17-Year Old Completes Solo Voyage Around the World

Firefighter Denounces Sotomayor Ruling
Frank Ricci Testifies Against Supreme Court Nominee Who Ruled Against Him As Lower Court Judge
17-Year Old Completes Solo Voyage Around the World
We first brought you the story of Zac Sunderland 2 weeks ago with Neal Karlinsky’s report of the teenager’s quest to sail solo around the world. Well, the 17-year old has completed his voyage -- he is now the youngest...
Sarah Palin's Republican competition

by Mark Silva

It may not say as much about any one Republican in particularnot Mitt Romney, not Sarah Palinas it says about the GOP's inclination in general that Alaska's Palin, Arkansas' Mike Huckabee and Georgia's Newt Gingrich draw most of the support in a way-early test of 2012 Republican candidate strength:

Fifty-four percent of the Republicans surveyed name one of the conservative Republicans as their favorite, in a Gallup Poll test of the potential field. Just 3 percent name the moderate Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and 26 percent Romney.

The former Massachusetts governor, who served his full terms, does hold a marginal edge in this survey over Palin, who is resigning before the end of his term, with Palin drawing 21 percent of those surveyed in the Gallup Poll of Republicans.

The numberswhich are likely to be more a matter of name-recognition at this tender stage of any 2012 contest for the White Housecome from a July 10-12 survey.

"Palin's strong showing suggests she remains a contender for GOP front-runner status even after her surprising decision to resign as governor of Alaska, which she announced July 3,'' Gallup's Jeffrey Jones reports.

"While Palin trails Romney in the current candidate preference test, she leads both him and Huckabee in terms of their respective favorable ratings among Republicans. Currently, 72 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have a favorable opinion of Palin, compared with 56 percent for Romney and 59 percent for Huckabee.

"But her lead on this measure largely reflects the fact that she is better known than the two former governors, given the substantially lower "no opinion" figures for her. Republicans rate each candidate more positively than negatively by better than 3-to-1 ratios.''

The survey of 1,018 national adults was run July 1012. The results from the survey's sample of 455 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Senate Moves Closer To Sotomayor Vote

Judge Sonia Sotomayor appeared poised to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice Thursday, with the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee saying the GOP won't block a vote on her nomination.