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overwhelmingly controlled the state House and Senate and saw themselves as an equal partner in the government. His approach jolted a clubby political culture where schmoozing over after-hours drinks and cutting backroom deals are well-worn pathways to success.
• Unlike his three GOP gubernatorial predecessors, the politically inexperienced Romney was never at ease in the chummy world of trading favors for votes. He bypassed rank-and-file Democrats and dealt mostly with the party's legislative leaders during his four-year term, though he did work with Democrats to pass the state's health care overhaul.
• Romney's mostly fraught relations with state lawmakers could provide insight into how he'd handle a Congress that might still be politically divided if he becomes president.
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• PARIS (AP) -- The French town of Chamonix, deep in the shadow of Mont Blanc, has always embraced danger.
• Climbers scale Europe's highest peak in dire conditions. Backcountry skiers risk avalanches or falling off cliffs.
• But the arrival this summer of the wingsuit flyers offered peril on an entirely new scale. For nearly two months, daredevils in skin-tight suits with batwing sleeves and a flap between their legs hurled themselves off the Brevent cliff, soaring through the Alpine skies. Last week, tragedy struck: A Norwegian wingsuit flyer was killed when his parachute failed to open.
• The next day, the mayor of Chamonix-Mont Blanc banned wingsuits.
• The decision has triggered a debate about how to weigh the dangers of extreme sport against the passion of the thrill-seekers the Alpine town has famously encouraged. The ban isn't meant to be permanent -- local officials hope to come up with a set of rules on wingsuits that will satisfy everyone. But Chamonix remains shaken.
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