The man praised by punk priestess Patti Smith as “the best poet of his generation” was much better known as the drug-addicted street hustler in “The Basketball Diaries.”

Whatever epitaphs mark the graves of great men and women, few can compare with the singular achievement of a little-known American who died two days ago.

The story of Danny Pang, a West Coast money manager charged with conducting a massive Ponzi scheme, took a dramatic and mysterious turn with his death last weekend.

Unlike his wife Linda, who runs a lobby shop in Washington, Tom Daschle is not a registered lobbyist.

Jerry Seinfeld, Mae West and Henry Hudson now have at least one thing in common.

Dominick Dunne, who did for crime reporting what Hunter S. Thompson did for political chronicles, might have found delicious irony in the timing of his own death.

After a long battle with brain cancer, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died Tuesday at age 77.

Already challenged by Republicans, Barack Obama is now getting heat on the left from Howard Dean.

Bradley C. Birkenfeld has entered the pantheon of whistleblowers.

Is it wise for the head of a company that caters to left-leaning consumers to write an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, criticizing the Obama health care plan?

Caught between those lobbying for health care reform and the people shouting it down at town hall meetings, Dick Armey has chosen the demonstrators.

Betsy McCaughey is taking on President Barack Obama’s efforts to reform health care.

She was competitive enough to play quarterback in her brothers’ football games. She had political ambitions, but couldn’t go after them because women simply weren’t allowed in big league politics in her prime.

William J. Bratton, who helped turn around police departments in New York City and Los Angeles, is turning his attention to international crime fighting.

Fans had been looking forward to the return of Detroit’s seminal progressive rap group Slum Village before the death of co-founder Titus “Baatin” Glover.

At the least, some say, the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. was racial profiling.

Monica Conyers, Detroit City Council president pro tem and wife of U.S. Congressman John Conyers, pleaded guilty today to bribery conspiracy.

When the economy nosedives, the scams - a la Madoff and Stanford Financial - rise to the surface.

Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, under investigation in an alleged $8 billion fraud, is expected to be arraigned today on federal charges.

Monica Conyers is being squeezed by the feds to accept a plea deal before being indicted for bribery.