Why would anybody be surprised -- and some in Congress apparently are -- that the government's "Cash for Clunkers" program is wildly successful?

A broad spectrum of experiences gave interior designer Julianne Fallert a fearless appreciation for living life in a full array of color. She grew up in Minneapolis, Tokyo and Brussels and went to college in Evanston, Ill., where she got an economics degree from Northwestern University.

As the nation faces a political showdown over health-insurance reform, insurers worried that an overhaul could hurt their bottom line are funneling a wave of cash to members of Congress.

I know he's been gone a while. I know it's time to move on.

I can't help it. I miss Torii Hunter.

Stuck on the disabled list, Hunter didn't get to play in what might have been his last opportunity to take the Metrodome field here on Sunday, so he had lots of energy after the Angels' trounced the Twins, 13-4.

The news was greeted with great fanfare: The Dead Sea, it was announced last week, is among the finalists in the competition to determine the seven natural wonders of the world.

Steve Spurrier has engineered countless highlight moments during his college football coaching career, but his performance at Southeastern Conference media days last month will not be counted among them whenever the ol' ball coach decides to retire to the ol' golf course.

After the rumors and conspiracy theories, and the periodic Pentagon reviews of his disappearance, the mystery of Navy pilot Scott Speicher may have been as simple as nomadic Bedouins complying with the Islamic requirement that a body be buried as soon as possible after death.

Someday decades from now, California's sprawling coastal cities could draw their power from floating windmills that bob on the sea like buoys, far from shore.

Their blades would spin over deep ocean water, turning in winds that are steadier and stronger than they are on land. Undersea cables would send their electricity to shore.

The sense of outrage that permeated nearly every announcement of obscene compensation for Wall Street's profligate managers and traders a year ago seems to have faded with the public's anticipation that the worst of the economic crisis is over.

The way Shawn Springs looks at it, he, Randy Moss and Joey Galloway are among the Patriots' graybeards.

For Springs and Moss, "graybeard" is more of an honorific, but for Galloway, that's actually true.