Sarah Palin

Since announcing her resignation, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been pummeled by critics who have called her incoherent, a quitter, a joke and a "political train wreck." And those were fellow Republicans talking. Palin has been a polarizing figure from the moment she stepped off the tundra into the bright lights last summer as John McCain's surprise vice presidential running mate. Some of that hostility could be expected, given the hyper-partisanship of today's politics.

A day after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resigned, a federal official in her home state dismissed one potential explanation for her sudden and unexpected resignation: a rumored FBI investigation into the former Wasilla mayor on public corruption charges.

The abuse-of-power investigation of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was unraveling Wednesday, with most key witnesses refusing to testify, new legal maneuvering and heightened Republican pressure to delay the inquiry until after election day. Palin initially welcomed the investigation, saying, "Hold me accountable," but she has increasingly opposed it since Republican presidential candidate John McCain chose her as his running mate.

The 3.2-mile-long partially paved "road to nowhere" meanders from a small international airport on Gravina Island, home to 50 people, ending in a cul-de-sac close to a beach. Crews are working to finish it. But no one knows when anyone will need to drive it. That's because the $26-million road was designed to connect to the $398-million Gravina Island Bridge, more infamously known as the "bridge to nowhere." Alaskan officials thought federal money would pay for the bridge, but Gov.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's husband refused to testify in the investigation of his wife's alleged abuse of power, and key lawmakers said Thursday that uncooperative witnesses were essentially sidetracking the probe until after election day. Todd Palin, who participates in state business in person and by e-mail, was among 13 people subpoenaed by the Alaska Legislature. His lawyer sent a letter to the lead investigator saying he objected to the probe and would not appear today to testify.

Fox News tough guy Sean Hannity assured us this week he would press Sarah Palin for real answers -- no going easy on the woman who could be the next vice president of the United States. "No topic," Hannity intoned, "is off limits." A couple of nights earlier, Fox's hard-talking lawyer, Greta Van Susteren, promised to take us to unknown places in her exclusive interview with Alaska's so-called First Dude, Todd Palin. "You will see this," Greta declared, "nowhere else!" No, you won't.

With THE presidential race grabbing much of the national spotlight, politics naturally shaded this year's Emmy ceremony featuring references ranging from subtle and sarcastic to burning. Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin took much of the heat. Only minutes into the broadcast, co-host Howie Mandel fired the first shot, comparing a mostly failed comic routine involving him and his fellow reality show co-hosts to being on "Sarah Palin's bridge to nowhere."

Federal scientists flying over the Arctic Ocean last month spotted something nearly unprecedented during their annual count of bowhead whales: nine polar bears in the open sea, miles from anywhere. One was swimming 60 miles off Barrow. A flight a week or so later found five bears plying their way through the swells.

I almost ran into a moose on the way to Sarah Palin's hometown. There I was, headed up the highway out of Anchorage, when suddenly drivers were slamming on their brakes as Bullwinkle humped across the road. At the airport I'd asked for a mid-size car, and they gave me an SUV. Now it was becoming clear why: A Camry wouldn't have a fighting chance against a moose. Maybe it was a sign that I wasn't welcome in Palin country and should go back home to California.

Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate, has been getting a crash course in diplomacy and international affairs this week, meeting her first foreign heads of state courtesy of the U.N. General Assembly's annual gathering of international bigwigs.