Durbin: ‘supermax’ Gitmo inmates  —  Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), the assistant majority leader, said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press” that he would accept Guantanamo detainees in his home state as long as they were held in super-maximum prisons, where inmates are held 23 hours a day in small cells with slits for windows.

Ridge takes aim at Limbaugh  —  (CNN) — Pennsylvania Republican Tom Ridge is taking direct aim at Rush Limbaugh, telling CNN's John King the conservative talk radio host can be “shrill” and uses language in a way “that offend very many.”  —  “Rush Limbaugh has an audience of 20 million people.

Some Obama Enemies Are Made Totally of Straw  —  WASHINGTON — Democrats often complained about President George W. Bush's frequent use of a rhetorical device as old as rhetoric itself: creating the illusion of refuting an opponent's argument by mischaracterizing it and then knocking down that mischaracterization.

The Writers Make News.  Unfortunately.  —  IT has been a busy week or two for the ethics police — those within The Times trying to protect the paper's integrity, and those outside, ready to pounce on transgressions by Times journalists.  —  Thomas Friedman, the star columnist …

Watson paid pittance for taxes on ‘nonexistent’ Detroit house  —  Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson paid only $68 in property taxes this year because city records say her well-kept, brick Tudor-style home doesn't exist.  Although the home has occupied its west-side plot since 1926 …

FBI ‘lured dimwits’ into terror plot  —  The arrest of petty crooks over a plan to target Jews has put the use of sting operations under fire  —  ON the steps of New York city hall on Friday, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor, praised the police officers and federal agents who helped disrupt …

Let Them Go Bankrupt, Soon  —  Solving Social Security and Medicare.  —  From the magazine issue dated Jun 1, 2009  —  When the trustees of Social Security and Medicare recently reported on the economic outlook for these programs, the news coverage was universally glum.  The recession had made everything worse.

La Cage aux Democrats  —  THE most potent word in our new president's lexicon — change — has been heard much less since his inspiring campaign gave way to the hard realities of governing.  But on Tuesday night, the irresistible Obama brand made an unexpected and pointed cameo appearance …

Guantánamo Closing Hands Republicans a Wedge Issue  —  WASHINGTON — If there was one thing both presidential candidates agreed on last fall, it was the need to close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.  —  But almost as soon as President Obama took office and ordered …

U.S. Presses Israel to End Expansion of Settlements; Bush Pact Complicates Issue  —  Settlement Issue Is Complicated by Bush Agreement  —  The Obama administration is pressing the Israeli government to halt the expansion of Jewish settlements in Palestinian areas, U.S. and Israeli officials said …

Diplomats' Same-Sex Partners to Get Benefits  —  WASHINGTON — The State Department will offer equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American diplomats, according to an internal memorandum Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent last week to an association of gay and lesbian Foreign Service officers.