The words are blunt, the images stark — unconstitutionally so, say tobacco companies, which turned to a federal judge last week seeking a reprieve from warnings the Food and Drug Administration has mandated for cigarette packs. ”Cigarettes are addictive,” the warnings say. ”Cigarettes cause ...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a.k.a. “the stimulus,” had its pluses and minuses. But few would dispute that some of the worst bureaucratic hassles and international disputes associated with that $825 billion measure stemmed from its protectionist “Buy America” provision...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made a habit of launching a propaganda offensive in connection with his annual September visit to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly. He grants interviews, issues half-baked diplomatic proposals, hints at rapprochement with the West and occasional...

Forty-eight states — 49 in November, when Wisconsin joins the pack — allow their residents to carry concealed weapons. Illinois remains the only holdout. Until now, states have been able to set their own rules for concealed-carry permits. New York, for instance, has fairly stringent standards th...

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By month’s end, some Minnesota farmers will likely fire up their combines and begin harvesting corn and soybeans. That’s when we’ll begin hearing hard numbers about crop yields and the effects of this year’s unusually hot summer and the drought conditions that are spreading throughout the so...

In November, voters in just more than a third of Minnesota’s 340 school districts will have school levies on their ballots. They’ll be asked either to extend a previously approved tax or to raise property taxes to help local schools. Traditionally, districts have used referendums to seek funds f...

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner gave a speech Thursday outlining the GOP’s ideas for job creation and its prescriptions for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Allow me to quote two sentences from it. There was this: “If we want to create a better environment for job creat...

For the past several years, Congress has hit the snooze button on U.S. Postal Service reforms. It can do so no longer: At the end of this month, the USPS will no longer be able to pay its bills. Three pieces of legislation are pending, each offering measures to stem the Postal Service crisis, and th...