Immortalized in Miguel Cervantes’s 17th century classic Spanish novel, the Man of La Mancha Don Quixote turns 400 this year. The mad windmill-battling knight errant has inspired and brought solace and humor to dreamers around the world.
Cervantes’s great work has been celebrated in over 100 translations, in movies and a smash Broadway musical. [...]

Thirty years ago, on April 30, 1975, Vietcong tanks smashed through the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon. Washington’s South Vietnamese allies fell and U.S. helicopters retreated with the last loads of Americans from atop the U.S. embassy.
58,000 Americans died in the Vietnam War, a war that they failed. More than a million [...]

Tonight, President Bush steps up to an East Room podium and faces the White House Press Corps in a rare prime time press conference to discuss two important priorities for the White House — Social Security and energy.
On Sunday, Bush will end his 60-day, 60-city tour to sell his plan to overhaul the social security [...]

When two students went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School in 1999, the tragedy sparked calls for gun control legislation nationwide. Most recently, there have been shootings at courthouses in Georgia and Texas, and latest school shooting occurred on Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota last month.
But times appear to have changed. Now, [...]

A few days after the 2004 Presidential election, Eli Pariser, executive director of the liberal activist group Moveon.org, sent an email to the group’s 2.5 million members. John Kerry may have lost, Pariser wrote, but “the current leg is just beginning…now it’s our party…We bought it, we own it, and we’re going to take it [...]

In Washington today, House speaker Dennis Hastert told Republicans to retreat in their battle with Democrats and let an Ethics Committee probe of the Majority Leader Tom Delay move forward.
This would mean reversing some of the rules changes on ethics passed in the House in January by Republicans. Just yesterday President Bush praised Delay [...]

For many Americans, the Vietnam War ended 30 years ago this week with the fall of Saigon. But for the South Vietnamese who fought against the North, the years following the American withdrawal brought humiliation and oppression. South Vietnamese soldiers were forced to enter re-education camps where they were subjected to hard labor and endured [...]

Former New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges has covered armies on the march around the world. Recently, the sound of Christian soldiers caught his ear, and he followed them to Southern California at the National Religious Broadcasters convention.
At the convention, says Hedges, the fiery theme was not just support for judicial nominees, or creationist [...]

The House of Representatives today took up legislation to add further restrictions for teen abortions. In most states, girls under age 18 already face parental involvement laws.
Similar legislation has passed the House three times before. The one time it reached the Senate floor, it got fillerbusted. This time, the outcome could be different.
Linda Feldmann, White [...]

Forty-million Americans have no health insurance. Millions more are one pink slip away from losing coverage. The reasons are as diverse as the people themselves. But what is clear is that the current healthcare system leaves everyone at risk and it doesn’t take much to be pushed over the edge.
In a new book, authors Susan [...]

After months of debate in the public forum, on the air waves, on talk shows and town hall meetings, the fight over Social Security entered a new phase this morning as the Senate Finance Committee began grappling with real proposals to make the system solvent, long-term.
The hearings waded through four different plans, and looked at [...]

The economic promise of the Internet is ultimately about how many people can use it and how fast. The transformational promise of the Net is deeply linked to high-speed, broadband access, and all the services and applications that make it possible.
Once a leader in Internet innovation, the U.S. is now falling behind Japan and other [...]

A U.S. Marine from New York could face the death penalty if he is found guilty of the premeditated murder of two Iraqi detainees. The case against Second Lt. Ilario Pantano, a former Gulf War sergeant and father of two, opened today in a military courtroom at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Pantano claims self-defense, saying [...]

Economist and University of Chicago professor Steven Levitt was recognized in 2003 as the country’s most outstanding economist under the age of 40. He has little tolerance for conventional wisdom. Rather than look for answers in the same old places, he digs deep into the data.
In his new book, “Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the [...]

Last week, the New York Stock Exchange agreed to a merger last week with a company that would push it toward electronic trading. It looks like it may receive another bid soon, from a friend of ousted former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso.
Michael Mandel, chief economist of Businessweek magazine, talks about what [...]

The battle over federal judicial nominees reached nearly biblical proportions last weekend as conservative evangelical leaders gathered to proclaim their faith under attack. The event, dubbed “Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster Against People of the Faith,” was broadcast across the country and speakers left no doubt about what they saw at stake.
But when the giant [...]

On November 8, 1991, basketball great Ervin “Magic” Johnson announced he was infected with the HIV virus. In 1993, tennis legend Arthur Ashe died of AIDS. In both cases, the rumor mill ran wild with questions about the sexual preferences of both men.
The participation of gays in sports is a silent reality, with a [...]

Among the major news of this past week:
1) Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany is elected Pope Benedict the Sixteenth.
2) Ohio Republican Senator George Voinovich votes with Democrats to force a delay on President Bush’s nominee as UN Ambassador, John Bolton.
3) The House approves President Bush’s Energy Bill.
4) Vermont Independent Senator Jim Jeffords announces he will [...]

Amtrak faces a rough ride on the rails. The Bush administration wants to end its more than $1 billion annual subsidy. Its 20 Acela high-speed trains which operate along the Northeast corridor have been placed out of service until this summer.
Amtrak still struggles with rundown trains, rickety tracks, and constant delays. It does not [...]

Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th terrorist behind the attacks of 9/11, pleaded guilty to all six counts of conspiracy against him. He could face the death penalty.
Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan descent, is the only person charged in the United States in connection to the Sept. 11th attacks. He was arrested a month [...]