EDITOR’S NOTE – An occasional look behind the rhetoric of political candidates.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Remember Newt Gingrich calling Mitt Romney a liar? Michele Bachmann saying Romney’s unelectable? Rick Santorum calling Romney “the worst Republican in the country” to run

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LA PUENTE, Calif. (AP) — The Diaz family awoke to find a Lexus at the bottom of their swimming pool.

The Southern California family tells the San Gabriel Valley Tribune (http://bit.ly/L0zjqa) that drivers navigating the tricky intersection next to their

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MARBLEHEAD, Mass. (AP) — It’s still OK to use leaf blowers in Marblehead.

Town Meeting members on Tuesday voted 285-211 to defeat a partial ban on the yard maintenance devices.

Christopher Bergonzi had at first proposed a complete ban on

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LONDON (AP) — Prime Minister David Cameron’s friendships with two suspects at the heart of Britain’s phone hacking scandal will come under spotlight this week in what may be some uncomfortable hours for the country’s conservative leader.

Two former editors

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Police say a New York man who refused to pay a $12 taxi fare was carrying more than $5,000 when the cabbie drove him around looking for cheap cigarettes.

The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports (http://bit.ly/IZjvk6

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WARWICK, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island airport officials say a man whose child unknowingly had gun parts and ammunition hidden inside stuffed animals in his carry-on bag was involved in a custody dispute.

Authorities say federal transportation agents found the

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CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP) — Just how unpopular is President Barack Obama in some parts of the country? Enough that a man in prison in Texas is getting 4 out of 10 votes in West Virginia’s Democratic presidential primary.

Keith

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LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s Health Ministry is urging people to stay away from Pacific beaches from Lima northward after recent large-scale deaths of pelicans and dolphins.

Neither the Health Ministry nor Peru’s oceanographic institute has determined the cause of

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SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian prostitute plans to sue the U.S. Embassy, three Marines and a Brazilian staff member for injuries caused when she allegedly was pushed out of a van in Brasilia.

Attorney Cezar Britto says his client

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department said Wednesday a Brazilian prostitute was injured last year when she tried to get back into a car occupied by four members of a U.S. security team who were disciplined after the incident.

The

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EASTON, Conn. (AP) — A professional diver from Connecticut says he’s planning to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a rowboat.

Forty-year-old John Bauby of Easton says he intends to begin the 5,000-mile trek in the spring of 2013, but he’s

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MIAMI (AP) — Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen was suspended for five games Tuesday because of his comments about Fidel Castro, and he again apologized and said he’ll do whatever he can to repair relations with Cuban-Americans angered by

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BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil has taken on more than 2,000 websites that promote Latin America’s biggest country as a sex tourism destination, the Tourism Ministry said Tuesday.

In 2011, the ministry identified 2,169 websites with photos of women in

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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — After 76 days, Gabor Rakonczay — isolated and incommunicado for nearly 50 of those after his canoe capsized — has become the first person to paddle across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to the Caribbean.

Rakonczay,

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CLINTONVILLE, Wis. (AP) — An eastern Wisconsin town where unexplained booms have kept some residents up at night will hire an engineering firm to explore the cause of the racket, the city’s administrator said Thursday.

The Waukesha engineering firm Ruekert

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