For at least a decade, the banking industry has been fighting to change the terms of personal bankruptcy, arguing that debts shouldn’t go away just because one can’t pay them, and that Americans have abused the system.
Now, the U.S. Senate is wrangling over proposed changes to the bankruptcy system that could keep people paying off [...]

Residents of Wichita, Kansas are breathing easier this week, after the arrest of a man accused of being the so-called “BTK” serial killer, who terrorized the city for three decades. Dennis Rader is being held on $10 million bail, and is expected to appear in court early this week. He will be charged with [...]

Every year for the last 77 years, Hollywood has celebrated its accomplishments with a big party at the annual Oscars ceremony. But behind the veil of glamor and glitz, claims author Edward Jay Epstein, is a big business that looks and operates unlike it did in Tinseltown’s heyday.
In a new book, Epstein explores how the [...]

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Omar Karami resigned with his pro-Syrian cabinet, as more than 25,000 flag-waving Lebanese protesters marched outside of Parliament in Beirut two weeks after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
A caretaker government will be assigned to lead the country until parliamentary elections, planned for this May. Public opposition to Syria’s [...]

They sing from a place few can see: poverty, despair, and loneliness. Many were abandoned, abused, and literally had to sing for their supper. They endured the slurs of racism and sexism, drugs, broken hearts, and shattered dreams. In spite of it all, or perhaps because of it, they found their voices.
From Ma Rainey [...]

Among the major news of this past week:
1) President Bush spends much of the week trying to mend fences with European allies.
2) Just hours ago, a Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up in front of a Tel Aviv nightclub, violating the tenuous cease fire between Israel and the Palestinians.
3) Iraq’s leading Shiite Muslim coalition nominates [...]

As exhilarating as it is to have a front-row seat on history as a top adviser to the U.S. president, the downside of happens once you’re gone is that a new world view takes over. Nancy Soderburg worked in the highest levels of the Clinton administration for eight years through the crises in Somalia and [...]

President Bush has returned from his 5-day European swing. The trip was billed as a fence-mending tour on both sides of the ocean.
John Dickerson, a Time Magazine reporter who has been following the President on his tour, gives a recap of Bush’s visit to Europe.
Guests:
John Dickerson, reporter for Time Magazine.

At this year’s 77th annual Academy Awards ceremony, “official” Oscar gift baskets will be going to host Chris Rock, performers and presenters that include everything from vacation stays in California and South Carolina resorts to cashmere pajama bottoms and diamond-studded Victoria’s Secret underwear.
But gift baskets worth hundreds of thousands of dollars are only the beginning [...]

U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin have pledged a strong personal relationship in past meetings. However, observers point out, Bush’s intensified second-term focus on democracy could be rubbing the Russian leader the wrong way.
At the same time that Bush has stepped up his calls for global freedom, Putin has said his nation [...]

For decades the Alaskan permafrost has been offering up frozen specimens to any scientist willing to do the digging. Many of the finds are in near-perfect form, preserved in the frozen ground like meat in the freezer. But normally the specimens are dead.
Not so for a newly discovered micro-organism that may have inter-stellar implications. [...]

The World Health Organization this week issued a serious alarm that the Asian bird flu outbreak, currently limited primarily to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, poses the “gravest possible danger” of turning into major global pandemic. The avian flu virus has affected poultry in eight Asian countries, and killed 45 people so far.
It may not [...]

Skies cleared today over Southern California, following a six-day drenching that has killed at least 9 people and triggered hundreds of mudslides. The deluge has caused millions of dollars in damage. More than 100 homes in Los Angeles alone have been deemed unsafe. Scores of roads remain blocked by mud and debris, and officials [...]

President Bush wants to give people more choices about their future. He says more control will make us better off. Experts who study economics and human behavior say it depends.
People act against their own self interest. They break into cold sweats over too many choices and then do nothing. They make bad bets, overpay [...]

Harvard University President Larry Summers has come under fire over his recent remarks suggesting biological differences may partly explain why fewer women ascend to top academic jobs in science.
In a meeting with the university’s faculty yesterday, Summers was conciliatory. Some faculty said they hoped the meeting would bring about better relations. Others are less [...]

The Iraqi Interim Vice President, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, moved a big step closer to becoming the country’s Prime Minister yesterday with Ahmed Chalabi withdrawing from the running. Jaafari’s main obstacle now is the current Prime Minister, Ayed Allawi, who is engaged in a feverish, last-ditched effort to gain enough votes to keep the post.
Al-Jaafari’s Dawa Party [...]

After three and a half years, the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office announced today that it has ended the process of identifying victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The remains of nearly half of the more than 2,700 victims remain unidentified.
This marks the end of the painful waiting [...]

Despite soaring tuition rates, universities in the United States say they’re more cash-strapped than ever. Feeling the pinch, they are increasingly turning to the private industry for financial help.
An old question is assuming new importance — Is higher education really about intellectual inquiry or has it primarily become the vehicle for students to find well-paying [...]

For families with high school seniors, the next several weeks are among the most stressful of the year. College applications are in. Now is the waiting game. Will they be accepted or rejected?
The process of choosing a college and filling out applications can be overwhelming for students and harrowing for their parents. [...]

Four weeks after beginning his second term, U.S. President Bush is continuing his charm offensive through the Europe his first administration believed it could do without.
In a major speech in Brussels, Bush told leaders from old and new Europe that “no power on earth” could ever divide the two longtime allies. Never mind the administration’s [...]