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One of the lead researchers on the Human Genome Project has turned his talents in another direction, taking just two months to sequence a cannabis genome. Kevin McKernan, founder of the Massachusetts firm Medicinal Genomics did it not to help stoners get stonier but as a leading effort to begin separating the medicinal qualities of marijuana from those elements that get people high. In other words, he did it to help create medicine for fighting cancer and shrinking tumors.

Sean Naylor at Army Times has an absolutely killer piece that goes into granular detail to explain how Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s team is structuring a program

Last week a coalition of civil rights and reproductive rights advocates filed a lawsuit against the state of North Carolina’s law requiring abortion providers to show women an ultrasound and describe the images in detail four hours before having an abortion, even if the woman does not want to see the images. According to a press release , the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina and the Center for Reproductive Rights allege that “the new law violates the rights of health care providers and women seeking abortions.” Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the legislation when it reached her desk, but the state Legislature was able to override her veto.

A number of freshman Republican governors were swept into office last November and all of them have seen dramatic drops in public support in the first part of their terms. But Gov. Rick Snyder leads them all in the magnitude of that drop in public support.

Now that we’re past Labor Day, a number of candidates have started spending big money on ad buys selling their biographies and touting their accomplishments. In

The last time I heard Gen. David Petraeus, commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia, talk about Afghanistan, he was endorsing the Karzai

A lot of material from the declassified Senate Armed Services Committee report (pdf) couldn’t fit into my piece last night, so we take to the blogs. Take a look

U.S. Rep. Steve King sat down with journalist Lorena Lopez of Iowa’s LA PRENSA Hispanic newspaper and provided an in-depth view on his immigration stance.

Political pop quiz: What could be more important in this race than that combative, buzz-driving VP debate? Well, the new job loss figures are in. For the

It would be premature to label Colorado’s Fourth District one of the nation’s swing districts, but that could change as a result of the 2012 election season. A court will decide the new outline of the district next month but the district is undergoing a more profound transition. It is becoming the thing Iowa is supposed to be: A moderately conservative middle-American political testing ground, where unaffiliated independents make up roughly a third of the voters, where the aging still-mostly-white population is increasingly ethnically mixed and where high-tech and R&D industries are replacing manufacturing and farming as the main drivers of the economy.

While the McCain campaign’s attacks on Sen. Barack Obama’s connection to former Weatherman William Ayers will likely dominate today’s news cycle, the Wall

A few years ago, a pal of mine named Malcolm Nance testified to a congressional panel about how he was waterboarded. Nance used to instruct Naval Special Forces

The reconciliation fix addresses issues ranging from funding mechanisms to Medicaid rates.

Nathan Hodge, in Afghanistan for Danger Room, reported last week that U.S. officials in Kabul don’t like to refer to the planned near-doubling of civilian

Two weeks after moving next door to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Boise, Idaho, Stanton Healthcare, an anti-abortion center for women with unexpected

This one is barometrically significant more than anything else. Marc Lynch has a good rundown of an admittedly obscure tempest: a frequently mistaken

Phil Bronstein, a contributing editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, revealed in his column “Bronstein at Large” today that Chronicle reporter Carla

A new independent Morning Call/Muhlenberg College Tracker poll has confirmed that Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) is now leading former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) by a

As battles between Republican state governments and unions continue to rage in Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado and elsewhere, another state has entered the fray.

As co-chair of the House Medical Technology Caucus, U.S. Rep.

It’s become rare lately to hear any anti-abortion argument without also hearing the words eugenics, Margaret Sanger and genocide. In the past few years,