Senator: Local forces key to Afghan war success
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Barack Obama prepares to announce a new blueprint for the war in Afghanistan, the leading Senate Democrat on military matters says any plan to significantly expand U.S. troop levels must show how those reinforcements will help increase the number of Afghan security forces. The remarks from Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, are a preview of the possible roadblocks Obama faces from his own party as he begins to sell a broader, more expensive battle plan for Afghanistan to an American public weary of the conflict.
Divided Senate opens health care debate on Monday
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the Senate set to begin debate Monday on President Barack Obama's signature domestic issue, the all-hands-on-deck Democratic coalition that allowed the health care reform legislation to advance is coming apart. While majority Democrats will need 60 votes again to finish, some in the party say they'll jump ship from the bill without tighter restrictions on abortion coverage. Others say they'll go unless a government plan to compete with private insurance companies gets tossed. Such concessions would enrage liberals, the party's heart and soul.
NY's King demands probe of White House gate crash
WASHINGTON (AP) — A member of the House panel that oversees the Secret Service says the security lapse that allowed a couple to crash a White House state dinner is unforgiveable and must be corrected. Rep. Peter King said "we can't show this type of weakness to terrorists, to psychopaths."
Drug courts successful for few who get in
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a five-year span, Candice Singer went from being a respected juvenile defense lawyer to a homeless meth addict who once broke into a house just to take a shower. By the time she was arrested, Singer was charged with 24 separate burglaries and with cooking meth in her mother's house. She could have spent at least five years in prison, but her lawyer was able to steer her to a New Jersey drug court that kept her in treatment instead of behind bars.
Doctors in training still learn from cadavers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Color-coded denim cloths cover the row upon row of black body bags atop cold metal tables. Blue means a body that eventually will go into a common grave. Tan, the family wants those remains back for burial, eventually. These are bodies donated to science, awaiting one of the most sensitive rites in becoming a doctor. Before first-year medical students lay their hands on the living, they learn anatomy from the dead.
Maine's moderate Republican senators thriving
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moderate Republicans may be a vanishing breed elsewhere, but Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are thriving. In a narrowly divided Senate, the two women who are willing to buck their conservative GOP colleagues enjoy outsized influence. Democrats see the pair as potential swing votes as they press forward with their health reform plan. Their support could provide a veneer of bipartisanship.
Senate report: Bin Laden was 'within our grasp'
WASHINGTON (AP) — Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of U.S. troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when American military leaders made the crucial and costly decision not to pursue the terrorist leader with massive force, a Senate report says. The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture bin Laden at his most vulnerable in December 2001 has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. Bin Laden's escape laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.
White House: Iran isolating itself with nuke plans
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says if Iran really does plan to building 10 new uranium enrichment facilities, then the development would be another instance of flaunting the United Nations. Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs notes that the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency has censured Iran for failing to live up to its obligations under various U.N. resolutions.
Few signposts mark the road to economic recovery
WASHINGTON (AP) — The road from recession to recovery is rarely smooth, straight or short. It comes with detours, forks and even dead ends. And sometimes surprises. While each American recession is different, most major ones end with pessimism heavy in the air.
Huckabee leaning against another presidential run
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he's leaning slightly against running for president in 2012 but says it's far too early to say what he will do. Huckabee says how the 2010 congressional elections turn out will affect his decision. He also will be looking at whether the Republican Party is willing to unite behind him as a candidate.
