Bush Says Report on Bank Data Was Disgraceful  —  WASHINGTON, June 26 — President Bush on Monday condemned as "disgraceful" the disclosure last week by The New York Times and other newspapers of a secret program to investigate and track terrorists that relies on a vast international database …

'Breathtaking' Waste and Fraud in Hurricane Aid  —  FEMA spends $250,000 a month to store about 10,000 empty mobile homes at an airfield in Hope, Ark.  —  WASHINGTON, June 26 — Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced …

In the Senate, Covering Themselves in Old Glory  —  The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.

Steele's Donor List Stirs Racial Questions  —  The fundraiser thrown for Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele on Thursday night, while ordinary in most ways, struck some African American leaders as notable because of the host.  —  Unlike the dozens of high-dollar events across the country …

Justices Reject Campaign Limits in Vermont Case  —  WASHINGTON, June 26 — Vermont's limits on campaign contributions and on campaign spending by candidates are unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a splintered 6-to-3 decision suggesting that efforts to limit the role of money …

Limbaugh's latest drug run-in: Viagra  —  Police say commentator had drug without a prescription  —  WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — Rush Limbaugh was detained for about 3 1/2 hours at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities said they found a bottle of Viagra in his possession without a prescription.

Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress  —  WASHINGTON - A bill becomes the rule of the land when Congress passes it and the president signs it into law, right?  —  Not necessarily, according to the White House.  A law is not binding when a president issues a separate statement saying …

Israeli soldier held in a 'secure place'  —  GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A Palestinian militant leader said Tuesday a captured Israeli soldier was being held in a "secure place," and he claimed that his group also seized a Jewish settler in the West Bank.  —  The new claims came …

A Well-Known Political Blogger Is Hired by the Clinton Campaign  —  WASHINGTON, June 26 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign has hired Peter Daou, one of the most prominent political bloggers in the nation, to help disseminate her message in a forum that has not always been that hospitable to her.

Harry Potter may perish in last book, author hints  —  Harry Potter may perish in the final installment of the boy wizard series in which two main characters die, author J.K. Rowling hinted in a television interview.  —  Speaking on Monday evening, Joanne Kathleen Rowling, 40 …

When the Anchor Drops  —  Goodbye to Dan Rather.  He was a good man and served CBS for 44 years with distinction.  —  Television is a tough business.  When it's time to go, you go .  And if you don't go the way they want you to, they get very upset.  They tell the world …

Taking Ramadi a Neighborhood at a Time  —  RAMADI, Iraq, June 26 — The 120-millimeter mortar shell landed with a crash in the middle of the new American-Iraqi outpost on Monday, hurling foot-long shards of metal and puncturing the chest of a young American soldier.  —  "What's the condition of the casualty?"

Top Democrat Finds F.D.A.'s Efforts Have Plunged  —  WASHINGTON, June 26 — A 15-month inquiry by a top House Democrat has found that enforcement of the nation's food and drug laws declined sharply during the first five years of the Bush administration.  —  For instance, the investigation found …

Why we ran the bank story  —  The Times editor on the paper's decision to expose U.S. money monitoring.  —  MANY READERS have been sharply critical of our decision to publish an article Friday on the U.S. Treasury Department's program to secretly monitor worldwide money transfers in an effort to track terrorist financing.

The Swiftboating of Kos  —  I've been holding my tongue about the media hysteria over Kos, Daily Kos and the "liberal" blogosphere — but only because Don Kos threatened to nail it to a coffee table if I broke the liberal blogger mafia's unwritten code of silence.