When it comes to how it should be told, each story has a mind of its own.    

The current Supreme Court has been more sympathetic to corporate interests than any court since World War II.    

Do consumers have the power to change factory conditions abroad?    

After two weeks of markup, the fundamental support for immigration reform looks strong.    

Given new evidence on carbon pollution, President Obama should get moving on global warming.    

To make criminal cases more efficient and fair, prosecutors should open up their files to defendants.    

IRS agents just wanted to be 'more efficient in their workload selection.'

Houston's mayor—an openly gay Democrat friendly to business—talks about why her city is the country's fastest growing and most diverse.

The Greek philosopher knew nothing of social media. He did know a thing or two about relationships.

Japan's gains from monetary policy will be fleeting without major economic reform.

The secrets of reform success include liberal chartering rules and freedom from teacher tenure.

The new boats have made the race life-threatening—and have dumbed down the sailing.

What is it about presidents' second terms that makes them seem so scandal-ridden? Simple: The iron law of longevity.What is it about presidents' second terms that makes them seem so scandal-ridden? Simple: The iron law of longevity. All governments make mistakes, and all governments try to hide those mistakes. But the longer an administration is in office, the more errors it makes, and the harder they are to conceal.

Can new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif succeed? That will depend largely on whether he has the strength of will to resist the military and to confront radical Islamists.There is reason for hope in Nawaz Sharif's victory in the recent Pakistani elections. Sharif, who has twice served as Pakistan's prime minister, has said he wants to build a more robust democracy, revive the country's shattered economy and end the military's 40-year domination of its politics. He has also promised to improve relations with India and take on the radical Islamist terrorism that has tormented Pakistan. The United States should assist him in every way possible to achieve those goals.

A look at the data suggests that at graduation ceremonies on U.S. college and university campuses, it's liberals only.We have once again entered the college commencement season, which means we'll soon be reading about uplifting graduation speeches delivered by prominent Americans. Or at least by prominent liberal Americans.

The new science of spending points to a surprising conclusion: How we use our money may matter as much or more than how much of it we've got.Imagine that you woke up tomorrow morning to discover $1 million under your mattress. Leaving aside the obvious lumpiness issue, take a moment to think: What would you do with that cash?

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a space alien in a full-body leotard and underpants.My nomination for American hero of the 20th century is someone who lived half his life in disguise and the other half as the world's most recognizable man. He appeared on more radio broadcasts than Ellery Queen and in more movies than Marlon Brando, who once played his father. He helped give America the backbone to wage war against the Nazis, the Depression and the Red Menace. He remains an intimate to kids from Boston to Belgrade and has adult devotees who, like Talmudic scholars, parse his every utterance.

As the uproar over his burial shows, when it comes to corpses, people's feelings can be intense.If you don't believe in souls or an afterlife, then a corpse is just a body — potentially a teaching tool, a source of life-saving organs, but little more.

Good for America, good for the GOP If President Barack Obama delivers on his promise to sign meaningful immigration legislation in his second term, it could be because he wisely stayed out of the way while Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican with his eye on the White House, did the heavy lifting.    

Or does no kept promise go unpunished?Early in 2011, Candidate Rahm Emanuel warned Chicagoans that their City Hall had to fix its finances or risk entering into eternal rest. The distance from broke government to broken government, he observed, is short: Without restoring financial health, this city cannot continue to serve its citizens.    

If it makes me a media lackey or a tail-wagging lap dog for President Barack Obama to hold out for, you know, actual evidence that he had anything to do with the various and glaring misbehavior, blundering and butt-covering in the governmental ranks before I begin invoking Watergate and floating the possibility of impeachment, then so be it.    

Thirty-six thousand one hundred and twenty-three.    

When the president of All Hallows College in Ireland saw the regal man on the framed canvas, he knew the portrait buried in a Dublin basement should head home to Chicago.    

Put public health firstA state board assigned to protect the environment is taking a second look at a controversial ruling it issued last year.    

The hundred pages of Benghazi e-mails released this week tell us almost nothing about how four Americans came to die so tragically in that Libyan city. But they are a case study in why nothing works in Washington. Read full article >>    

WELLINGTON, New Zealand A fish restaurant in New Zealand seemed an odd place to discuss a war that took place several thousand miles away and several decades ago, but there we were: Sea bream was served, sauvignon blanc was poured, the rain drummed down outside and I listened while three septuagenarians smiled, laughed and told me of the unimaginable tragedy they had lived through as children. Read full article >>    

East Germany’s Ministry for State Security, also known as the Stasi, posed a major challenge during my three-year stint as an attache at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn during the 1960s. Detecting and preventing Stasi agents from penetrating the security of U.S. diplomatic facilities in West Germany was a 24-7 undertaking. Read full article >>    

At the end of a truly dismal week in his presidency, President Obama remains lucky in one crucial category: his opposition. It has been only a few days since two administration scandals — the IRS harassment of conservative groups and the Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press phone records — dropped into the Republicans’ lap. But instead of turning public outrage to their advantage, Republicans have already begun overreaching, turning legitimate areas of inquiry into just some more partisan food fights. Read full article >>    

Folks, deep breath time. This is not the end of the Obama presidency. It’s a bad stretch with an unfortunate confluence of unfortunate events. None of which will make the first paragraph — not even the first page — of the account of the Obama administration in the history books. Read full article >>    

Note to GOP re Benghazi: Stop calling it Watergate, Iran-contra, bigger than both, etc. First, it might well be, but we don’t know. History will judge. Second, overhyping will only diminish the importance of the scandal if it doesn’t meet presidency-breaking standards. Third, focusing on the political effects simply plays into the hands of Democrats desperately claiming that this is nothing but partisan politics. Read full article >>    

The making of your clothes might have resulted in death.

Latest effort to improve conditions are just token remedies.

Same-sex couples are asking for responsibilities as much as rights.

How did tax returns of a group opposed to gay marriage get leaked to political opponents?

Yoga can clearly be practiced in harmony with any religion or with no religion.

Could scandals hurt Hillary Clinton in 2016? It's not the worst she's been through at the White House, one comic notes.