Let's face it. Our country is in a slump. And it's up to us to do something about it.

In the past I've blamed Congress, the president, greed on Wall Street, wimpy regulators, nasty terrorists and climate change.

But a country's soul comes from its people. And, people, we're tired. Bone weary and frustrated, we need to get our mojo back.

In accord with the mnemonic "Spring Forward, Fall Back," this Sunday we set our clocks forward one hour. We lose an hour of sleep, but it is the law -- the Energy Policy Act of 2005, to be precise.

A lonely cave on a cliff in the rugged Pinnacles National Monument is the setting for a story of two love birds who found one another despite unimaginable hardship and decided to bring new life into a world that almost destroyed them.

They are, of course, giant corpse-munching vultures, but wildlife biologists could not be more thrilled if they were Romeo and Juliet.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Sarah Palin will take the witness stand here in a case involving a Memphis lawmaker's son and her personal Yahoo! e-mail account.

WASHINGTON - Republicans are so convinced that the fall midterm elections could be a repeat of 1994, the year that ushered them into the majority in Congress, they are reaching into the playbook for the prop that helped propel that victory: a new Contract with America.

Hand it to the states. All but two of them saw that their K-12 math and English standards could maybe do with some possible upgrading, and so they got together and worked out some improvements they could either adopt or not.

Homeowners struggling to sell their homes in a short sale are getting some relief, thanks to the federal government's Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives, or HAFA, program.