Thirty-one years after Atlanta lost its first NHL team to Canada, the city could be closer to again having its hockey team move north of the border.
The Thrashers still belong to Atlanta _ for now.
Popular Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott P. Brown appears rattled for the first time since grabbing the late Democrat Edward M. Kennedy's seat 16 months ago.
The field of Democrats angling to challenge Sen. Scott Brown in Massachusetts next year got a little more crowded Monday when Newton Mayor Setti Warren announced his intent to seek his party's nomination.
Massachusetts Democrats insist Sen. Scott Brown is vulnerable in next year's elections, arguing the surprise winner last year of the seat long held by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has compiled such an uninspiring voting record that both Democrats and conservative Republicans will be gunning for him in 2012.
In a year when spending, deficits and debt have dominated the national debate, the recent push to strip Planned Parenthood of government funding is a reminder that the abortion issue retains its political potency.
Democrats haven't found a solid challenger to GOP Sen. Scott Brown in liberal Massachusetts next year, stoking concerns the party could blow its best shot to take back the seat held for nearly a half-century by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
"I was always in trouble, at home, in school," writes Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown. "I seemed to gravitate to it, as if it had tentacles that it could unfurl and draw me in ... ." Well, yes, come to think of it: shoplifting; arson, if of an accidental nature; a father who abandoned the family; an emotionally unstable mother; abusive stepfathers; poverty.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has shown so much progress in her recovery from a bullet wound to the head that friends and family are making plans for her to attend the launch of her husband's space shuttle mission next month in Florida, a person close to the family told the Associated Press on Thursday.
