For Democrats, Iowa Still Up for Grabs  —  The top three Democratic presidential contenders remain locked in a close battle in Iowa, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) seeing her advantages diminish on key issues, including the questions of experience and which candidate is best prepared …

Giuliani beats Clinton in new poll  —  Republican Rudy Giuliani, shown here campaigning yesterday at the NASCAR Nextel Cup Ford 400 race in Homestead, is the most popular presidential candidate in Florida, with 57 percent of voters willing to consider voting for him, according to a new Mason-Dixon poll.

Baghdad Starts to Exhale as Security Improves  —  Five months ago, Suhaila al-Aasan lived in an oxygen tank factory with her husband and two sons, convinced that they would never go back to their apartment in Dora, a middle-class neighborhood in southern Baghdad.

UN Admits AIDS Hysterics  —  The United Nations grossly overestimated both the scope and direction of AIDS infections, its scientists will admit later this week.  The actual numbers in almost every theater have proven to be much less than UN reports indication, in some places less than half of that asserted.

Iraqis Joining Insurgency Less for Cause Than Cash  —  MOSUL, Iraq — Abu Nawall, a captured al-Qaeda in Iraq leader, said he didn't join the Sunni insurgent group here to kill Americans or to form a Muslim caliphate.  He signed up for the cash.  —  "I was out of work and needed the money …

DMV Stifles L.I. Man's 'Get Osama' Campaign  —  Hauppauge Resident Prepared To Fight For 'Free Speech'  —  There's a $25 million reward out for his capture, so it's no secret the United States government wants to get Osama Bin Laden.  But when a Long Island man wanted to express that thought …

A myth in the unmaking  —  Fox News's status as a politically impartial channel is at last being exposed as a fiction  —  Britons may be familiar with Rupert Murdoch, but I don't think the UK has a beast quite like the American Fox News Channel.  Celebrating its 11th year on the air, Fox is a breathtaking institution.

STONEWALL GOV MUM ON LAWYER  —  Gov. Spitzer is stonewalling questions on whether he's hired a criminal defense lawyer to help him prepare to testify before a state commission and, possibly, an Albany grand jury on the Dirty Tricks Scandal.  —  Spitzer's communications director …

AP Photog & Terrorist Propagandist Bilal Hussein to be Charged (UPDATE: Jawa helped nab Bilal Hussein?!?!)  —  ***Bumped: The Jawa Report credited with Bilal Hussein prosecution!!  Scroll to end for details***  —  Above: Curiously, al Qaeda in Iraq fighters in pose for Bilal Hussein.

Effectiveness of D.C. gun ban still a mystery  —  WASHINGTON - Three decades ago, at the dawn of municipal self-government in the District of Columbia, the city's first elected mayor and council enacted one of the country's toughest gun-control measures, a ban on handgun ownership that opponents …

From Johnny Doo to Rico Suave?  —  I reported last week that former state Sen. Rico Oller of Calaveras County was standing with embattled U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, at a GOP event.  I also mentioned in that piece that Rico (who lost a nasty Republican primary contest …