A third day of unseasonable heat blistered the eastern half of the country Thursday, making tornado cleanup miserable in Massachusetts, sending country music fans in Tennessee to hospitals and leaving Special Olympians in Pennsylvania gulping gallons of water.

The persistent heat has been blamed for at least seven deaths from the Plains to the East Coast, where authorities prepared emergency rooms and encouraged neighbors to check on the elderly as temperatures soared above 100 in spots.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said that after a year-long investigation by a Senate subcommittee, "it's becoming increasingly clear that our efforts to rein in the narcotics trade in Latin America, especially as it relates to the government's use of contractors, have largely failed."

The fact that 80 daily milligrams of simvastatin (brand name Zocor) can cause serious muscle damage has been known for years. So why did it take the Food and Drug Administration so long to tell doctors and patients they should avoid that dose?

The answer reveals a lot about the FDA's reluctance to restrict use of a popular drug — much less move to take it off the market — even when there are safer alternatives.

Steve LeVine is the author of The Oil and the Glory and a longtime foreign correspondent.

Millennials, Generation Y, echo boomers. Whatever you want to call them, the generation of young people born after the 1970s ended is known as a socially tolerant and politically liberal bunch.

But a new poll out today finds that abortion is not one of the issues on which the children are more liberal than their parents.

We bet there's been a fair amount of time spent today fooling around with Google's tribute to the dearly departed Les Paul on what would have been the electronic guitar pioneer's 96th birthday.

By one count, of the more than 200 people who have run for president over the years, fewer than 30 have been women.

While women have made headway in the nation's boardrooms and science labs — and even in politics — in recent times, they have not received top-of-the-ticket nominations from the Democratic or Republican parties.

With Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann considering runs as Republican candidates, the 2012 political race might be a game-changer.

Fire crews in Arizona managed to hold their ground Thursday at the resort community of Greer, saving homes, cabins and lodges by holding back a massive blaze that has burned through hundreds of thousands of acres.

The fire, which has become the second-largest ever recorded in Arizona, destroyed a half-dozen homes in Greer, but firefighters were able to protect the main part of the town, fire information officer Suzanne Flory said.

"Firefighters had a good stand, but structures were lost," she said.