Phantom of the Election

Phantom of the Opera , Andrew Lloyd Webber's worldwide hit musical, is often heard at Donald Trump's rallies - an omen of the surprise that American voters are quietly planning for Hillary Clinton. Halloween is a fitting day to discuss haunts - so today I will explain why, even if you won't vote for Trump, you should never vote for Clinton.

Can America Afford Another Nixon?

Long before writing columns, I joined the rest of America fixated for months on the Watergate soap opera that eventually brought down President Richard Milhous Nixon. From "Deep Throat" to "Dirty Tricks," from "I am not a crook" to Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974, we watched America avoid what might have become a republic-threatening Constitutional crisis.

Minimum-Wage Laws: Good Intentions, Bad Results

ON "CARPE DIEM," his lively economics blog, University of Michigan professor Mark J. Perry likes to use Venn diagrams to needle those who "do not have a strong need for intellectual consistency." On topics ranging from drug prices to campus diversity to imports from China, he shows how common it is for people to simultaneously hold contradictory positions, oblivious to the fact that they are logically irreconcilable.

Asian shares mostly lower as FBI probe raises US uncertainty

Asian stocks wobbled Monday as a revived FBI inquiry into U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private email server sharpened uncertainty over the election, while investors also awaited key economic data this week. KEEPING SCORE: Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.4 per cent to 17,369.48 and South Korea's Kospi also shed 0.4 per cent, to 2,010.41.

NZ dollar rises as traders look ahead to US election, key data

The New Zealand dollar gained as traders pondered the risks associated with the US election next week and awaited key data including employment, the survey of expectations and US non-farm payrolls. The kiwi traded at 71.51 US cents as at 5pm in Wellington after reaching as high as 71.67 cents in late New York trading and from 71.36 cents in Asia at the end of last week.

If elected, Clinton faces awkward coexistence with FBI Director Comey

WASHINGTON >> The relationship between James Comey and Hillary Clinton was never going to be tension-free, not when Comey's FBI had conducted an election-year criminal investigation into the Democratic presidential candidate's email practices. But Comey's sudden announcement to Congress that FBI agents would review new emails that may be connected to that dormant investigation revives questions about how Clinton, if elected, would coexist with the independent-minded FBI director.

Harry Reid: Comey may have violated the Hatch Act

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said on Sunday that FBI Director James Comey may have violated the Hatch Act, barring political activity by federal employees, through a late election season letter to Congress about the scope of the bureau's probe of Hillary Clinton's private email service as secretary of state. Comey's letter on Friday to congressional committee chairs said the FBI is reviewing newly discovered emails that might be linked to Clinton's private server.

The price of offending an Obama crony

Offending one of Barack Obama 's campaign contributors can be as career-threatening as thumbing a nose at the president himself. Maria Pallante , the U.S. Register of Copyrights, an important but little-known office under the Library of Congress, had the temerity to write to the Securities and Exchange Commission to say that in her expert opinion, Google 's habit of playing fast and loose with the nation's copyright laws is both bad policy and against the law.

The Latest: Trump doubts, without evidence, Colorado voting

More than 100 people on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Toronto are safe after the plane was diverted to Denver International Airport on Sunday. More than 100 people on an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Toronto are safe after the plane was diverted to Denver International Airport on Sunday.

Comey in harsh spotlight of 2016 campaign

James Comey's revelation Friday that the bureau is reviewing newly discovered emails that might be linked to Hillary Clinton's private server made the FBI director's unusual actions the focus on Sunday news programs and on the campaign trail. The new emails were found weeks ago, law enforcement officials told CNN Sunday.

Email scandal: Brave-faced Hillary Clinton vows to ‘get back up’ as Donald Trump benefits from storm

Washington: As it emerged that FBI investigators had been sitting silently, for the best part of a month, on the latest explosive trove of Clinton emails , the Democratic candidate and Donald Trump took markedly different approaches to the elephant in the room - she stepped around it; he lassoed it and hauled it onto centre stage. Despite strident demands for more information from Democrats and the GOP, beleaguered FBI director James Comey remained silent through the weekend - letting his 166-word letter to Congress on Friday stand as the only justification for a rare FBI political intervention that has most analysts qualifying what had been their near-certain predictions that Clinton had the election in the bag.

Kaine calls FBI email probe “distraction”

Tim Kaine called on the FBI to "put all the details out for the American public to see" regarding the latest development in the Hillary Clinton email controversy during a campaign stop here this afternoon. While describing the letter that FBI Director James Comey sent to Congress on Friday as a "distraction," the Virginia senator and Democratic party vice presidential nominee said it may also have "revved up righteous indignation" among Clinton supporters to give her campaign a boost as Election Day nears.