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Around 15,000 crocodiles escaped from a farm in South Africa following heavy rain. The crocodiles sprung from the Rakwena Crocodile Farm in the far north of the country when owners were forced to open the gates to prevent a storm surge after the nearby Limpopo river rose. A number have since been recaptured, but at least half remain on the loose, scattered far and wide. ... Animal safety experts warned people to stay indoors and stay away from the crocodiles.

Excellent, and not just the Libya stuff. Stick with it for Paul’s questions about how smart it is to be arming the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt when Morsi is already wheezing about Jews controlling the media in official diplomatic sessions with the U.S. If you’re wondering why it fell to Paul to ask this question instead of any of the more senior senators who preceded him, it’s because the Senate was perfectly happy to have Obama act unilaterally on Libya. The Iraq war authorization came back to haunt many of them; no one knew at the time how messy Libya...

Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter spoke at the first meeting of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission in Hartford on Thursday and had a strong message for the panelists: The nation is watching. Ritter was a district attorney at the time of the Columbine High School mass shooting in Littleton and was asked to speak before the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, which was created by Gov. Dannel Malloy. "The nation is watching and wants to understand how these tragic events continue to occur," Ritter said. Ritter was asked to speak about what he has learned since the Columbine shooting. "I think...

What’s more realistic: A unicorn, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or a successful government program? This isn’t a trick question. Even though I’ve presented both theoretical and empirical arguments against government spending, that doesn’t mean every government program is a failure.I suppose the answer depends on the definition of success.Government roads do enable me to get from Virginia to Washington every day. And the Post Office usually gets mail from one side of the country to another. By that standard, many government programs and activities yield positive results.But if the question is whether government achieves anything in a cost-efficient manner,...

The only thing more stunning than the kleptomania of tax-hiking politicians is their unswerving faith that taxpayers, especially wealthy ones, simply will smile and surrender even more of their money. This fundamental misunderstanding of human nature is impervious to mounting evidence that taxpayers go where taxes are low. French President Francois Hollande thought he could impose a 75 percent top tax rate and watch revenues flow into Paris like the Seine. Instead, actor Gérard Depardieu rushed into the loving arms of Vladimir Putin and Russia’s 13 percent flat tax. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, of all people, reportedly may move...

A lot of people in Washington apparently forgot how good Hillary Clinton is at not telling the truth. Wednesday, in her testimony before the Senate and, later, the House, Clinton brilliantly fudged, dodged, and filibustered. Of course, she’s a pro. Clinton was slow-walking depositions, lawyering up, and shifting blame when many of her questioners were still civilians down on the farm. Aided by a ridiculous format, she outfoxed most of the Republicans with ease. Meanwhile, the Democrats, almost uniformly, seemed singularly interested in celebrating Mrs. Clinton as a global diva who somehow manages to carry the burden of her awesomeness...

(snip) In the United States, where real estate is the single largest source of asset accumulation for the middle class, the story of the Sugrues and the Smiths goes a long way to explaining the expanding disparities between white and black wealth. The two families—like many Americans—invested in real estate both for its use value and as a gamble on the future. But one family did far, far better than the other. Every once in a while, a scholarly book fundamentally shifts how we understand a problem. One of those books was published in 1995, .... Sociologists Melvin Oliver and...

As President Barack Obama begins his second term, democratically returned to office by a majority of Americans who seem to buy what he is selling, it would profit us to pause a moment and examine the discrepancies between the vision he expounded in his inaugural address and the economic reality that surrounds us. This leads to a pivotal question: What, exactly, is the underlying purpose of Obamanomics, and how would we know? Logic offers two choices. We can take the president at his word, and then ask why the promised economic recovery, growth, prosperity, and equality, haven’t arrived yet. Or...

Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday that he views the administration’s efforts to reduce firearms violence as gun safety – not gun control. The vice president fielded questions online in a Google+ Hangout, saying the proposals that he and President Barack Obama have laid out won’t end gun crime, but they still could make a difference.

