In the next few days, the Iowa General Assembly will have the opportunity of a generation: It can improve the quality of life for tens of thousands of Iowans by passing the Iowa Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.

It was like group therapy for political outcasts when Pennsylvania Republicans gathered for the first time since last year's elections, hoping to heal wounds and regain power by repeating a mantra of fiscal discipline, lower taxes and smaller government.

Ingrid Jansson peers through a vapor of liquid nitrogen at frozen embryos conceived for her in a petri dish four years ago. It's the first time she's eyed the surplus from the in vitro fertilization procedure that brought her son Dylan, now 3, into the world.

According to a recent survey, more than two-thirds of Americans want the new Democratic-led Congress to expand embryonic stem cell research. That's certainly what we call a public mandate.

Setting up a legislative debate over whether stem cell research can be realized without the destruction of human embryos, a state lawmaker said Monday she will file a bill to call for increased spending on other, less controversial types of stem cell research.

If U.S. Rep. Joe Schwarz had won the Republican primary, the prospect of a Democratic upset in the 7th District wouldn't even be a longshot, analysts say.

Governors, senators, congressmen and mayors have already weighed in, and on Nov. 7 voters in Senate District 4 will get their say as to whether Jim Fitzgerald or Kathy Sgambati should represent them.

A neophyte office-seeker is undaunted by being not just an openly homosexual candidate for the U.S. House but a Republican. He believes the party's values are his own.

In the editorial, "Baldacci for Governor" (BDN, Oct. 21-22), itıs stated that Sen. Chandler Woodcock "showed himself to be on the far rightı" Iıve spent some time with Woodcock and as a moderate, if not a liberal Republican, I do not share your assessment.