Stories from Tuesday, December 18, 2012

By DAN K. THOMASSON Scripps Howard News Service In 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency was created to fill the vacuum left by the dissolution of the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS). But it was nearly thwarted by a major concern: that it would become an agent of domestic intrusion, to the detriment of all Americans. In other words, no one would be immune from its prying eyes...

By PATRICK J. BUCHANAN In 1958, Senate Minority Leader William Knowland, his eye on the 1960 GOP nomination coveted by fellow Californian Richard Nixon, went home and declared for governor. Knowland's plan: Ride to victory on the back of Proposition 18, the initiative to make right-to-work the law in the Golden Land. Prop. 18 was rejected 2 to 1. Knowland's career was over, and the Republicans were decimated nationally for backing right-to-work...

By GEORGE F. WILL WASHINGTON -- Rick Snyder, who is hardly a human cactus, warned Michigan's labor leaders. The state's mild-mannered Republican governor, currently in his first term in his first public office, has rarely been accused of being, or praised for being, a fire-breathing conservative. ...

In the upcoming months, the 8th Congressional Republican Committee will nominate a candidate to fill the Congressional Seat in Missouri's 8th District. To this point, there have been a number of qualified individuals that have expressed interest in receiving that nomination. ...