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The Bullpen

Dana Liebelson

CHART: 40 years later, Roe v. Wade is still under siege

Dana Liebelson

CHART: 40 years later, Roe v. Wade is still under siege

Edward Morrissey

Can the 113th Congress get anything done?

Matt K. Lewis

In four years, we'll be inaugurating President Marco Rubio

Paul Brandus

Why the GOP should embrace Obama

Even comedian Stephen Colbert has a super PAC, allowing him to to raise unlimited amounts of campaign cash for the 2012 election.

Super PACs: All the speech money can buy

December 9, 2011, at 10:07 AM

The new, supercharged political action committees are raising unlimited funds to sway the 2012 elections. How will that affect democracy?

Nearly 29 percent of U.S. homeowners with mortgages owe more on their homes than the properties are worth.

Real estate crisis: America underwater

December 2, 2011, at 10:50 AM

Millions of Americans owe more than their homes are worth, creating a dangerous drag on the economy

"It's better to like beautiful girls than to be gay," Silvio Berlusconi once declared. The scandal-plagued Italian recently resigned as prime minister in the wake of his country's massive debt crisis.

The rise and fall of Silvio Berlusconi

November 18, 2011, at 11:01 AM

The era of Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving postwar prime minister, is finally over. Will Italy ever recover?

As moviegoers balk at the additional $4-$5 it costs to buy a ticket to a 3D film, Hollywood bigwigs are questioning the format's future.

3D's fading promise

November 11, 2011, at 10:02 AM

Films that create the illusion of depth perception were supposed to revolutionize the movie industry. What happened?

Every year, more than 75,000 eyewitnesses identify criminal suspects, but as often as one-third of the time, the witnesses are wrong.

Is eyewitness testimony too unreliable to trust?

November 4, 2011, at 10:44 AM

Courts are reconsidering the value of eyewitness testimony, which has put many innocent people in jail

Public approval in the U.S. for the death penalty has reportedly dropped and more states are scrapping it altogether.

The death penalty in decline

October 21, 2011, at 11:58 AM

The number of countries that execute criminals is dropping. Is capital punishment on the way out?

A computer generated graphic illustrating the objects in Earth's orbit, roughly 95 percent of which are non-functional space junk.

Cleaning up the trash in space

October 14, 2011, at 10:40 AM

The Earth is surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of space junk. Is it too late to take out the extraterrestrial trash?

Tens of thousands of Indians participate in a series of mass protests this summer, in an anti-corruption drive against the country's ruling Congress Party.

India's fed-up middle class

October 7, 2011, at 12:11 PM

An anti-corruption crusade inspires millions of middle-class Indians to political action for the first time

Seven states have passed laws this year requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls, and Democrats allege that it's part of a campaign to suppress the votes of students and minorities.

Controversy: Requiring an ID to vote

September 23, 2011, at 11:39 AM

Are tougher state election laws an attempt to stop voter fraud, or a stealth campaign to disenfranchise Democrats?

For-profit colleges like Kaplan University offer professional degrees that can be obtained online or at night classes, though critics charge that these colleges don't deliver on their promises.

Cracking down on for-profit colleges

September 16, 2011, at 1:41 PM

Schools like DeVry and Kaplan are booming, but critics say they are putting students into debt, not jobs

IQ test scores in the U.S. increased by an average of three points per decade during the 20th century.

Are Americans smarter than ever?

September 9, 2011, at 12:15 PM

The nation's IQ scores have kept climbing over the past 100 years. Does that mean we're brighter than our forebears?

After running a winning 2008 campaign, David Plouffe is trying hard to help Team Obama woo independent voters and secure another four years in the White House.

David Plouffe: Obama's election guru

September 2, 2011, at 10:54 AM

The man who ran Barack Obama's 2008 campaign is now shaping White House policy. What's his strategy?

Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric: GE pays little to no federal taxes because it has one of the best and biggest teams of lawyers in the world.

The controversy over taxing corporations

August 26, 2011, at 2:35 PM

No one is happy with how the U.S. taxes corporations. But do major companies pay too much, or too little?

Approximately 23.5 million Americans live in a "food desert," cut off from fresh meat and produce and forced to rely on processed foods and fast food.

America's 'food deserts'

August 12, 2011, at 10:15 AM

More than 23 million Americans live at least a mile from the nearest supermarket. Is that what's making us fat?

South Sudanese fly the country's new flag and celebrate the recent secession.

The world's newest nation

August 5, 2011, at 2:13 PM

The map of Africa changed last month when South Sudan split from Sudan. What are the country's prospects?

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