“Political geography” on The Daily Caller

AUSTIN, Tex. — There are more uninsured residents of Texas — 6.1 million and counting — than there are people in 33 states. The state’s elected officials might be expected, therefore, to cheer a federal health care law that is likely to deliver billions of dollars from Washington to Austin and cover millions of low-income Texans (more)

The July 11 bombings in Uganda carried out by the al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab exposed the global terror threat emerging in the Horn of Africa – a region also plagued by destitution and authoritarian rule.  This week, however, about 3.5 million people in the region will celebrate a remarkable victory for democracy.  The government of a Muslim population just north of the territory controlled by al Shabaab will experience a peaceful transfer of power between opposing political parties one month after a free and fair presidential election.  The government conducted the multi-party election by its own initiative and with limited external assistance or pressure.  The feat, which has so far received little attention in the West, reaffirms the idea that democracy can take root in cultures of any religious and socio-economic background, and it occurs at a time when U.S. foreign policy has shied away from promoting democratic allies in strategic parts of the world. (more)

(July 21) — Crave ribs? Bagels and coffee or doughnuts? Seafood, subs or Chinese? So does Congress! (more)

WASHINGTON – A College Board study says Texas is one of the least highly-educated states in the nation. (more)

HANOI, Vietnam — North Korea on Friday threatened the United States and South Korea with a “physical response” to planned weekend naval exercises as tensions with the communist nation rose in the aftermath of the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North. (more)

“Manhattan’s certainly a different world,” Eddie Burke, who’s running for Lieutenant Governor of Alaska, said to me during a recent interview. And he’s right – it most certainly is. Within the first two or three minutes of our conversation, I recognized that down-to-earth quality I don’t see too often in my Manhattan world, one that appeals to me so much in candidates and political figures. (more)

(Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama’s defense chief begins a visit to South Korea on Monday in one of the strongest shows of support for its military ally locked in a bitter feud with North Korea over a deadly torpedo attack. (more)

Most teenage thieves content themselves with a spot of shoplifting. Colton Harris-Moore, a 19-year-old on the run from US authorities for two years, has bigger ambitions: he is being hunted in the Bahamas after stealing a plane and making a 1,000-mile flight from the mainland. (more)

Arizona goes to trial (more)

MEXICO CITY — A strong 6.5-magnitude earthquake rattled the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca Wednesday, and was felt at least as far away as Mexico City. (more)

As we mark the 60^th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War, the Korean Peninsula provides the world a living, object lesson. On this peninsula, approximately the size of Minnesota, the Korean people are ethnically identical. But, upon gaining independence after World War II, the Korean people took separate paths to self-government. The North led by Soviet occupying forces, the South by U.S-Allied forces. The armistice in 1953 that ended the Korean War split the war-ravaged Korean people with a totalitarian regime in the North and a society based on freedom of expression, religion and private property rights in the South. Both new countries were considered relatively “poor” though North Korea had much more heavy industry and resources compared to the mountainous, rural southern part. (more)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The 22-year-old woman, wearing a gauzy blue dress that she had changed into after her release, spoke in a whispery voice. (more)

JOHANNESBURG — The flight alone would cost at least 100 times the average North Korean worker’s yearly salary, and nearly as hard to come by is the permission to leave one of the most strictly controlled communist states. (more)

NEW YORK — Angel Roldan has plenty of Puerto Rican pride, even though he moved away from the island at age 2. His street vendor’s stall on E. 116th Street, the heart of the Puerto Rican neighborhood of East Harlem, was filled with red, white and blue merchandise for the city’s annual Puerto Rican Day parade Sunday, the day-long party honoring the heritage of nearly 800,000 New York residents. (more)

It was just a week after Chang Shui received her acceptance notice from Harvard that the first book offer came. (more)

Torture victims won a victory Tuesday when the Supreme Court ruled that federal law does not automatically protect ex-officials of foreign governments from lawsuits over the abuse. (more)

South Korea says it has persuaded China and Japan to take part in financial sanctions against North Korea. (more)

Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) — A prison warden in the Mexican state of Morelos was abducted as he reported to work Saturday morning and his dismembered body was found later in four locations in the city of Cuernavaca, the government-run Notimex agency reported. (more)

BEIJING – China will chart its own course on currency reform based on its needs, and external pressure will only delay the reform, Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said on Tuesday. (more)

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