Nobody tunes into a beauty pageant and expects a public-policy discussion that could be mistaken for C-SPAN. The long-standing perception about the question-and-answer section at the end is that the aspiring beauty queens will uniformly voice their strong support for world peace, an end to hunger, and free lipstick and mascara for the homeless. The latest Miss USA pageant on NBC illustrated that beauty pageants are becoming a dangerous culture-war minefield. It doesn't matter how ... [full story]

The mantra from the left during the Bush years went something like this: The world is not black and white. Sophisticated minds should seek out different, nuanced opinions. Now that Barack Obama is president, you can say a farewell to nuance. The left chants, "torture doesn't work" — defining waterboarding and sleep deprivation as torture. Obama has a longhand version of that mantra in his rejection of the "false choice between our security and our ... [full story]

When she was a 13-year-old student at Safford Middle School in Arizona, Savana Redding was strip-searched by school officials in search of — this is no joke — ibuprofen. Now she is suing the district and the officials for violating her Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. It is not good for Redding that while the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on her case last week, Justice David Souter commented, "My thought process ... [full story]

If the Obama administration has its way, pressure will increase for cars sold in this country to be smaller and more fuel-efficient. But federal rules also say that only vehicles manufactured in North America can be counted toward federal mileage standards. Imported cars must be counted separately. This needlessly increases the cost of making small cars here. The federal administration, in its analysis of the February survival plans submitted by General Motors Corp., stated that ... [full story]

Sen. Dick Durbin's much-discussed (and much-cussed) mortgage "cram down" legislation may come to a vote in the U.S. Senate this week, possibly as early as Tuesday. It deserves to pass. Thanks to the stranglehold that the banking industry has on Republican lawmakers, it probably won't. As of Friday, the Illinois Democrat's "Helping Families Save Their Home in Bankruptcy Act," was a vote or two short of the 60 it needs to close off Senate debate. ... [full story]

The Obama administration now says it may not need additional money for the nation's largest banks after all. If only it were true. White House and Treasury officials, largely for political reasons, are hoping to stretch what's left of last year's $700 billion bailout fund rather than ask a reluctant Congress for another check. To make the money go further, the administration may convert the government's existing loans to the nation's largest banks into common ... [full story]

If you paid for expensive auto repairs and the same problem recurred a few weeks later, you'd probably refuse to pony up for a second fix. But what about medical care? What if you had surgery and, a few days after being released from a hospital, you were right back in to treat complications from the operation. Would you pay for that? Medicare and most private health insurance companies routinely do, even though many experts ... [full story]

Lower Rates Help the State Retain, Attract Physicians SALEM, Ore. – Physicians and surgeons in Oregon have seen a decline in medical professional liability insurance rates the past several years, according to a Department of Consumer and Business Services analysis of recent rate changes. The DCBS Insurance Division found that physicians insured by Oregon’s two largest medical malpractice insurers have experienced an average 18 percent rate decrease since 2005 (see chart below). The two largest ... [full story]

BEND, Ore. -- Public health officials in Oregon are stepping up surveillance for a new strain of influenza known as swine flu, after 40 cases have been confirmed in multiple states along with the numerous cases in other countries including Mexico and Canada. No known cases have been confirmed in ... [full story]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines Tuesday that federal law allows the banning of even the fleeting use of dirty words in live broadcasts. The underlying case involves the use of what the high court called the "F-word" and the "S-word." The policy of the Federal Communications Commission has evolved over the years. In 2004, the FCC declared for the first time that the use of the words could be "actionably indecent," ... [full story]