Gov. Ted Strickland pushed back Ohio’s next two scheduled executions until at least March of next year in the wake of a botched execution and new court challenges. Strickland said the reprieves will give more time to review the lethal-injection process and problems encountered last month, when he stopped the lethal injection of Romell Broom after executioners struggled for two hours to find a usable vein.

A study of New York City’s pioneering law requiring posting calories in restaurant chains suggests that when it comes to deciding what to order, people’s stomachs are more powerful than their brains. The study found that customers at four fast-food chains in poor neighborhoods ordered slightly more calories than the typical customer had before the labeling law went into effect in July 2008.

Former President Bill Clinton delivered a boost to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's campaign for governor, formally endorsing him in next year's race and calling Newsom a national leader in green technology and energy. The endorsement comes as Newsom desperately seeks to gain traction on state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who leads handily in early polls and fundraising.

The first doses of swine flu vaccine arrived Monday as more than half the nation reported widespread flu cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 600,000 doses of nasal FluMist were being shipped this week. A total of 250 million doses, in both spray and injectable form, are expected by flu season's end.

A rash of thefts at two Tucson high schools has prompted the Tucson Unified School District to team up with police. In a matter of two months, 64 laptops and 25 digital cameras have been stolen from Tucson High Magnet School and Cholla High Magnet School. The estimated cost to replace the computers is $78,000.

After days of renewed doubt over a budget compromise, Gov. Ed Rendell said he was confident that only procedural details stand in the way of yet another push to end the state's 97-day deadlock. The plan that emerged Monday would eliminate controversial proposals to tax tickets to performing-arts events, museums, and zoos; small games of chance; smokeless tobacco and cigars; and natural gas extraction.

With unemployment expected to rise well into next year even as the economy slowly recovers, the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are discussing extending several safety net programs as well as proposing new tax incentives for businesses to renew hiring. But officials emphasized the effort would not add up to a second economic stimulus package, only an extension of the first.

After laying the groundwork to terminate more than a thousand staff members to help plug a gaping budget hole, the State Board of Equalization has pulled back from the plan because it has found other ways to save the money. The BOE processes state business tax returns and employs about 4,000 workers, but it has defied Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order to furlough them.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans said it appears unlikely that Congress will block a bill being introduced in the city council that would allow same-sex marriages in the District of Columbia. Council leaders have vowed to expedite the bill and said they hope to put it to a final vote before Christmas.

Texas' top lawmakers in Congress want President Obama to pony up some of the $787 billion in economic stimulus money to rescue NASA's manned-space program and ensure that astronauts one day will travel beyond the orbiting international space station. The lawmakers asked Obama to divert $3 billion from the unspent portion of the economic stimulus package.