Ten states now have President Barack Obama's OK to scrap one of the most rigorous and unpopular mandates in American education - that all students measure up in reading and math by 2014. In exchange, the states had to promise they would raise standards and develop more creative ways to measure what students are learning.
President Barack Obama is making a strong election-year push for an economic revival "built on American manufacturing." But he faces an uphill slog, with little consensus even within his own party on how to do it.
Money pouring into the presidential election from super political action committees and nonprofit campaign groups appears so far to be strictly American in origin, donated by U.S. companies, unions and millionaires. But it's easier than ever to conceal the source of money and the identities of contributors, making conditions ripe for illegal donations from foreigners, overseas companies or governments attempting to help a favored candidate for the White House.
