Washington DC News

When President Barack Obama said Thursday that the Race to the Top education program is the country's most "ambitious, meaningful reform effort" attempted in generations, it might have sounded a little disheartening to Maine officials.

It was an Irishman who first introduced cannabis to western medicine. William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, a doctor, discovered the drug's purported medicinal qualities after an experiment in India in 1830.

Friday Talking Points [132] -- The DMV? Really? Last week, this column took a week off, due to an extended trip into the desert for the Netroots Nation convention.

It's an excellent Scrabble alternative, and it mixes up the tried and true formula just enough that, if you and your friends are looking for something different to play, it's worth checking out.

New organizations asked a Washington court Friday to free a legal newspaper to publish information, found in court records, that has been ordered suppressed by a local judge.

Chelsea Clinton is getting married Saturday. We wish her well. We didn't get invited to the wedding, but that's fine.

The death penalty: the punishment we reserve for the worst criminal offenders. Law enforcement officials said recently that it was on the table for four policemen charged in the shooting deaths of unarmed civilians in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

Iowans are among the least pessimistic in the nation about the economy, a new Gallup poll on economic confidence shows.

Just when things were moving in the right direction for Roberto Donna , the celebrity chef now finds himself on the hook for potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the D.C. Wage Payment and Collection Law .

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia were named finalists Tuesday in the second round of the federal "Race to the Top" school reform grant competition, giving them a chance to receive a share of $3 billion.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed the following revenue bonds for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority as part of its continuous surveillance effort.

President Barack Obama says the country's long-term economic success will be tied to the success of the nation's schools.

Convicted DC snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad were supposed to have had help carrying out their deadly attacks, and they may have been involved in more shootings than authorities suspected, according to an interview with actor William Shatner that airs Thursday.

Former committee Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel attempted a last-minute plea deal Tuesday to head off a House ethics trial.

Six gay couples in Hawaii are filing a lawsuit Thursday asking for the same rights as married couples, three weeks after Gov.

A founding member of Al-Qaeda-linked Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf pled guilty Wednesday in a court in Washington to the 1995 kidnap of 16 people, including four US citizens.

Officials in Washington, D.C., have launched a citywide effort to promote the use of female condoms, in hopes making them available can help stop the spread of HIV in that city.

A Pennsylvania woman has filed suit against the CEO of a non-profit children's therapy services company, alleging that he sexually assaulted her during hypnosis sessions on his "magic couch" and then fired her in retaliation for speaking out.

The state of Oklahoma has failed to be named a finalist in the second round of the federal "Race to the Top" school reform grant competition.

Massachusetts has been named a finalist for the Obama administration's grant competition to encourage states to revamp their education systems.