By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
When the price of a commodity rises to stratospheric heights for no apparent reason, it's likely hysterical speculation. Only the government could come up with a bubble in a commodity that's merely speculative. This week, the going price for a "renewable identification number" hit a high of $1.10, which is up 3,500 percent from the 3 cents it would have fetched just a few months ago. Published March 15, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
Virginians elect a new governor Nov. 5, and they'll get a rare choice between a constitutional conservative and an abortion liberal. No Tweedle Dee vs. Tweedle Dum this time. Published March 14, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
Europeans have so many nations in financial trouble that they came up with an acronym, PIIGS, to keep track of the worst: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. Now a sixth nation, Cyprus, is about to join this less-than-illustrious group. Published March 14, 2013
If gestures of good will are greeted with streams of invective, a visitor will conclude that "this must be the Middle East." When President Obama arrives in Israel next week, he will say encouraging things about the plight of the Palestinian people and their quest for a state of their own. Published March 14, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
The spooks don't preside over the most secretive agency of the government. It's no place for spies or their spymasters, so it isn't the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency or even the Office of National Intelligence. The place where the deepest secrets are kept is where the gnomes of the central banks work. Published March 13, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
The regulation that threatened to snuff out Slurpees and Big Gulps in New York City is itself dead, at least for now. A state judge, Milton A. Tingling, praise and honor be on him, ruled that the regulation conceived by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the galloping vanquisher of trans fats, was "fraught with arbitrary and capricious consequences." Published March 13, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
This administration certainly loves drones, but even that ardent passion has limits. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday put a stop to production of a medal that was to be awarded to drone operators, and not a moment too soon. Published March 13, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
Senate Republicans have so far thwarted the nomination of Caitlin J. Halligan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often a way station to the U.S. Supreme Court. On the evidence so far, she would be a rubber stamp for the worst of President Obama's second-term agenda. Published March 12, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
The surest and quickest way for a Republican officeholder to kill his future is to dream up a tax increase. Once a rising star in the Grand Old Party, a shortlist contender as Mitt Romney's running mate and a twinkle in the eye of the Great Mentioner for 2016, Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia has disappeared from the speakers' lists at key conservative events, such as the Conservative Political Action Conference, which begins Thursday in Washington. Published March 12, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
There will be no breath of fresh air at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On March 4, President Obama introduced Gina McCarthy, a veteran of the EPA bureaucracy, as his choice to run the 17,000-employee agency during his second term. Published March 12, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
The future of the Boy Scouts is on the line. Left-wing activists have made overturning the youth organization's traditional values a priority, and the national leadership will decide in May whether to cave to the pressure and celebrate homosexuality as a moral value for the nation's boys. Published March 11, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
There was good news on the jobs front Friday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the unemployment rate dipped to 7.7 percent in February. That's the lowest figure since President Obama was sworn in in 2009, but it's not quite time to break out the champagne. Published March 11, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
The president says any cuts to the federal leviathan would harm women, children and maybe their puppies and kittens -- and so far he's been able to get away with this fib. Now, the government's own inspectors general are collectively saying: "Not so fast, Mr. President." Published March 11, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
Several days before the November elections, Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to meet with her lawyers to prepare for the renewal of the Clinton-era gun ban, early in President Obama's second term. Published March 8, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
The drones are coming. Who could have imagined such a science-fiction tale, a president who could kill, via remote control, anyone he declares an enemy of the state -- and on American soil. Until now, the White House refused to close the door on such a scenario, despite pretensions of taking civil liberties seriously. Published March 8, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
Brownie troops, baseball teams and kids from places like Ottumwa, Texarkana and East Gondola who have been washing cars and saving dimes for years to pay for their senior trip, can scratch the White House off the list of places to see in Washington. In a fit of pique over how sequestration didn't shut down the government, President Obama has canceled all public tours. Published March 8, 2013
Barack Obama went to some big towns in his campaigns and gave some big talk. He vowed to go line-by-line through the federal budget to identify and cut waste. The big talk, it turns out, wasn't worth the teleprompter it was printed on. Published March 7, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
The D.C. Council, always on the scout for a new way to pick the pockets of the people who live in Washington, now proposes to require gun owners to pay for exercising their constitutional rights. Under a proposal introduced by Mary M. Cheh, a member of the council, gun owners would be required to buy liability insurance. Published March 7, 2013
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES - The Washington Times
The death of Hugo Chavez evoked an outpouring of sympathy and even admiration from many on the left, who can't decide whether fidelity to socialism, as Mr. Chavez defined it, is more important than human rights, freedom and democracy. Published March 7, 2013
By Emily Miller - The Washington Times
The vice president of the United States shouldn't dispense advice that would put anyone taking it behind bars. In his role as President Obama's top lobbyist for gun control, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been shooting from both hip and lip, promoting the shotgun as the alternative to the sporting rifle. Published March 6, 2013
Illustration by Dana Summers of the Tribune Media Services
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