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By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 3, 2008; A14

TITUSVILLE, Fla., Aug. 2 -- Sen. Barack Obama on Saturday said a shift in his stance on offshore oil drilling is a necessary compromise with Republicans to gain their support for his broader goals of energy independence.

On Friday, Obama indicated a willingness to support an effort by five Democratic senators and five Republicans to break Congress's energy impasse with legislation that would allow expanded offshore oil exploration and embrace ambitious energy efficiency and efforts to develop alternative fuels.

People all around the Earth witnessed a spectacular solar eclipse on Friday. Its range began in Canada, and then continued northeast across Greenland and the Arctic, then southeast through central Russia, Mongolia, and China.

People from northeastern North America and the ones from most of Europe and Asia saw a partial solar eclipse that was said to be quite spectacular as well.

The city of Nadym, the third largest city in Russia, was the first to experience the eclipse, at its peak length of 2 minutes and 27 seconds of darkness.

The Moon crosses the Earth once a month in its movement, during the new moon. But for an eclipse to occur the moon has to go straight between the Sun and the Earth.

An average eclipse is about three minutes long although some may last up to seven minutes. When it reaches its full point, the sky darkens enough to allow the stars to be seen.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- Barack Obama said on Saturday he would support an expansion of offshore drilling as part of a broader bipartisan energy bill, a more flexible approach than the Democratic presidential contender has previously demonstrated.

Sen. Obama, who has opposed further offshore drilling despite it being a politically unpopular position, told reporters he "remains skeptical" of drilling provisions in pending legislation designed to lessen dependence on foreign oil and ramp up development of alterative energy, but he said he would be willing to compromise.

For all of us who are kind of lazy or simply do not find the necessary time to exercise the solution might come sooner than we expect in the name of two magic pills that seem to mimic the effects of exercising by tricking our muscles into working, reducing the fat and giving back our bodies.

The effect of the miraculous pills was discovered four years ago by Professor Ronald Evans at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in La Jolla and his colleagues.

By David S. Broder
Sunday, August 3, 2008; B07

Senators are great glad-handers, not just with their constituents but with each other. Every time a vote is called, they mill around in front of the rostrum, grabbing hands and shoulders or patting each other's backs.

But, as my colleague Dana Milbank noted, it was a poignant moment last week when Ted Stevens of Alaska, newly indicted for accepting unreported favors from an oilman friend, walked over to Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who uses a wheelchair because of age and illness, in search of support and consolation.

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has positively identified water in a soil sample taken for analysis this Wednesday, confirming earlier suspicions that the Martian soil contains water ice. A special instrument aboard Phoenix obtained water vapors after heating the samples for analysis.

Considering that the long-awaited Mars water evidence has finally been confirmed, NASA decided to extend the initial mission of the Mars Lander with an extra 30 days from the original three-month schedule, which means the Mars investigations will continue until September 30.

“Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good,” said Michael Meyer, chief scientists for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The plan is to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars, he added.

Investigators continued their search for the source of the Salmonella saintpaul outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people in 43 states and set off a consumer scare that cost the produce industry more than $200 million. At least 252 people were hospitalized and two people have died.

Federal investigators say they identified the source of the contamination in serrano peppers grown on a farm in Tamaulipas, the Mexican state that borders South Texas. They also found traces of the elusive bacteria in irrigation water collected from the same farm. The contamination of the peppers could have started when they were harvested in Mexico or on their way to be distributed, to McAllen, Texas.

McCain Campaign Accuses Obama of Exploiting the Issue

By Jonathan Weisman and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, August 1, 2008; A04

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, July 31 -- Sen. John McCain's campaign accused Sen. Barack Obama of playing the "race card" on Thursday, a day after the Democrat said his opponent and other Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing to Obama's "funny name" and the fact that "he doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."

The charge was the first time the campaigns had directly confronted the subject of race. Although both sides have sought to avoid raising the thorny issue, the back-and-forth showed that it was perhaps inevitable the topic would emerge in a campaign in which an African American is headed for a major-party nomination for the first time.

By Michael Gerson
Friday, August 1, 2008; A17

It is an extraordinary bit of political trivia that two popular red-state Democratic governors -- both in presidential battleground states -- spent time as Catholic lay missionaries in the developing world.

Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia taught at a Jesuit school in Honduras in the early 1980s, an experience he credits with turning his life toward public service. "It was life-changing to live among the poorest of the poor," he has said.

By J. Freedom du Lac
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 1, 2008; C01

In the arsenal of the culture wars, rap music remains somewhat radioactive -- and Barack Obama now finds himself exposed.

Avowed Obama supporter Ludacris on Wednesday released a freewheeling song called "Politics" in which he repeatedly praised the candidate -- as well as himself, for having found a home on the senator's iPod. But the Atlanta rapper also used a derogatory term to describe Hillary Clinton; asserted that John McCain should be in a wheelchair, not the White House; and declared that President Bush "is mentally handicapped."