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A graying but still hearty Ronald Reagan breezed into Orange County Wednesday night with a message, in case no one had noticed: that democracy was breaking out around the world like some sort of benevolent virus.

Once upon a time, Barack Obama understood the power of a good story. His campaign mantras — "Yes we can" and "Change we can believe in" — inspired voters, especially young people, blacks and Latinos, and propelled him into the White House. But once in office, Obama lost the thread of the plot. He abandoned his original message and embraced compromise and bipartisanship rather than pushing for dramatic change. That narrative hasn't gotten far with a recalcitrant Congress, especially Republicans, who have their own high concept to pitch: Just say no to Obama.

Federal drug prosecutions rose sharply under presidents Reagan and Bush, then leveled off during the Clinton administration, statistics released Saturday by a university-based research group showed.

My Father at 100 A Memoir Ron Reagan Viking: 228 pp., $25.95 "Hinckley had loaded his pistol with a type of exploding bullet charmingly marketed as a Devastator," writes Ron Reagan, describing John Hinckley Jr.'s 1981 attempt to assassinate his father, President Ronald Reagan. "It was the sixth and final shot that first hit not Dad but the armor-plated side of the presidential limousine. The armor did its job admirably well, but with disastrous consequences. As it was deflected, the bullet flattened into a dime-sized disk before striking my father, slicing into his chest beneath his left arm and lodging in his left lung, barely an inch from his heart, still unexploded.

With a song commissioned in his honor, President Reagan celebrated his birthday to the cheers of Cabinet members and friends on Friday at a surprise party thrown by his wife a day before he turns 77. "We really did pull it off. He was surprised," Nancy Reagan told the 70 people in the State Dining Room. Dessert at the birthday luncheon was a two-tiered lemon cake decorated with chocolate horseshoes, wafers with Reagan's profile, miniature horses, a tiny pair of boots and a small cowboy hat.

Congressional leaders and top White House officials tentatively agreed late Saturday on a complex scheme for delivering about $8 million in non-lethal aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, paving the way for passage of a massive spending bill needed to fund most federal agencies for the next nine months and apparently averting a government shutdown.

Ronald Reagan, the Hollywood actor who became one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century and transformed the political landscape of an era with his vision of conservative government, died Saturday at his home in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 93. His wife, Nancy, his greatest fan and fierce protector, was at his side. For 10 years, he suffered from Alzheimer's, an incapacitating brain disease. In 1994, he bade a poignant farewell to "my fellow Americans.

The apparent defeat of Judge Robert H. Bork as a Supreme Court nominee is being viewed on Capitol Hill as a clear demonstration of President Reagan's rapidly declining effectiveness in dealing with a highly partisan, Democratic-controlled Congress.

The carefully choreographed ceremony for President Reagan's signing of the landmark tax overhaul bill was timed down to the second, but not everything went according to plan. As Reagan signed the cover sheets of the bill--the full text itself weighed more than 33 pounds--top officials on the podium began laughing. "I was in such a hurry," Reagan explained, "I wrote my last name first."

My Father at 100 A Memoir Ron Reagan Viking: 228 pp., $25.95 "Hinckley had loaded his pistol with a type of exploding bullet charmingly marketed as a Devastator," writes Ron Reagan, describing John Hinckley Jr.'s 1981 attempt to assassinate his father, President Ronald Reagan. "It was the sixth and final shot that first hit not Dad but the armor-plated side of the presidential limousine. The armor did its job admirably well, but with disastrous consequences. As it was deflected, the bullet flattened into a dime-sized disk before striking my father, slicing into his chest beneath his left arm and lodging in his left lung, barely an inch from his heart, still unexploded.

Ronald Reagan, the Hollywood actor who became one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century and transformed the political landscape of an era with his vision of conservative government, died Saturday at his home in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 93. His wife, Nancy, his greatest fan and fierce protector, was at his side. For 10 years, he suffered from Alzheimer's, an incapacitating brain disease. In 1994, he bade a poignant farewell to "my fellow Americans.

Federal drug prosecutions rose sharply under presidents Reagan and Bush, then leveled off during the Clinton administration, statistics released Saturday by a university-based research group showed.

A graying but still hearty Ronald Reagan breezed into Orange County Wednesday night with a message, in case no one had noticed: that democracy was breaking out around the world like some sort of benevolent virus.

With a song commissioned in his honor, President Reagan celebrated his birthday to the cheers of Cabinet members and friends on Friday at a surprise party thrown by his wife a day before he turns 77. "We really did pull it off. He was surprised," Nancy Reagan told the 70 people in the State Dining Room. Dessert at the birthday luncheon was a two-tiered lemon cake decorated with chocolate horseshoes, wafers with Reagan's profile, miniature horses, a tiny pair of boots and a small cowboy hat.

Congressional leaders and top White House officials tentatively agreed late Saturday on a complex scheme for delivering about $8 million in non-lethal aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, paving the way for passage of a massive spending bill needed to fund most federal agencies for the next nine months and apparently averting a government shutdown.

The apparent defeat of Judge Robert H. Bork as a Supreme Court nominee is being viewed on Capitol Hill as a clear demonstration of President Reagan's rapidly declining effectiveness in dealing with a highly partisan, Democratic-controlled Congress.

Once upon a time, Barack Obama understood the power of a good story. His campaign mantras — "Yes we can" and "Change we can believe in" — inspired voters, especially young people, blacks and Latinos, and propelled him into the White House. But once in office, Obama lost the thread of the plot. He abandoned his original message and embraced compromise and bipartisanship rather than pushing for dramatic change. That narrative hasn't gotten far with a recalcitrant Congress, especially Republicans, who have their own high concept to pitch: Just say no to Obama.

The carefully choreographed ceremony for President Reagan's signing of the landmark tax overhaul bill was timed down to the second, but not everything went according to plan. As Reagan signed the cover sheets of the bill--the full text itself weighed more than 33 pounds--top officials on the podium began laughing. "I was in such a hurry," Reagan explained, "I wrote my last name first."