Americans typically don't take much note of what happens in Mexico. Yet Mexico remains our closest and most important neighbor, a big customer, and a major supplier of oil and gas-and people. It matters very much that Mexican democracy not be hijacked by demagogic ambition, and that is the threat now posed by the conduct of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
Tuition paid, check. Room and board paid, check. There's more? You bet. Textbooks and electronics can add many hundreds of dollars to the first year's college expenses. Throw in transportation, cellphone bills, a comfy beanbag chair for the dorm room, and late-night forays to In-N-Out Burger, and the total may stagger you. Plan on an extra $5,000, give or take, to carry you through your first year on campus.
Vanessa Flores always wanted to attend the University of Southern California. She grew up near the school in Los Angeles, and her mother worked at the university as a contracts manager. But when USC offered Flores admission, her mother and father balked at the nearly $10,000 in room and board costs. So Flores struck a deal with her folks: She would live on campus her freshman and sophomore years and then stay at home and commute the following two years. "It was tough living with my parents," she says. "You can't just roll out of bed and go right to class. You have to get in your car and drive." Yet, she adds, "I saved anywhere between $15,000 to $20,000."
AP - The United States is safer now than it was before the Sept. 11 attacks, but must not relent in fighting terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.
AP - Florence intensified into the second hurricane of the Atlantic season Sunday as it headed for Bermuda, where residents installed storm shutters and hauled their yachts onto beaches.
AP - A suicide bomber killed a provincial governor along with his bodyguard and his nephew Sunday in eastern Afghanistan, and the U.S. military warned that a suicide bombing cell is targeting foreign troops in Kabul.
A booming movement that began with Evangelical Christians holds to the belief that a God who loves you does not want you to be broke. In a Time poll, 17 percent of Christians surveyed said they considered themselves part of such a movement, while a full 61 percent believed that God wants people to be prosperous.The movement's renaissance has infuriated a number of prominent pastors, theologians and commentators.
A strong, 6.0 earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico was felt throughout the Southeast but caused no apparent damage, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
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