The McCain campaign calls Sarah Palin a "tough executive who has demonstrated" readiness to be president. But the Obama campaign calls her a candidate with "the thinnest foreign policy experience in history." Today, a brand new part of Palin's identity dominates the political scene: game-changer.

John McCain's brilliant but risky "Hail Mary pass" choice for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah "Barracuda" Palin, has the political world saying first: Who? And then: Why?

John McCain needs what Kinky Friedman calls "a checkup from the neck up."

Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination in a packed stadium Thursday night and laid out his credentials to take on and beat Republican candidate John McCain in the fall election. "We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight. On November 4, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough," he said.

Officials in some Gulf Coast states spent the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on Friday gearing up for what could be the biggest threat to the region since Katrina hit in 2005.

Ricky Murray was having a miserable year long before a storm named Gustav started threatening the Gulf Coast area. Now he's afraid he will lose his family because of a previous hurricane.

At least 17 Smithsonian Institution executives with six-figure salaries will see pay cuts, many in the tens of thousands of dollars, under reforms adopted by the museum complex.

Twelve decapitated bodies were found Thursday on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a local official said.

At 14, Andrew Busskohl got a second chance at life when he underwent a heart transplant. But four years later, neighbors have more fear than compassion for him.