David Eldridge

COUNTRY TIMES: Garth Brooks — Country’s Comeback Kid?

There are so many huge tours by country artists these days — George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean and at least a half-dozen others — it's easy to think it's always been this way.

February 17, 2014

Country Times: Nashville classics for Valentine’s Day

With its iconic cheatin' and breakup songs, country music has earned a well-deserved reputation for chronicling the darker side of romance — a tradition that is surely in good hands today with a parade of brokenhearted young stars offering modern twists on love gone bad. (I'm looking at you, Taylor Swift.)

February 10, 2014

Country Times: Tribute to pay homage to Beatles’ Nashville roots

Country has had a memorable couple of weeks, including some scintillating performances at the Grammys, news on filmmaker Ken Burns' upcoming documentary on the genre, and a slew of Nashville stars streaming through Jay Leno's final episodes of "The Tonight Show."

February 3, 2014

Country Times: Leno putting Nashville spin on final shows

Longtime country music fan Jay Leno is putting a Nashville spin on his last days at the helm of NBC's "The Tonight Show."

January 27, 2014

COUNTRY TIMES: New and old country big at Grammys

For a lot of music fans — country and otherwise — Sunday night's Grammy Awards broadcast (8 p.m. CBS) will be the first look at a young performer who has electrified Nashville over the past year or so: Kacey Musgraves.

January 20, 2014

U.S. lawmakers skeptical of Sochi security, suspicious of Russia, Snowden

There was a Cold War chill in the air Sunday as members of Congress raised questions about safety at the Sochi Olympics and then suggested Russia may have been involved in the leaking of sensitive intelligence data.

January 19, 2014

Sen. Angus King on security at Russia Olympics: ‘I would not go’

Sen. Angus King said Sunday the threat of a terror attack at the Sochi Olympics in Russia is high enough that he wouldn't want his family to attend the Games.

January 19, 2014

COUNTRY TIMES: Trio of female voices featured in new releases

A little bored with the "bro-country" thing? Still broke up about The Civil Wars' breakup? Getting restless waiting for this year's new Taylor Swift and Miranda Lambert albums?

January 13, 2014

COUNTRY TIMES: ‘Bro-country’ vs. traditional: Bring on the fight

Upstarts taking on the establishment, new stars pushing out the old guard, grass-roots purists turning up their noses at those with more mainstream instincts — sounds like Washington and the past two years of the Republican Party, right?

January 6, 2014

John McCain, in Kiev, tells protesters that Ukraine is ‘inspiring the world’

Sen. John McCain joined a massive anti-government rally in Kiev on Sunday, telling an estimated crowd of more than 200,000 that the United States supports the protest movement's goal of closer alignment with the West.

December 15, 2013

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Blocking nominees over Benghazi is not ‘over the top’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said Sunday that his threat to block all presidential nominees until Congress can speak with survivors of the Benghazi attack is warranted.

November 3, 2013

Sens. Klobuchar, Collins predict a deal by Thursday

Two senators working to cobble together a bipartisan budget solution predicted Sunday they will have a deal in place before Thursday's debt-ceiling deadline.

October 13, 2013

Rand Paul: GOP can’t accept Democrats’ attempts to undo sequesters

Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday that Republicans in the Senate are willing to compromise in the ongoing negotiations over the government shutdown and the looming debt ceiling, but cautioned that Democrats should not expect concessions on the already negotiated sequester caps.

October 13, 2013

Lew says health exchange rollout glitches typical for new software

After a week of ongoing glitches, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Sunday defended the online rollout of Obamacare's health insurance exchanges and promised the bugs would be worked out.

October 6, 2013

John Boehner, Ted Cruz: Upcoming debt-ceiling vote will have conditions

House Speaker John A. Boehner and other Republicans made it clear Sunday they expect compromises from Democrats on spending in exchange for raising the country's debt ceiling.

October 6, 2013

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew: Obama can’t stop default if debt ceiling is hit

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said Sunday that President Obama does not have any power to avoid default if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling before Oct. 17.

October 6, 2013

Sen. Ted Cruz: GOP has compromised on Obamacare; now it’s Democrats’ turn

Sen. Ted Cruz pushed back hard Sunday against critics who have accused the Texas Republican and his tea-party-backed allies in Congress of being unwilling to negotiate on the Obamacare stalemate that is poised to shut down the federal government on Tuesday.

September 29, 2013

Sen. Tim Kaine: Senate Dems likely to approve House bill to keep funding military

They may not agree on anything else, but Republican and Democratic lawmakers are on the same page when it comes to military pay: Neither side wants to be blamed for soldiers not getting paid in the case of a government shutdown.

September 29, 2013

NRA’s Wayne LaPierre: Shore up security at U.S. bases, and let military carry arms

The head of the National Rifle Association, responding Sunday to renewed calls for gun control in the wake of last week's killing spree at the Washington Navy Yard, called for beefed-up security at American military bases.

September 22, 2013

Rep. Nancy Pelosi: Nothing left to cut in budget — ‘the cupboard is bare’

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says Republican-led efforts to rein in government spending are pointless because there is nothing left to cut in the almost $4 trillion-a-year federal budget.

September 22, 2013