1. The pact, approved by both governments and now being debated rancorously in the Iraqi parliament, requires U.S. troops to leave the streets of Iraqi towns by the middle of next year and to leave the country by December 31, 2011.

2. "If I were home, she might be working in the fields with me." While Congress has struggled rancorously this month over what to do with the country‘s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, the Bush administration has kept renewing permission for 312,000 Central Americans –– including tens of thousands of people in the District, Maryland and Virginia –– to remain here under "temporary protected status." Last month, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would extend the amnesty yet again, setting various deadlines this summer for qualified immigrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador to register.