State Sen. Paula Dockery's decision to challenge Attorney General Bill McCollum for the GOP gubernatorial nomination may upset the party's elders, but the competition will be good for the Republican rank and file. ...more

November 4, 2009

There are 18 states, as columnist Mark Shields recently pointed out to me, that have gone Democratic in each of the last five presidential elections. Of the 36 senators who represent those states, only two are Republicans. Both are from Maine, one of the last, storm-lashed, surf-pounded footholds of the Yankee GOP. So it is hardly shocking that the lone Republican supporter of Democratic health reform on the Senate Finance Committee should be Maine's Olympia Snowe. ...more

October 21, 2009

Hurricane Bill weakened slightly early today but still threatened to flood Bermuda's coastlines and generate dangerous waves and riptides along the eastern U.S. coast. ...more

August 21, 2009

Former President Bill Clinton on Sunday delivered to Haitian-Americans and emigres a mixed message of heartbreak and hope. Clinton is making two stops in the Sunshine State, at a Haitian Conference near Miami and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. ...more

August 9, 2009

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg will be awarded Philadelphia's 2009 Liberty Medal for his artistic and humanitarian achievements. ...more

August 4, 2009

Two American journalists jubilantly reunited with family and friends early Wednesday upon returning to the United States with former President Bill Clinton, whose diplomatic trip to North Korea secured their release nearly five months after their arrests. ...more

August 4, 2009

"Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America," by Nathaniel Frank (Thomas Dunne Books, $26) ...more

March 29, 2009

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an abridged version of a story that appeared in The Tampa Tribune's Sept. 23, 1993, editions, when President Bill Clinton introduced his health care reform package. Because of congressional battles, the plan remained in limbo and ultimately went nowhere. In March 1995, the Government Accounting Office estimated the Clinton administration spent about $10 million without reforming health care. ...more

March 29, 2009

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told law students today there could be an opening on the Supreme Court soon but didn't hint at who might be leaving. ...more

March 13, 2009

President Barack Obama said the consensus from the White House health care summit is that there is an immediate need for health care reform, and signaled that he's open to compromise on Thursday. ...more

March 5, 2009