Screen grabs of four separate ads from four different political groups critical of President Obama's handling of Solyndra, the failed solar-panel maker. Clockwise from top left, the ads are from: Americans for Prosperity, MittRomney.com, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS.
Among the biggest advertisers in the presidential campaign is a group that says it doesn't do political advertising: Crossroads GPS.
Crossroads GPS — which stands for Grassroots Policy Strategies — was co-founded by Republican strategist Karl Rove. It and others like it enable wealthy donors to finance attack ads while avoiding the public identification they would face if they gave to more overtly political committees.
A fan of the St. Louis Cardinals buys a beer from a vendor prior to Game 3 of the World Series against the Detroit Tigers at Busch Stadium in 2006. At 56 cents an ounce, St. Louis is second only to Boston for the priciest ballpark brew in the country.
Credit Patrick Semansky / AP
Sunlight shines through Brandon Butler's beer as he takes a sip during the first baseball game of a doubleheader between the Orioles and the Texas Rangers in Baltimore on May 10.
Change has been the story of the season for the Miami Marlins, formerly the Florida Marlins. With a new coach, a new name, new team colors and a new stadium the baseball team set a franchise record for winning games in May.
But one tradition isn't changing anytime soon: beer. Ordering a beer at a baseball game is as American as apple pie. So is forking over a small fortune for that beer.
According to an analysis by TheStreet.com, the most expensive beer of any baseball stadium is sold at the new Marlins Park, where baseball fans pay $8 for a Bud Light draft.
Former Sen. John Edwards leaves federal court in Greensboro, N.C., Thursday after jurors acquitted him of one felony count and a judge declared a mistrial on five other charges.
From the day a grand jury indicted former Sen. John Edwards on six felony charges nearly one year ago, the case drew jeers from election lawyers and government watchdogs.
"It was an incredibly aggressive prosecution because it was based on a novel theory of the law," says Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "There was literally no precedent. No case had ever been like this."
In 2003, in a song called "Earthbound," singer Rodney Crowell name-checked a writer he admires a lot: Mary Karr, who has written searing memoirs, including the best-seller The Liars' Club, as well as several books of poetry.
Supporters of Mubarak in Cairo chant slogans and carry his portrait as they demonstrate in February during his trial, outside the police academy.
Credit Mohammed Abed / AFP/Getty Images
An Egyptian man paints the national flag on the arm of a friend as they stand in front of graffiti showing the morphed faces of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (right) and military ruler Hussein Tantawi, defeated presidential candidate Amr Moussa (second from left), and current candidate Ahmed Shafiq (left) near Cairo's central Tahrir Square last month.
An Egyptian court plans to announce the verdict Saturday in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak, and regardless of which way the decision goes, it could prompt a public outpouring of emotion at a sensitive moment for the country.
Mubarak is charged with corruption and complicity in the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the revolution last year that ousted him.
If convicted, he could face the death penalty. But some are predicting he'll be acquitted, and that could set off another round of protests and possibly violence.
Many Greeks fear that the value of their savings will drop sharply if the country leaves the eurozone and returns to the drachma. This has led many Greeks to withdraw their money from banks.
Since the Greek debt crisis began nearly three years ago, more than $90 billion has left the country.
At first, it was just big business and the wealthiest Greeks moving money abroad in case Greece dropped the euro and reverted to its previous currency, the drachma.
Now people with smaller portfolios are also withdrawing money, and that's left the country's fragile banks on edge.
A jury found former Democratic Sen. John Edwards not guilty on one count of campaign finance fraud and was deadlocked on five other counts. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, D.C., filed an amicus brief in the Edwards corruption case, asking that it be thrown out. Melanie Sloan, executive director of the group, offers her insight.
Mitt Romney shakes hands as he walks into the House Chambers during inaugural ceremonies at the State House in Boston in 2003. the Obama campaign sought to focus attention on Romney's tenure as Massachusetts governor.
Credit Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters /Landov
David Axelrod, the Obama campaign's senior strategist (center), stops to shake a demonstrator's hand as he leaves a news conference at the Massachusetts State House in Boston on Thursday.
President Obama's re-election campaign is training some of its heaviest guns on a new target — the four years that GOP presidential challenger Mitt Romney served as governor of Massachusetts.
In Boston Thursday, David Axelrod, a top Obama campaign adviser, joined Democratic state legislators and mayors on the steps of the State House to lampoon Romney's record there as governor between 2003 and 2007.
In Texas recently there was a grand opening for what is now the largest refinery in the U.S. Shell and Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Saudi Aramco, have more than doubled the capacity of their Port Arthur refinery.
The refinery business has been going through a tough period in recent years. Americans are buying less gasoline and other petroleum products — about 10 percent less than in 2005, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
