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 - Five years after terrorists wrought death from clear skies, the nation began its observation of a solemn anniversary Monday, with plans for silent reflection and fresh mourning for the nearly 3,000 lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
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 gained hurricane status while barreling toward Bermuda on Sunday, buffeting the wealthy British enclave with gusty winds as residents boarded up their homes and hauled their yachts onto beaches.
President Bush and other top officials joined thousands gathered across the country Sunday in tearful tributes, prayers and quiet reflection on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. In New York, the president and first lady Laura Bush placed wreaths in two pools where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood.
A lengthy video statement from Ayman al-Zawahiri, issued on the eve of the fifth anniversary of al Qaeda's attacks on the United States, calls on Muslims to step up their resistance to the United States and warns that "new events" are on the way.
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