Two feet inside her door is all it takes to fit right in.

Our View: "President Barack Obama said. "The United States government has no interest in running GM; we have no intention in running GM."

Who: Arden A. Rowley of Mesa, 76, a retired U.S. Army major, a retired English and history teacher at Mesa Junior High School and a retired director of audio visual services at Mesa High School.

Every year on July 1, with summer in full swing and fall tuition payments on the horizon, interest rates on federal student loans reset. But this year, along with rate decreases on some loan types, came major changes to the way students will borrow money in the years to come.

WASHINGTON - Uncle Sam has just become the 800 pound gorilla in the U.S. mortgage market. The Bush administration is seizing troubled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a bid to help reverse a prolonged housing and credit crisis.

As a battle-tested Iraq war hero who cuts and runs when Uncle Sam invites him back for more, Ryan Phillippe embodies the progressive protest-politics of Kimberly Peirce’s “Stop-Loss.” It’s anti-war but pro-soldier; love the player, hate the game.

LOS ANGELES - So, how much would you pay for an empty dog-food can if you thought it was snatched from Paris Hilton's trash? So far the answer is $0. But the people from HollywoodStarTrash.com are counting on someone forking over at least $40. That's the starting bid listed on eBay for the can that once contained a helping of Party Animal organic gourmet. Bidding closes Sunday.

Uncle Sam was asleep in his pen Thursday, waiting for his turn to step into the show ring to take part in the showmanship segment of the annual Pinal County Fair livestock competition.

I don’t see what the problem is with balancing the budget.

The Big Three U.S. automakers were busy at the political conventions of both major parties this year, lobbying for more gravy from the taxpayers. Specifically, they're not satisfied with the $25 billion in low-interest loans Congress voted to grant them last year, ostensibly to help them develop new fuel-efficient cars and retool to produce them. They want another $50 billion in similar loans from Uncle Sugar, er, Sam.

A Washington observation of the federal spending process, somewhat uncertainly attributed to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen, goes: “A million here and a million there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

Librarians have come a long way, baby.

And now, a play in one act:

“Thank the Lord for the mortgage crisis. The calls to refinance my house have stopped.”

Julia Marreel of Chandler has already anted up $44 for red, white and blue streamers, decals, leis, star-shaped sunglasses, Uncle Sam hats and other doodads to decorate sons Andrew, 10, and Michael, 8, and their scooters for Independence Day.

Bob Husick has never viewed the world in black-and-white terms. As a lifelong fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Surprise resident’s world has always been colored black and gold. “If you cut me, I wouldn’t bleed red,” said Husick, who lives in Sun City Grand. “I would definitely bleed black and gold.”

The scare only reiterated Boise State coach Chris Petersen’s belief in family first. In 1999, Petersen was coaching at the University of Oregon when his then-infant son, Sam, fell off a bleacher during a practice and hit his head on the ground.

“I’m a die-hard Republican and never thought I would feel sorry for Hillary Clinton, but I do. I constantly see her on TV doing her job having to deal with the problems in Syria and other places. This joke of a president is on TV a lot also, always giving a campaign speech in front of cheering crowds that don’t realize that half the stuff he says is BS. Hillary would have made a lot better president.”

It is tax season, and for many that means tax refunds. The tax refund is a magical beast that comes when we have paid too much in taxes and Uncle Sam says, “Thanks for the loan, kid.”

Westerners have for decades been demanding, asking, pleading for more of a voice in how federal lands are administered, given Uncle Sam's vast holdings west of the 100th Meridian. Recently, breaking with the Washington-knows-best paternalism that long defined the relationship, the Bush administration invited Western governors to decide for themselves whether national forest “roadless areas” imposed during the Clinton administration were right for their states.

March 23, 2005