Food-Stamp Usage Soars Under Obama More than 36 million Americans — one of every eight adults and one of every four children — rely on food stamps in order to eat, and those numbers will likely grow. “I think the response of the program has been tremendous,” Kevin Concannon, an undersecretary of agriculture, told The […]

4 Police Officers Shot Dead Near Washington State Air Force Base Four police officers were shot dead in an ambush at a Washington state coffee house, a sheriff’s official said Sunday. The attack occurred east of McChord Air Force Base in Parkland, Wash. The officers were shot at local coffee shop, Forza Coffee, the News […]

Sheriff Joe for governor? A recent Rasmussen Reports poll of possible matchups in the Republican primary next year shows Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio would attract 47 percent of the vote. Treasurer Dean Martin, whose campaign pitch in the past has traded on his familiar name, would come in at 22 percent if he decides […]

The Competing Narratives of Barry and Sarah In the spring of 1964, Sarah Heath, then just three months old, flew into backwater Skagway, Alaska (population 650) aboard a 1930s-era Grumman Goose to start a new life with her parents, brother, and sister. At that same time, in America’s other new outlier state, Hawaii, two-year-old Barry […]

As Bank Failures Rise, F.D.I.C. Fund Falls Into Red The government-administered insurance fund that protects depositors fell into the red for the first time since the fallout from the savings-and-loan crisis of the early 1990s as the pace of bank failures accelerated. The fund had a negative balance of $8.2 billion at the end of […]

The Wilding of Sarah Palin When I was in college, I read a book that changed my life. It was Susan Brownmiller’s tome, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, which explained rape as an act of power, not just lust. What I found particularly chilling was the chapter on war — how rape is […]