Free Republic

Winter officially arrives with Sunday's solstice. But for many Americans, autumn 2008's final days already feel like deepest, coldest January. New Englanders still lack electricity after a Dec. 11 ice storm snapped power lines. Up to eight inches of snow struck New Orleans and southern Louisiana that day and didn't melt for 48 hours in some neighborhoods. In southern California Wednesday, a half-inch of snow brightened Malibu's hills while a half-foot barricaded highways and marooned commuters in desert towns east of Los Angeles. Three inches of the white stuff shuttered Las Vegas' McCarren Airport that day and dusted the Strip's...

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton makes a statement after a meeting with Spain's prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Monday, Nov. 19, 2007. Zapatero and Clinton met to discuss global warming, poverty, AIDS and other issues the former U.S. president is addressing through a private foundation he created in 2005. (AP Photo/Paul White)