No Child Left Behind represents a major change in state-federal relations. But it may not be a good campaign issue for the president.

Marco Lopez does things any ambitious young politician might do--he just does them younger and better.

What's the worst calamity ever to befall New York's borough of Brooklyn? Easy answer: losing the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team to Los Angeles in 1957. But now there's a serious effort to bring a big- time sports franchise to the borough.

The American people have a demonstrated tolerance for fiscal deceit, as long as it is carried off with a certain amount of style. When Governor Earl Long pushed through a tax increase in Louisiana, immediately after winning election on a no-new-tax platform, reporters asked him how he planned to explain his actions to the people.

Diagnosis: Public health programs entered the century short of supporters and cash. The new emphasis on fighting bioterrorism is starving traditional functions even more.