02/25/2010

Obama picks Beaumont judge to be U.S. attorney for Collin, Denton, East Texas
The selection of John B. Stevens Jr. gives hope that a political impasse over judicial nominees in Texas may have been broken.

Obama, GOP clash at health care summit
Obama lamented the partisan bickering that has resulted in a stalemate over legislation to extend coverage to more than 30 million uninsured.
Watch the summit live
Poll shows less fear on health overhaul
Read more about the president's plan

Senate signs off on jobs bill
WASHINGTON – The Senate easily passed a $15 billion jobs bill Wednesday amid hope that the measure could provide a blueprint for other items on President Barack Obama's agenda.

Whale attacks, kills trainer during Florida SeaWorld show
ORLANDO, Fla. – A killer whale attacked and killed a trainer in front of a horrified audience at a SeaWorld show Wednesday, with witnesses saying the animal involved in two previous deaths dragged the trainer under and thrashed her around violently.

02/24/2010

Toyota CEO apologizing for recall, accidents
Akio Toyoda addressed Congress Wednesday regarding safety lapses that led to widespread recalls for accelerator and brake failures and for a corporate culture that may have made things worse.
Link: Toyota recall information
Link: Toyoda's Wall Street Journal opinion piece
Get autos news, reviews

02/25/2010

Democrats look beyond health care summit
WASHINGTON – Congressional Democrats are looking beyond the White House health care summit, reckoning that today's session will amount to little more than political theater and focusing instead on a final round of intraparty negotiations likely to determine the fate of President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

Obama's health care summit will be televised

02/24/2010

Texas could feel impact of Obama's proposal to review health insurance premiums
The Obama administration's proposal to regulate health insurance premiums would add new supervision to a market in Texas that has largely been free from vigorous oversight.

Lawmaker's attention to logistics emphasizes health care summit's high stakes
WASHINGTON – An intense argument has been raging ahead of Thursday's health care summit: Will President Barack Obama and members of Congress sit around a U-shaped table or a round one?

Documents: Husband of Alabama professor accused of killings made threatening comments about a Harvard professor
BOSTON – The husband of the neuroscientist accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville told a witness he wanted to harm a Harvard professor who was later mailed a pipe bomb in 1993, according to newly released federal documents.

Ole Miss ready to find new mascot
OXFORD, Miss. – University of Mississippi students voted Tuesday for the school to pursue a new mascot to replace Colonel Reb, the goateed Southern gent banished from the sidelines nearly seven years ago as the school continued its move away from symbols of the Old South.

Researchers cite influx of plastic in Pacific 'Garbage Patch'
HONOLULU – Researchers say a high concentration of plastic debris is floating in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Caribbean.

Military officials oppose quick repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell'
WASHINGTON – Top Army and Air Force officers said Tuesday that they would be reluctant to overturn a 17-year policy that prohibits gays from serving openly in the military without more time to ascertain that it won't hurt the services.

Report: Georgia led states in influx of immigrants over for past nine years
ATLANTA – When the Olympic Games came to Atlanta in 1996, a building boom transformed the landscape of downtown and brought with it an influx of Latino immigrants, both legal and illegal.

Democrats may try to circumvent filibuster
WASHINGTON – Democrats and Republicans agree that President Barack Obama's much-touted televised summit Thursday has virtually no chance of breaking the political logjam on health care legislation.

Gun laws become looser under Obama
When President Barack Obama took office, gun rights advocates sounded the alarm, warning that he intended to strip them of their arms and ammunition.

Cheney recovering from mild heart attack
WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering from a mild heart attack – his latest bout in a long battle against heart disease.

Food makers quietly search for alternative to BPA in packaging
Major U.S. food makers are quietly investigating how to rid their containers of bisphenol A, a chemical under scrutiny by federal regulators concerned about links to a range of health problems, including reproductive disorders and cancer.

02/23/2010

Report: Wall Streeters got $20B in bonuses in 2009
New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Tuesday that the payouts, coming a year after taxpayers bailed out the financial industry, were about 17 percent higher than the previous year.
Banks report small profit but 'problem' list jumps
Retailers profits rise, but customers hold back
Blog: Economy Watch

Tests show Dick Cheney had fifth heart attack, aide says
An aide to Dick Cheney says tests on the former vice president showed "evidence of a mild heart attack."

Man pleads guilty to plotting al-Qaeda terror attack on New York subways
NEW YORK – A former airport shuttle driver accused of buying beauty supplies to make bombs for an attack on New York City subways pleaded guilty Monday, admitting he agreed to conduct an al-Qaeda-led "martyrdom operation" because of U.S. involvement in his native Afghanistan.

High blood pressure a neglected disease that warrants action in U.S., Institute of Medicine report finds
WASHINGTON – A critical new report declares high blood pressure in the U.S. to be a neglected disease – a term that usually describes mysterious tropical illnesses, not a well-known plague of rich countries.

Older adults' pot use up
MIAMI – In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times , if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.

