Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Democratic congressional leaders on Friday offered the first concessions in a fight with President Bush over a spending bill for Iraq, but the White House turned them down. The Democrats, in a meeting with Bush's top aides on Capitol Hill, said they would strip from a war spending bill billions of dollars in domestic spending that the White House had opposed. They also pledged to give Bush authority to waive compliance with a timetable to pull combat troops out of Iraq. But no agreement emerged. "To say I was disappointed in the meeting is an understatement," said Senate...

SAN FRANCISCO — Two former prison chiefs handpicked by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that election-year politics had thwarted their efforts to fix the crisis gripping California's correctional system, prompting them to resign in frustration earlier this year. Testifying in federal court, the two corrections secretaries singled out the prison guards union and a pair of Schwarzenegger's top aides for most of the blame, saying the aides had given the union veto power over candidates for top jobs and a say in other key decisions. One of the aides, Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy, said she planned to play a...

AL ASAD, Iraq - Recent offensives near the Iraqi border with Syria have dealt a significant blow to al-Qaida and cut off the group's ability to smuggle in foreigners through the volatile western area to join the insurgency, a U.S. commander said Sunday. Maj. Gen. Steve Johnson, commander of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force Forward, said the operations had "neutralized" the group's ability to use the vast Euphrates River valley to organize and attract followers. The fighting helped restore Iraqi control of the border with Syria to eliminate smuggling lines and paved the way for successful Sunni Arab regional participation...

<p>A grand jury investigation into obstruction of justice allegations against the Davis administration has run into trouble as key witnesses have "covered their tracks," cited their Fifth Amendment rights against incriminating themselves and balked at turning over evidence, according to state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.</p>