Immigration Emerges As Key Issue For Some Iowa Voters

Campaign buses loaded with Republican presidential hopefuls and their entourages are rolling across Iowa as the candidates hope some face time with GOP voters will help boost their chances in the Jan. 3 caucuses. The main issue for many Iowa voters is the economy. But there’s a sleeper issue emerging: immigration reform. Iowa’s Hispanic population [...]

Reversal On Health Mandate Came Late For Gingrich And Romney

Opposition to the administration’s overhaul of health care has almost become an article of faith with every Republican running for president. Candidates promise to repeal the law and its less-than-popular requirement for most Americans to either have health insurance or to pay a penalty starting in 2014. “It is wrong for health care. It’s wrong [...]

IBM Sees A Big Boost As It Turns 100

In 2011, IBM’s stock rose more than tech hotshots Google and Apple. IBM is 100 years old, but it has totally remade its business for the 21st century. “There is no such thing as an IBM PC,” declares IBM managing partner Adam Klaber. More than 83 percent of their business is now services and software. [...]

‘Smart Decline’: A Lifeline For Zombie Subdivisions?

On the western edge of Phoenix, it’s easy to find vast tracts of empty land once prepped for two-by-fours and work crews. Utility stanchions emerge like errant whiskers from the desert floor. This is the land of zombie subdivisions. Some experts believe up to 1 million dirt lots in central Arizona were in some stage [...]

Antiviral Drugs Sparkle In The Race To End AIDS

2011 has been a momentous year in the 30-year-old AIDS pandemic. The big breakthrough was the discovery that antiviral drugs can prevent someone who’s infected with HIV from passing the virus to others. It’s nearly 100 percent effective. That led President Obama to declare earlier this month that the U.S. will expand HIV treatment in [...]

60 Years After Leaving, Porpoises Again Play In SF Bay

Something that has been missing from San Francisco Bay since World War II appears to be making a comeback: Harbor porpoises are showing up in growing numbers, and researchers are trying to understand why they’re returning. The walkway across the Golden Gate Bridge is almost always packed with people taking photos. But Bill Keener isn’t [...]

In Iowa, Romney Ignores Rivals, Targets Obama

Mitt Romney returned to Iowa Tuesday night, his sights set on a top-two finish next Tuesday in the state’s Republican caucuses and his aim focused exclusively on President Obama. In the packed ballroom of the Hotel Blackhawk in Davenport, Iowa — with scores of people unable to get in lining the carpeted hallways outside to [...]

Ahead In New Hampshire, Romney Attempts To Solidify Support

Mitt Romney’s campaign stops Tuesday in New Hampshire, at small restaurants with largely invited crowds, featured lofty patriotic themes and seemed designed to help him lock down his current base of support in the Granite State. “America the Beautiful,” the Founding Fathers, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were referenced by the GOP presidential [...]

Graphic Content: 3 Comics Based On Real Crimes

I’m pretty much a snob when it comes to true-crime stories. I want something vivid — but I also don’t want eight pages of shocking photos or a garish cover featuring a mugshot of some dude who needs a sandwich, a shave and a hug. I want my tales of real-life mayhem to be well-researched [...]

Baking With Sweet Alternatives

My foray into baking with alternatives to sugar began with a jar of honey my soon-to-be-sister-in-law Emily gave me when I visited the Maine farm where she and my brother lived. She told me it came from a local apiary, and if I couldn’t take home some of the candy-like and perfect beets grown in [...]