IN the first three weeks or so of trading this year, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, a measure of the broad market, has climbed more than 4 percent - and on Jan. 18, in fact, closed at its highest level since December 2007. Last January, the S.&P. 500 rose 4.4 percent - a blistering pace that, if kept up for the rest of 2012, would have translated into a compound annual return of nearly 67 percent. (Alas, it did not.) January 2011 was also a hot one for stocks, its monthly return translating into an annualized gain of 31...

Efforts to eliminate pork and offset spending from the Hurricane Sandy relief package failed ... ... Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) offered another amendment that added $33.7 billion ... the Frelinghuysen amendment. According to Patrick Louis Knudsen of the Heritage Foundation: One of the most stunning elements in the amendment is $16 billion for the Community Development Block Grant, a slush fund that states and localities can hand out pretty much anywhere they choose. The amendment contains several pages of language ostensibly aimed at restricting use of the funds, but also says they can be applied to “other eligible events in...

In President Obama's second inaugural address, he not only outlined an ambitious agenda for his second term but also seemed intent on shutting down debate about the social-welfare state and its impact on American life. "The commitments we make to each other—through Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security—these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us," Mr. Obama said. "They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great." In other words, the president is tired of listening to critics of America's entitlement programs, and as far as...

Thousands of Egyptians are gathering in Cairo’s Tahrir Square today to mark the second anniversary of the uprising. One protester slammed President Obama, calling him an “idiot” and “jerk” for cozying up to the Muslim Brotherhood while the MB is “killing the Egyptians.”

WASHINGTON - House Republican leaders seized the high ground this week in the furious battle to curb federal spending, forcing Senate Democrats to produce their first budget in nearly four years. It was a political high wire act, but House Speaker John Boehner pulled it off without a hitch. In one master stroke, he reunited most of his rebellious Republicans behind his budget strategy, and divided the Democrats. When the smoke cleared in the latest budgetary skirmish Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has dictatorially ignored previous House budgets, agreed to accept the GOP's limited debt ceiling suspension as...

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This afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced a potential filibuster deal that, among other problematic provisions, limits post-cloture debate on federal district court nominees (and non-Cabinet-level officials). Senators currently have up to 30 hours of post-cloture debate on the merits of a district court nominee; the new rule would permit only two hours. This proposal would seriously undermine the rights of sitting senators to call attention to problematic district court nominees and, as a consequence, would enable the President to make more philosophically questionable and professionally unqualified nominations in the future....

Speaker John Boehner finally declared this week that President Obama's goal over the next few years is to "annihilate" the GOP. Wow, he finally figured that out. And to reporters about his ticket's defeat in November, Rep. Paul Ryan stated that there was a failure to turn potential Republican voters out -- again, another "ah ha" moment. What is really going on is that the more old-time Republican Establishment is starting to realize that simply playing the same old game against a new, brilliant and Democratic political juggernaut led by their symbol of success, President Obama, will likely yield the...

None of his fellow solons was impolite enough yesterday to ask U.S. Sen. John Forbes Kerry the only question anybody really wants him to answer. “Senator, are you really worth $193 million?” [Snip Nobody questioned Kerry about his famous initial 1971 appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, recounting the stories of other Vietnam veterans (which he’d been told, he made sure to say) “of times that they personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable radios to human genitals, cut off limbs, blew up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of...

A judge is holding secret hearings in the case of the man convicted in the 2001 killing of Washington intern Chandra Levy. Neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers have revealed the purpose of the hearings, which have been taking place in Washington behind closed doors. Several media organizations, including The Associated Press, are petitioning to open the proceedings. The next hearing takes place on February 7. Ingmar Guandique was convicted in 2010 of killing Levy, whose body was found in Washington's Rock Creek Park. The case captured the nation's attention because of Levy's relationship with California congressman Gary Condit. Condit was...

A plan is in the works to set a limit for people driving while under the influence of marijuana, and this time lawmakers say they’ll get it done. There’s a lot of pressure on lawmakers after legalizing pot. As the number of users grows, there is growing concern the number of people driving under the influence will as well. In 2011, the most recent data available, 13 percent of deadly crashes in Colorado involved pot.