Commentary, editorials and opinion, opinions

The accused mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four of his accused accomplices will stand trial where they should have been tried in the first place -- a civilian federal courthouse in Manhattan only blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.

Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has just proposed financial reform legislation that is enormous even by the bloated standards of our contemporary Congress. An alphabet soup of new agencies and arrangements are envisioned.

Contrary to a popular fallacy that science and religion are at odds with each other, it's quite the opposite.

Science and religion are the best of friends. And like good friends, they complement each other and produce beautiful music together.

Advocates of overhauling California's troubled pension system for public employees couldn't have chosen a more providential moment to launch their reform campaign.

The deficit for the federal fiscal year ending Sept. 30 was an astounding $1.42 trillion, $958 billion in red ink more than the short-lived record set the previous year. And there doesn't seem to be much outlook for improvement.

It's too bad Rosewood Middle School in Wayne County, N.C., wasn't allowed to go ahead with its planned fundraiser. The results might have proved fascinating.

There is something about that familiar phrase, "White House summit," that induces mental fatigue and makes you realize we're in trouble.

Before leaving for a trip through many time zones to Asia, standing in front of a portrait of George Washington, President Obama announced that he is planning a jobs summit to be held at the White House sometime in December.

Re-canvassed votes in upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District foreshadow the second coming of third-party candidate Doug Hoffman. As the Syracuse Post-Standard reported Thursday morning, Conservative nominee Hoffman's 5,335-vote deficit behind Democrat Bill Owens has shrunk to just 3,026 after Election Night tabulation errors were corrected.

Give Senator Mark Warner a star for enunciating some insightful thoughts. No, give him five stars, for he got it absolutely right the other day when he said the emphasis in the campaign to re-jigger health care has been wrongheaded and that the main thing was runaway spending.

WASHINGTON - The midterm congressional elections are a year away, but unsurprisingly, Republicans vanquished at the polls by the Obama landslide last fall are already talking about the possibility of reclaiming the House. Are they whistling past the party graveyard or do they actually have reason to be optimistic about the possibility of resurrection?