Floridians are generally not flummoxed by the variety of reptile species invading their state. Even when pythons started turning up on the peninsula in large numbers a few years ago, most residents laughed off the huge, not-native snakes as yet another imported nuisance, little worse than some condo developers. But that nonchalance vanished in a heartbeat last week when 2-year-old Shaiunna Hare was strangled to death in her crib by a 9-foot-long Burmese python kept as a pet, illegally, ...

The Obama administration Monday released nine previously secret internal Justice Department memos and opinions defining the legal limits of government power in combating terrorism. The Bush administration had refused to make the documents public, rejecting demands from congressional Democrats. The release ends a tug-of-war over copies of controversial legal guidance from the post-9/11 period that advocated greatly expanded executive power to combat terrorism. Among the documents from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is a 2001 memo declaring ...