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Here in barren Anbar Province, the tribes that were once the main source of support for killing American soldiers are now running in provincial elections that, in the best case, could fulfill American promises to create stability in Iraq by the ballot box. But two weeks before the voting, in Anbar it appears that the ancient tribal way of doing...

Continuing a White House ritual, President George W. Bush is leaving a note in the Oval Office for President-elect Barack Obama, wishing him well as he takes the reins of the executive branch. Bush wrote the note on Monday and left it in the top drawer of his desk. The White House is not providing the intimate details of the message the...

On Election Day, Phyllis Hill voted for Barack Obama – not the popular choice in Collin County, where more than 60 percent went Republican. The next morning, Hill – a self-described conservative Democrat from McKinney – called her GOP congressman, Rep. Sam Johnson, to request tickets for Obama's inauguration. It's a good thing she...

As the number of jobs across the nation dwindles, more Americans are joining the military, lured by a steady paycheck, benefits and training. The last fiscal year was a banner one for the military, with all active-duty and reserve forces meeting or exceeding their recruitment goals for the first time since 2004, the year that violence in Iraq...

For a century, this vulnerable barrier island’s famed Seawall has protected, comforted, enabled and endured. But the hopelessly romantic notion that the Seawall could stand tall forever, holding back storm surges while preserving Galveston as a place apart, disappeared with Hurricane Ike. The September storm threatened the wall by...

The Texas Lottery Commission is ending several scratch-off games next month, even though more than $25 million in promised jackpots for those games have not been awarded or claimed by winners. The Texas Lottery Web site still advertises nine prizes from $1 million to $5 million for its priciest scratch-off, a $50 ticket called the $130...

Bickering aside, organizers of Houston’s two dueling Martin Luther King Jr. Day parades expect larger-than-usual turnouts of revelers wanting to celebrate on the eve of the inauguration of the nation’s first black president. The MLK Parade Foundation will host the lone downtown event at 10 a.m. Monday, while the rival Black Heritage...

As Americans get ready to turn the page on George W. Bush, the president offered his own first draft of history, saying that while his policies have been unpopular there can be little debate about the results: "America has gone more than seven years without another terrorist attack on our soil." In a farewell address to the nation Thursday...

A US Airways jetliner with 155 people aboard lost power in both engines, possibly from striking birds, after taking off from La Guardia Airport on Thursday afternoon. The pilot ditched in the icy Hudson River and all on board were rescued by a flotilla of converging ferries and emergency boats, the authorities said. What might have been a...

Worries over the U.S. economy have overtaken immigration among the top issues that Hispanics — the nation’s largest group of immigrants — say should be tackled by President-elect Barack Obama’s administration, according to a Pew Hispanic Center survey. Only 31 percent of Hispanics rated immigration as an “extremely important”...