Car driven by serial killer Ted Bundy is now a tourist attraction in D.C.
WASHINGTON – It may not be the Lincoln Memorial or the Smithsonian, but the tan 1968 Volkswagen Beetle driven by Ted Bundy, one of the most prolific serial killers in history, is now a tourist attraction in the nation's capital.

Researchers hope to take bite out of mosquitoes by breeding wingless females
WASHINGTON – First it was just swatting. Then poison. Then sterilizing males. Is there anything people won't try in the war against mosquitoes?

Ole Miss' Colonel Reb is gone with the wind
The University of Mississippi dumped the mascot, a caricature of a white plantation owner, in a 2003 effort to distance the school from Old South stereotypes. It's been without a mascot ever since. A vote today could change that.

Toyota: Recalls won't totally fix gas pedal issues
James Lentz, president of Toyota's U.S. operations, told a congressional panel on Tuesday that electronic systems connected to the gas pedal and fuel line did not contribute to the problem the problem of sudden and dangerous acceleration.

02/22/2010

Obama takes health care bill into his own hands
President Barack Obama issued his own blueprint for a health care overhaul on Monday and laid the groundwork for an aggressive parliamentary maneuver to pass the legislation using only Democratic votes if this week brings no progress toward a bipartisan solution.
Link: Details of the president's proposal

Home-grown terrorism matches threat from abroad, Napolitano says
WASHINGTON – Americans who turn to terrorism and plot against the U.S. are now as big a concern as international terrorists, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday.

02/23/2010

Suit seeks return of donations Stanford made to campaign committees
WASHINGTON – Congressional campaign committees that collected donations from jailed Texas banker R. Allen Stanford and his company will have to answer in court why they think they ought to keep the money.

02/22/2010

Obama seeks uniform education standards for states to get $14 billion in funds
WASHINGTON – In a proposed change to the No Child Left Behind law, the Obama administration would require states to adopt new academic standards to qualify for federal money from a $14 billion program that concentrates on impoverished students, the White House said Sunday.

California considers creating online registry of animal abusers
SAN FRANCISCO – California may soon place animal abusers on the same level as sex offenders by listing them in an online registry, complete with their home addresses and places of employment.

Food labels urged to reduce choking cases
CHICAGO – When 4-year-old Eric Stavros Adler choked to death on a piece of hot dog, his anguished mother said she never dreamed that the popular kids' food could be so dangerous.

Airlines' TB rules called too tough
ATLANTA – Provocative new research suggests international rules that bar potentially infectious tuberculosis patients from flying are too stringent and airline passengers are really at little risk from catching TB from a fellow traveler.

New law that shows credit card costs may lead to shock for some
Your next credit card statement is going to contain an ugly truth: how much that card really costs to use. Now, thanks to a long-awaited law that goes into effect Monday, you'll know that if you pay the minimum on a $3,000 balance with a 14 percent interest rate, it could take you 10 years to pay off.

Mennonite college to end star-spangled ban on national anthem at sports events
GOSHEN, Ind. – For more than a century, there was no playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Goshen College – a small Christian college with ties to the Mennonite Church.

3 Florida girls killed while walking on train bridge
MELBOURNE, Fla. – Three teen girls were joking and taking pictures on a narrow bridge when they were hit by a train, killing them as a friend watched helplessly, police and a witness said Sunday.

02/19/2010

Even stimulus opponents sought funds for Texas
With critics calling the year-old package a colossal waste of money, Democrats have fought back by leveling charges of hypocrisy. Not one Republican voted for the $787 billion plan, but many have tried to wangle funds for the folks back home.
Blog: Trail Blazers
More politics

02/22/2010

Tougher Energy Star standards sought
WASHINGTON – Government data shows that the federal Energy Star program, whose familiar logo adorns products from light bulbs to furnaces, can work a bit like Garrison Keillor's fictional Lake Wobegon, Minn.

02/20/2010

After crash, Iraq war veteran sprang to action with ladder to help 5 get out of building
AUSTIN – Robin De Haven was driving his truck to another job for the glass company he works for when he saw it – a small plane, flying low over a heavily congested area.

At a Glance: Private planes

Ex-mayor Kilpatrick may face jail for missing restitution payment
DETROIT – The prosecutor who forced Kwame Kilpatrick out of the Detroit mayor's office in 2008 said he violated his probation by missing a Friday deadline to make a $79,011 payment toward his $1 million restitution to the city.

02/19/2010

Diabetes drug Avandia hurts heart, reports conclude
Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a controversial diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.

Since 9/11, little has been done to guard against attacks with small planes
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, cockpit doors were sealed, air marshals were added and airport searches became more aggressive, all to make sure an airliner could never again be used as a weapon. Yet little has been done to guard against attacks with smaller planes.

Wife of pilot in Austin suicide attack expresses sympathy for victims
Rayford Walker, who identified himself as a spokesman for Joseph Stack's family, read a statement from Sheryl Stack while standing in front of a house across the street from the Stack family's burned home.

Dick Armey calls Obama 'shallow,' 'incompetent' in speech at Conservative Political Action Conference
WASHINGTON – Dick Armey, former House majority leader and a force in the Tea Party movement, issued a scathing critique Thursday of President Barack Obama.

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