WASHINGTON - George Mason's players stood on the press table, waving their jerseys to the crowd. Coach Jim Larranaga walked around with the nylon net around his neck. It won't be the same old schools from the same old conferences at this year's Final Four - certainly not top-seeded Connecticut.

WASHINGTON - America's recession "probably" will end this year if the government succeeds in bolstering the banking system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Sunday in a rare television interview.

WASHINGTON - Air defenses around the nation’s capital have been strengthened amid a heightened terrorism alert and a warning from CIA director George Tenet that al-Qaida attacks could occur as early as this week, defense officials said Wednesday.

Increasing public dissatisfaction with the Republican Party is causing GOP Sen. Jon Kyl to keep a wary eye on his opponent during the final two weeks before the election on Nov. 7.

Increasing public dissatisfaction with the Republican Party is causing GOP Sen. Jon Kyl to keep a wary eye on his opponent during the final two weeks before the election on Nov. 7.

Seattle coach Mike Holmgren was asked about the firing of one of his peers after Atlanta dumped Dan Reeves last week.

WASHINGTON — It's code blue for the color-themed terrorism advisories.

A state grand jury may soon be asked to do what perhaps no other has before: consider religious law in deciding whether to charge someone with a crime. The case is that of Dennis Riccitelli, a former Roman Catholic priest charged in 2004 with fraud and stealing thousands of dollars from his Mesa church.

WASHINGTON - Oil and gas companies, closer than ever to drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge, want to explore another frontier: America’s coastlines.

"George Washington Slept Here"?

WASHINGTON - Air defenses around the nation’s capital have been strengthened amid a heightened terrorism alert and a warning from CIA director George Tenet that al-Qaida attacks could occur as early as this week, defense officials said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court suggested Tuesday it could find a way out of the case over California's ban on same-sex marriage without issuing a major national ruling on whether America's gays have a right to marry.

Washington  -- Arizona could lose more than 49,000 jobs if automatic federal budget cuts are allowed to take effect in January, according to a recent report.

Arizona State freshman Jerren Shipp watched intently from the stands at Pauley Pavilion as Josh Shipp and UCLA took apart visiting Washington over Christmas break.

WASHINGTON - American troops may still be in Iraq four years from now, Gen. Tommy Franks told Congress on Thursday.

Haven’t Americans (especially Arizonans) done enough to appease the illegal alien amnesty activists (either homegrown or from California)? The millions of dollars spent to defend our state, cities, towns, counties and law enforcement agencies from the Obama administration, the ACLU, Hispanic plaintiffs and others from enforcing U.S. laws about illegal entry into the country.

As I was searching the web the other day, I came upon an image of Alan Greenspan. There he was with an introspective smile as former President George W. Bush placed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on his shoulders. Looking back, I think the most meaningful contribution Alan Greenspan made to the U.S. was his acknowledgement that a deregulated free-market is flawed.

The United States emerged as an idea and, going back to the Mayflower Compact, our heritage is uniquely enshrined in documents — the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Lincoln’s second inaugural, the writings of Martin Luther King.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has killed NASA's $100 billion plans to return astronauts to the moon.

 “The Mesquite High School graduation at Wells Fargo Arena was a complete waste of time and effort. The speeches from the principal and the valedictorian were insidious and asinine, some of the parents’ behaviors were rude and inexcusable, and the students acted like bored kittens who had to play with something — like beach balls — to bide their time until they could ascend to the stage and receive their certificates. Awful.”

Monday was Presidents Day, which meant school was out. I strongly suspect that our schoolchildren did not spend the day meditating on the leaders of our country. I suspect they found other diversions.

Skydivers floated around Gilbert Town Hall streaking the sky with comet trails, fireworks burst above plastic models of historic buildings and national monuments, red and blue balloons occasionally floated above the crowd, and London-born singer Alex Boyè, who became a U.S. citizen this year, sent the crowd into a screaming frenzy with his theme of world peace.

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - Hundreds of grumbling parents facing a threat of jail lined up at a courthouse Saturday to either prove that their school-age kids already had their required vaccinations or see that the youngsters submitted to the needle.