THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Economy Briefs

Kinder Morgan agreed to buy El Paso Corp. for about $20.7 billion in cash and stock in a deal expected to create the largest natural-gas pipeline in the U.S.

October 16, 2011

American Scene

A federal appeals court Friday blocked a key part of Alabama's law that requires schools to check the immigration status of students, temporarily weakening what was considered the toughest immigration law in the nation.

October 16, 2011

EDITORIAL: The income problem

A majority of Americans disapprove of what President Obama has done in office. He promised hope and change but delivered disappointment and stagnation. The unemployment rate is stuck at 9.1 percent. The poverty rate is at 15.1 percent, tied for the worst performance since the Census started tracking numbers in 1959. White House policies of class warfare and redistribution are impoverishing America, and the public is starting to feel worked over.

October 14, 2011

EDITORIAL: Corn-fueled politics

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to shove more ethanol into your gas tank. Obama administration bureaucrats have signed off on a crony-capitalist scheme to boost the corn content of gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent. This serves absolutely no purpose beyond enriching farm-state agribusiness giants. In fact, it may even result in the voiding of millions of new-car warranties.

October 14, 2011

EDITORIAL: The Maryland gerrymander

Maryland Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley is on the horns of dilemma. He has to resolve the philosophical question of whether it is nobler to gerrymander congressional districts to seek partisan advantage or to do so to pander to ethnic politics.

October 13, 2011

Inside Politics

After months of lying low in the leadoff caucus state, Mitt Romney is stepping up his public presence in Iowa with hopes of generating momentum for the follow-up New Hampshire primary.

October 13, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s Christian problem

The Obama administration has been obsessed with Muslim outreach and recently tried to mend fences with the Jewish community. Given the state of the world, however, the White House ought to be focused on helping the world's oppressed Christians.

October 12, 2011

Inside Politics

The Republican National Committee raised more than $9 million in September as the party prepares to challenge President Obama next year.

October 12, 2011

Tuning in to TV

Chynna Phillips forgot her routine on Monday's "Dancing With the Stars," and on Tuesday she was dismissed from the show.

October 12, 2011

EDITORIAL: Occupy Pennsylvania Avenue

The "Occupy Wall Street" protesters think the source of their angst is the "greedy" heart of New York's financial district. If these malcontents truly believed in economic justice, their hordes would mass at the gates of the White House. That's where policies have been set in motion that assure Americans a future of deprivation.

October 11, 2011

EDITORIAL: Obama’s killing of U.S. citizens

The more Americans learn about the White House rationale for the targeted killing of an American citizen, the more ominous it sounds.

October 11, 2011

Inside Politics

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta says the Pentagon will need to make difficult budget cuts to find more than $450 billion in savings, and the cuts may include lawmakers' pet projects or weapons programs in their regions.

October 11, 2011

Economy Briefs

A third Nevada jury has found pharmaceutical companies liable and awarded $14 million to a couple in a lawsuit stemming from a Las Vegas hepatitis C outbreak.

October 11, 2011

American Scene

A copy of Steve Jobs' death certificate indicates the Apple co-founder died of respiratory arrest that resulted from pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs.

October 10, 2011

EDITORIAL: Ten years in Afghanistan

When the United States sent forces to Afghanistan a decade ago, few would have thought boots would still be on the ground by now. Early fears of a protracted ground war were swept away by a stunning, unconventional campaign that drove the Taliban from power in a few months. By the summer of 2002, an interim government had been set up; in 2003, a new constitution was written; and in 2004, the first election was held. In 2005, an ABC News poll showed that the Afghan approval rating for Americans was around 70 percent, and 80 percent of Afghans thought their country was moving in the right direction. In June 2005, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco Democrat, declared, "The war in Afghanistan is over."

October 10, 2011

EDITORIAL: The District’s backdoor gun ban

Washington is doing everything it can to prevent residents from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. On Oct. 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the city's ban on high-capacity magazines and firearms that happen to have a scary appearance. The judges left open the possibility that some of the other absurd rules - including the testing of a purchaser's knowledge of local gun laws, vision tests, ballistics tests and fingerprinting - might go too far.

October 10, 2011

Economy Briefs

Oil prices jumped 3 percent Monday as fears of another recession retreated.

October 10, 2011

American Scene

California Gov. Jerry Brown announced Sunday he had signed into law a bill that prevents children under 18 from using tanning beds.

October 9, 2011

Economy Briefs

The jobs crisis isn't getting worse. But it isn't getting much better, either.

October 9, 2011

EDITORIAL: Celebrate America on Columbus Day

Over 100 years ago, Columbus Day was known as Discovery Day. President Benjamin Harrison's Discovery Day proclamation in October 1892 asked the people of the country to "cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer, and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life." The holiday honored the spirit of the occasion more than the man who made it happen. The holiday did not glorify Christopher Columbus, but all he made possible and what generations of free Americans had made of it.

October 7, 2011