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Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted of murder for killing his three daughters in a late 1991 house fire after a prosecution based almost entirely on a forensic fire analysis performed by an assistant fire chief and a state deputy fire marshal in the days after the blaze. Two weeks before Willingham’s execution date in 2004, famed arson analyst Gerald Hurst took a fresh look at the case.
President Obama’s address to the Congressional Black Caucus’ annual dinner on Saturday was striking. First, there was Obama’s tone; the cadence – “a bit ‘a help,” instead of “a bit of help” – was reminiscent of a black Southern preacher, and candidate Obama of 2008. Second, he invoked a familiar Biblical theme by reminding the [...]
Updated: 8:40 p.m. E.T. Stepping back from the brink, Senate leaders on Monday night struck a deal to avert a government shutdown, passing a measure that will fund the government through mid-November and keep money flowing to the cash-strapped Federal Emergency Management Agency, enabling it to continue providing relief to disaster-stricken regions and sparing the [...]
One big luxury of being an incumbent President is that your rival party’s primary process is likely to drive its candidates to the right, as they pander to their base. Speaking at a DNC fundraiser in San Jose, California, on Sunday night, President Obama sought to capitalize on the GOP’s primary circus with the kind [...]
–Laurence Silberman, a Reagan-appointed senior judge on the D.C. circuit court of appeals, speaking to an attorney for plaintiffs seeking to overturn Obama’s health reform law on grounds that it oversteps federal powers under the Commerce Clause.
With one week until a shutdown, Congress is still deadlocked on funding. Herman Cain wins Florida’s straw poll; 10 lessons from the state. Romney wins Michigan’s. Some are drumming up buzz of a late Chris Christie entrance; his aides still say no.
An election year is nigh, so it’s time once again for Florida to remind us that it’s more than just a dysfunctional retiree repository. It’s Our Most Important Swing State. The Florida Republican Party’s communications director, Brian Hughes, got the ball rolling last week when he announced that the winner of the state’s GOP straw poll, held on Saturday, Sept. 24, would go on to “be the Republican nominee.”
Joplin, Missouri There were a thousand people in the worship center at the College Heights Christian Church this morning. A guy with a modified mohawk, white tie and distressed charcoal gray shirt was leading the congregation in rocking songs of praise with the lyrics posted on giant karaoke screens to the left and right of [...]
Joplin, Missouri One of Joe’s road-trip companions, chief wrangler and fact checker Katy Steinmetz, sees a house with broken windows and a yard full of debris. In the backyard is a sign that says, “If you have it, we can use it.” In the front yard is a sign that says, “Need golf balls pls.”
Jonesboro, Arkansas–St Louis, Missouri “Down deep in my heart, I believe that we’ve peaked as a nation,” said Jim Phillips, the president of the Arkansas Dentists Association. He had gathered a handful of fellow dentists together at the Riverpointe Country Club, in a neighborhood of some of the biggest McMansions ever built by man. “We’re [...]
