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<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The passengers on the one week cruise to Puerto Vallarta never imagined being adrift in the Pacific Ocean and having to be rescued by Mexican vessels before touching land four days after their vacation started.</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But that is exactly what happened to the 3,299 passengers and 1,167 crew members from Carnival Splendor, after a fire blew the engine room and left them without power on a ship at San Vicente Bay, 200 miles south of San Diego, California.</p>

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<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Los pasajeros de un crucero de una semana con destino a Vallarta nunca se imaginaron estar a la deriva en el Pacífico y tener que ser rescatados por la marina mexicana antes de tocar puerto, cuatro días después.</p>

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<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; The US Chamber of Commerce has every reason to be proud of its many successes in forcing the Obama administration to focus primarily on corporations and their desire for more tax breaks and special incentives often denied small businesses.</p>

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<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; It’s not a happy birthday for Elizabeth Cady Stanton.</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; The leading suffragist was born on Nov. 12, 1815, but her 195th birthday comes amid a concerted attack on the nation’s highest elected woman.</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; The despicable attempt to demean Nancy Pelosi’s achievements as the House Democratic leader and to belittle her determination to keep her leadership role shows how precarious a woman’s place in U.S. politics remains.</p>

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<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; A certain Harvard professor years ago predicted that solar energy would be made readily available the day that Exxon owned the sun.</p>
<p>&nbsp;&nbsp; In this election in which polluters and their lackeys see themselves as the owners of Washington again, the professor’s prediction sounds more like a curse.</p>