A Fox News Channel program last week thrust Andy Martin, widely credited with starting a cyber-whisper campaign about Barack Obama, into the foreground.

Has John McCain fallen too far behind, too late in the campaign, to overtake his rival? History suggests that the answer is probably so.

Signs of internal confusion came as the campaign was under pressure from state party leaders to sharpen its economic message.

The Princeton professor and outspoken newspaper columnist received the award for his work on international trade and economic geography.

Escape From Berkeley could be the world's most eco-friendly race, in which alternative-fuel-burning vehicles compete with the goal of completing the race using no petroleum.

Small, rural villages in Alaska have to contend with smugglers who try and break the bans on alcohol there.

Required to make a gigantic leap in improving students' test scores, many previously successful schools in California have been sinking.

The government ordered nearly all McDonald's restaurants in the country closed for two days for what it called irregularities in the chain's financial books.

Obama, according to polls and politicians, is running even or slightly ahead of McCain in North Carolina, a reflection of the Democrat's campaign and how much this Southern state has changed.

Across the United States, people are tallying their many losses from the relentless rout in the markets. Financial message boards on the Internet are filled with confessions of fear - about hits to savings, job security and scuttled retirement plans.

Elkhart, Indiana, is the white-hot center of the meltdown of the American economy, and voters here have mixed opinions on which presidential candidate can offer solutions.

A growing army of American children steeped in environmentalism - a pint-size eco-police, whose demands grow ever greater, and more expensive - are trying to hold their perplexed parents accountable.

It is the question on the minds of many Americans: If the economy sinks to depths not seen in decades, will crime return with a vengeance?