An editorial / By Dale McFeatters, Scripps Howard News Service

In the mid-1990s, there was a mini-wave of "granny dumping." Elderly people, abandoned by families, showed up at hospitals and Salvation Army facilities, often with a note to the effect: "Please take care of her. We no longer can."

President Barack Obama's military advisers plan on the U.S. and its NATO allies ending combat operations in Afghanistan perhaps as soon as mid-2013, a year and a half early. That lays the groundwork for the coalition leaving well before the announced 2014 deadline.

The Federal Aviation Administration bill was delayed 23 times, but the agency finally has a law giving it $63 billion and full operating authority for the next four years. For those of you counting, that's only one year less than the five years it took Congress to enact the measure.

The National Park Service says 1,825 Burmese pythons have been caught in and around the Florida Everglades since 2000. One of the largest -- over 16 feet long and weighing 156 pounds -- was caught just in January.

On Jan. 1, 1999, 11 members of the European Union took what seemed to be the next logical step in European unity by creating a common currency zone. Three years later, the old national currencies were replaced by new coins and banknotes, the euro.

House and Senate members wasted what little time they scheduled for themselves to work in January on a political charade. It fooled no one in Washington but may dupe some voters this fall who had better things to do than follow congressional gamesmanship.

Whether through legislative absent-mindedness or an alarming ignorance of the Constitution, Congress approved a chilling provision in the National Defense Authorization Act, the law that gives the Pentagon the go-ahead to spend the money allocated to it.

President Barack Obama signed the measure into law Dec. 31.

The State of the Union address, regardless of who is president, is usually an overly long and, frankly, not very interesting recitation of administration accomplishments, shout-outs to worthy citizens in the first lady's seats and an assurance that America is still great -- but if Congress only does what the president asks, it will be even greater.

The Transportation Security Administration denied Rand Paul, a U.S. senator from Kentucky and the son of GOP presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul, permission to board a flight from Nashville, Tenn., to Washington after his knee set off a scanner.

U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords announced Sunday that she will resign her Arizona congressional seat to concentrate on her recovery from a severe gunshot to the head just over a year ago.