John Hood: Learning and winning go together

It was during the 1988 presidential election. Like many conservative and libertarian students of the day, my friends and I at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill were looking for a leader to follow in the footsteps of the president we all revered, Ronald Reagan.

Rally supports UMass Boston chancellor in wake of resignation

Students, alumni, and community leaders rallied on the State House steps Saturday afternoon demanding that officials reject the resignation of University of Massachusetts Boston Chancellor J. Keith Motley. Speakers at the rally, including City Councilors Tito Jackson and Ayanna Pressley, state Representative Russell Holmes, and former state Representative Dianne Wilkerson, asserted that Motley was being unfairly blamed for UMass Boston's financial woes.

Back in South Carolina, Democrat Martin O’Malley says “I just might” run for president

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley answers questions at a town hall event Saturday at the College of Charleston. The event was hosted by the Charleston Democratic Party, the College of Charleston Democrats and Indivisible Charleston.

In Georgia race, Republicans battle as Democrat chases upset

A Georgia special congressional campaign has become an internal conservative squabble, with a national conservative group blasting a Republican establishment favorite as a big-spending "career politician," while other GOP hopefuls argue over who's most loyal to President Donald Trump. It's enough to leave national Republicans nervous they could lose the traditionally conservative suburban Atlanta district where Trump underperformed, with any upset certain to embolden Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

US a prepared to do morea in Syria if chemical weapons used again

After launching air strikes against a Syrian air base on Thursday, the U.S. indicated that while it had no plans for any further escalation against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it could not be totally ruled out either. "We are prepared to do more, but we hope that will not be necessary," Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said during an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Friday.

Bipartisan bill would reclassify marijuana as Schedule 3 substance

Bipartisan legislation proposed in the House on Thursday would make marijuana a Schedule 3 drug, removing cannabis from its current standing as a Schedule 1 substance alongside deadly contraband including ecstasy and heroin. By reclassifying weed in the same category as anabolic steroids, Congress would "make it easier for ill-patients and scientific and medical researchers to obtain marijuana," the bill's authors said in a statement Thursday.

After Amtrak derailments, Booker and Menendez seek to block Trump’s transit cuts

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker asked leaders of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee overseeing transportation to ensure federal funding for Amtrak and the Gateway Tunnel project. Their letter to U.S. Sens. Susan Collins , the subcommittee chairwoman, and Jack Reed , the ranking Democrat, came after Amtrak acknowledged responsibility for two recent derailments that tied up NJ Transit train traffic for days.

First months of Trump, GOP Congress produce few victories

President Donald Trump is approaching the end of his first 100 days in office without having signed a single major bill into law. Trump's top priority - repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama's landmark health care law - ran aground in the House in spite of Republican opposition to "Obamacare," the first time in recent memory that a newly elected president's first big initiative had imploded so spectacularly.

Gorsuch OK’d as new justice

The Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch to become the newest associate justice on the Supreme Court Friday, elevating Donald Trump's nominee following a corrosive partisan confrontation that could have lasting impacts for the Senate and the court. Vice President Mike Pence was presiding as the Senate voted 54-45 in favor of Gorsuch, a 49-year-old veteran of the 10th U.S. Circuit of Appeals in Denver whose conservative rulings make him an intellectual heir to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, whose seat he will fill.

Twitter case shows breadth of US power to probe anti-Trump statements

A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 26, 2016. An attempt by U.S. authorities to identify an anonymous critic of President Donald Trump on Twitter has set off alarm bells among Democratic and Republican lawmakers and civil liberties advocates fearful of a crackdown on dissent.

ROBERTS: The deadly liberal delusion

Does anybody here remember Blanche Lincoln? She was a two-term senator from Arkansas, a moderate Democrat who prospered in a red state by defying liberal power brokers like big labor. The unions and ultra-left pressure groups went after her big-time in 2010, backing a primary challenge by Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter.