ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – It garnered big applause in her first speech as Republican John McCain‘s vice presidential pick, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s assertion that she rejected Congressional funds for the so-called “bridge to nowhere” has upset many Alaskans. When she was running for governor in 2006, Palin said she was insulted by the term “bridge to nowhere,” according to Ketchikan Mayor Bob Weinstein, a Democrat, and Mike Elerding, a Republican who was Palin’s campaign coordinator in the...

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Once a year, I and a few dozen other reporters and columnists write a Labor Day story. And, like most Americans we don’t remember our history. We don’t remember that the Knights of Labor created the first Labor Day in 1882 and that Congress made it a national holiday in 1894. Almost none of us will write about the personalities of the labor movement. About Mother Jones (1830-1930), the militant “angel of the coal fields” for more than six...

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