The new No. 1 issue for Roman Catholic bishops in Charlotte and Raleigh is embryonic stem cell research. In last fall’s national election, Michael J. Fox’s poignant endorsement of embryonic stem cell research set off dueling television ads that argued the point. Now, the bishops are urging parishioners to fight any efforts by the North [...]

As a long, long time political reporter, I think it’s not too late to get in my few cents on the feeding frenzy over whether and when Sen. Barack Obama attended a Muslim school as a boy, and whether the Hillary Clinton campaign leaked the story. It was all nonsense, but it won’t be the [...]

With the 2008 campaigns under way for the GOP and Democratic Party presidential nominations, two key questions have to be asked. One focuses on the news media in general and the other on the Iowa caucuses in particular. With regard to the news media, the question is: “Hey, why can’t you get the question right?” [...]