Is there an epidemic of school shootings? Parents are understandably fearful, but their fear is unjustified.Schools are relatively safe places, and they have gotten much safer. While even one death is too many, the number of children killed in school shootings has declined over the last couple of decades. The …

“Choice in education is no mere abstraction. Like its economic cousin, free enterprise, and its political cousin, democracy, it affords hope and opportunity.” – President Ronald Reagan Over the past half century, the federal government has proven that a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach to education is ineffective. During that time, the …

The near-term political consequences of the passage of health care reform are likely to be quite severe for the Democratic Party. Only those who believe in the Tooth Fairy think that a bill adding millions to the health insurance rolls will end up curbing the exploding cost of health care …

At Thursday’s health care summit, Rep. Louise Slaughter issued a dramatic call for health care reform, telling us of a woman who was so poor that she wore her late sister’s dentures: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. LOUISE SLAUGHTER, D-N.Y.: I have a constituent that you won’t believe and I know …

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station took an extra spacewalk on Tuesday to wrap up some unfinished business outside the orbiting laboratory. Space station commander Michael Fincke of NASA and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov donned their Orlan spacesuits and stepped outside the space station to install a stubborn European-Russian experiment …

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine: Empire Strikes Back Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had some choice words in response to Newsweek magazine’s prediction that he would be ousted in a military coup in 2010. Chavez called the publication “the empire’s magazine,” saying in a televised address that: “They …

Friends: DJ AM’s Death a One-Time Relapse, Suffered ‘Same Fate as Michael Jackson’ |Jerry O’connell Refused To Watch Rebecca Romijn Give Birth | Jon Gosselin Brings Another Female To Vegas Pool Party | Pop Tarts Scene & Herd Friends: DJ AM’s Death a One-Time Relapse, Suffered ‘Same Fate as Michael …

As we reported Monday night, the Obama administration signaled last weekend that it might take the so-called public option on health care off the table. That means the government would abandon a federal insurance program funded by billions of tax dollars. Well as soon as the far left heard that, …

WASHINGTON – A place that is immortalized in a song like John Cougar Mellencamp’s (search)”Small Town” is expected to stick to its ways, but politically, some hopefuls are charging that Seymour, Ind., the rocker’s hometown, is changing day by day. While the 9th Congressional District is as conservative as ever, …

WASHINGTON – Rep.Chris Shays (search)has made campaign finance reform a priority during his tenure in Congress but now he facesa well-financed Democrat who is taking on Shays for his support of the war with Iraq. Shays, a Republican who represents Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District, is facing one of the toughest …