Will Mitt Romney pick a female running mate?
His wife, Ann Romney, suggested to CBS News that women are on Romney’s list. “I love that option,” she said. John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for veep four years ago certainly shook up the race, but Romney has been expected to make a more conventional, and safer, pick from among a group of well-established GOP men. Still, there are several intriguing female choices for the Republican ticket, including New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Will President Obama hurt ex-Va. Gov. Tim Kaine’s U.S. senate bid?
Republican Senate candidate George Allen loves to link Kaine to Obama, and the two certainly have strong connections. Kaine served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee during Obama’s first year in office. But unlike other Democrats, Kaine has not run away from Obama. Kaine and Allen continue to run neck and neck in nearly every poll. And unless Romney breaks through in the commonwealth, it may stay that way. Despite underwater approval rating, Obama has a slight edge over Romney in this critical swing state.
Are hate crimes really on the rise in D.C.?
Hate crimes in the District have tripled since 2009, from 30 to 91 last year. The largest increase was in the category of race-related crimes, which spiked from two in 2009 to 27 last year. Meanwhile, crimes related to gender identity and sexual orientation have increased from 35 in 2009 to 53 last year. But experts doubt the city is experiencing a significant rise of intolerance. More likely, new reporting methods and extra attention by police have led to crimes being identified as hate crimes that would have been listed simply as assaults in earlier years.
Why did the Higgs boson particle discovery make a loser out of Stephen Hawking?
The world-famous physicist was convinced the particle, which is being described as a “building block” of the entire universe, would never be proven by science, or at least not in his lifetime. Ten years ago, he bet Gordon Kane, who now heads the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, $100 that the particle would never be found. “It seems I have just lost 100 dollars,” Britain’s Telegraph newspaper quoted Hawking, 70, as saying, after Wednesday’s announcement confirming the discovery.
