The 2012 presidential election will present voters with contrasting visions of government, brought into sharper focus by Mitt Romney’s selection of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan as his running mate. At the heart of each vision, however, is a dangerous myth that undercuts the potential for serious policy discussion.

As supporters peel off the East-West Highway feasibility study, it’s important for everyone to focus on the real problem.

Ostensible justification for a spate of Republican-sponsored voter ID laws — which would require voters to present government-issued photo ID at the polls — has been the threat of voter fraud, specifically, in-person voter impersonation. It has seemed likely, given the absence of evidence of such crimes, that the threat was overstated. Now we know for sure: Such fraud virtually never takes place.

The Manhattan Project — the U.S. government’s wartime push to develop an atomic bomb — ranks among the most significant chapters in the history of the American Century.

This week, many Americans are getting their first look at Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, Mitt Romney’s choice to be the nation’s vice president.

Syria’s civil war is at a crucial point following the defection to the rebels of Prime Minister Riad Hijab and new reported attempted defections.

Everybody and his brother — the Sierra Club, the natural gas industry, the solar industry, the wind industry, President Barack Obama and Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency — want to design the nation’s energy mix and the nation’s electrical system.

Celebrate a rare victory for transparency in American politics. Voters weigh candidates in a system awash in money, but it is cumbersome at best to find who wrote the checks.

The man showed up at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., just as volunteers were gathering to cook lentils, yogurt and rice pudding for the faithful.

Even if the lobster war between the United States and Canada never turns hot, this summer’s cross-border trade dispute exposes some issues threatening one of Maine’s most prominent industries that won’t be going away.