucial votes on the overhaul effort until fall — when people are likely to refocus on the issue. Backers and opponents of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority plan to use Congress' August recess for intensive advertising and grass-roots campaigns in hopes that energized voters might influence wavering lawmakers. Even so, some political...

WASHINGTON – In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation's first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy. The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs. The House's action fulfilled Speaker Nancy Pelosi's vow to clear...

BREAKING NEWS(Harry Reid Confesses He Didn't Have a 'Lot of Time' to Read Stimulus Bill--But Won't Commit to Giving Public a Week to Read Health-Care Bill Before Senate Votes on It)(Obama Suggests Health-care Reform Will Mean Rationing for Some, but Admits He Would Pay Out-of-Pocket for His Own Family)(Angry Docs Say Proposed Government-Run Health-Care Plan Will Drive Physicians out of Medicine )

Cap and trade is the tax that dare not speak its name, and Democrats are hoping in particular that no one notices who would pay for their climate ambitions. With President Obama depending on vast new carbon revenues in his budget and Congress promising a bill by May, perhaps Americans would like to know the deeply unequal ways that climate costs would be distributed across regions and income groups. Politicians love cap and trade because they can claim to be taxing "polluters," not workers. Hardly. Once the government creates a scarce new commodity -- in this case the right to...

A “Purge” has been conducted on the FSB, MVD Prosecutor’s Office, Customs and the Federation Council. On Friday the Prime Minister was directed by the Russian president to order the forced retirements and firing of high ranking members of the FSB, MVD Prosecutor’s and Custom’s office and the Federal Customs Service. Federation Council members were also told to step down. These “retirements” were conducted in accordance with the government’s anti-corruption campaign. A government source told “Interfax” that this action was not a witch hunt, but was conducted in order to counteract the criminal elements that have taken hold in the...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has dismissed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's surprise letter to President Bush, saying it does nothing to address the standoff over Tehran's nuclear program. Rice told the Associated Press Monday the letter does not address any issues of U.S. concern. She said the letter is about 18 pages long and talks about history, philosophy, and religion. She says the letter is not the place to find a diplomatic opening to engage Iran on the nuclear issue. Rice is in New York meeting with other diplomats from the permanent U.N. Security Council members on possible sanctions against...

Mark Twain said it best when he commented: "There are lies, damn lies and ballot initiatives." --snip-- One of these deceptions involves Proposition 71, the measure that created California's $3 billion stem cell research agency in 2004. In marketing this initiative, proponents said the state would receive not only miracle cures and reduced medical costs, but also up to $1.1 billion in royalties from new stem cell innovations. Now we are learning that this promise, at best, was misleading. At worst, it was a cynical ruse. As was entirely predictable, biotech leaders and many university leaders - key supporters of...

At this precarious moment any distraction is a disaster for Kerry, even when it's Bill O'Reilly's sexual harassment problems. Gleeful Democrats who could have been spending useful hours signing up disenfranchised minority youths to vote instead spent whole mornings poring over the Fox moralist's phone-sex fantasies. The dazzling details could be found at the Web site where mortification lives: TheSmokingGun.com.

(CINCINNATI, September 8th, 2004, 5:30 p.m.) -- A heckler who briefly interrupted a speech by Democrat John Kerry on Wednesday said he was assaulted by two men near him in the crowd before others shouted him down with cries of "Kerry, Kerry." Police said Michael Russell, 48, of Foster, Ky., complained that his neck was hurt by a man who put him in a headlock after Russell started to yell about Kerry's allegation of war atrocities after returning from Navy service in Vietnam. City police were investigating. No charges had been filed Wednesday, police spokesman Lt. Kurt Byrd said. Russell,...

SACRAMENTO - The Proposition 58 spending measure on the March 2 ballot was supposed to propel Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Proposition 57 deficit bond to victory, but could instead bring it down. Proposition 58 - which the governor intended to be a tough companion limit on spending - wound up a much weakened twin that also has to pass in order for the bond to go into effect. The Republican governor, while urging voters to approve his $15 billion deficit bond, still speaks of the companion ``balanced budget'' initiative as if he hadn't compromised to get the Democrat-dominated Legislature to put...

Democrats' fundraising ruse undercuts election reforms Tue Feb 10, 7:27 AM ET For decades, Democrats championing campaign finance reforms blamed Republicans for blocking efforts to curb the influence wealthy donors have on politics. And Republicans readily conceded they opposed limits that might curtail their advantage in raising money from deep-pocketed allies. Now, two years after passage of the biggest reform of campaign financing in a generation, the parties have reversed roles: Democrats are spearheading efforts to bypass a ban on huge donations. Republicans are crying foul - though they're preparing to use the same fundraising ploy if the Federal Election...