Rayne Today

Keep talking, George

The more the president says about Social Security, the less voters like his privatization plan.

Well, that's that

The Bush tapes are now in the hands of the president's lawyer -- never to be heard again.

Staying out of Gannongate

White House reporters aren't happy that Jeff Gannon was in their midst, but they don't want to do anything to prevent the next Jeff Gannon from coming along.

Democracy's birth pangs

The response to a paternity suit in Egypt is one sign that Mubarak's iron grip may be loosening.

Rocking Jackson's world

The prosecution opens its case by focusing on a documentary about the pop star's life at Neverland.

Kerry in 2008?

Just weeks after saying it's "too early" to talk about next time, John Kerry launches a political action committee.

Eroding equality

The Bush administration declines to ratify an international treaty on women, saying the U.N. must first renounce abortion rights.

All about DeLay

The House majority leader's handprints figure prominently in a trial in Austin alleging the illegal use of soft money in Texas' 2002 election.

The death knell for Anthony Kennedy?

Voting to prohibit the death penalty for juvenile killers, Anthony Kennedy comes full circle.

But did he kill any chance of becoming chief justice?

King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Temple basketball coach John Chaney has handled himself admirably in the wake of a terrible act.

But he still should go.

Big biz battles for Bush's bench

Last year the Senate rejected former mining and cattle lobbyist William Myers for the Court of Appeals.

Now Bush is trying again -- and this time Myers' business pals are waging a multimillion-dollar campaign for him.

Daily Download: "It Never Changes to Stop," the Books, from "Lost and Safe"

The Fix

Did Jackson's accuser target Leno? Plus: J.Lo's fur-trimmed SS trooper look.

Help save Y100

It's disheartening how few radio stations there are out there with any kind of independence, that deviate in any way from playlists approved by corporate monoliths like Clear Channel.

Reader Laura Adams writes to tell me about the demise of another, Y100, Philadelphia's only alternative rock station:

America's forgotten atrocity

A unique hybrid people, the Acadians offered a wiser, kinder vision of settling the continent.

Instead, they became the victims of North America's first ethnic cleansing campaign.

The boxer

F.X. Toole never lived to see his best story, "Million Dollar Baby," made into a movie by Clint Eastwood.

Wouldn't it have been nice if someone had thought to thank him on Oscar night?

Letters

A source in a Salon story accuses the author of fanning flames of panic about the sexual practices of gay men.

Don't these guys ever look in a mirror?

Why can't the black men who hit on me see I'm out of their league?

The whatever culture

A new book says uncaring, punitive adults -- parents and professionals alike -- are responsible for an epidemic of checked-out, drug-taking middle-class teens.

WayLay

The power of red and the coldness of blue.