February 13, 2012
WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will not make any more changes to the rule announced last week requiring health insurance plans to provide women with coverage for contraception, although U.S. Roman Catholic bishops have said it violates the Church's religious principles.
"We put out the plan that reflects where the president intended to go. This is our plan," White House chief of staff Jacob Lew said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
National
February 13, 2012
FORT WORTH, Texas: The first person in the United States to be exonerated posthumously on the basis of DNA evidence received a lasting tribute in his home state of Texas this week.
State officials and the family of the late Tim Cole unveiled the first Texas historical marker dedicated to an exonerated convict, located in a Fort Worth cemetery a few feet from the grave where Cole was buried in 1999.
National
February 13, 2012
NEW ORLEANS: Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the colorful and controversial spokesman for the city after the devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005, is under investigation by federal authorities, a source with direct knowledge of the probe said.
The source told Reuters on Friday that several people linked to Nagin or the New Orleans city administration during his two terms as mayor ending in 2010 were cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI.
National
February 13, 2012
WINNECONNE: Dan Loftus, on a mission to spear a sturgeon from the ice-choked waters of Wisconsin's Lake Winnebago, dropped a rubber chicken into the frigid emerald abyss and waited.
The 48-year-old chiropractor from Germantown sat on a lawn chair in the dark and leaned over, staring into the murky water through a hole carved into 10-inch-thick ice as his two buddies gregariously told stories and drank beer behind him.
"It's the most boring thing ever. It's really boring, just watching a hole," Loftus said of his quest. "But it's relaxing."
National
February 13, 2012
DES MOINES: China is half a world away from the 2,300-acre family farm in east-central Iowa where John Weber and his son plant corn and soybeans.
But 62-year-old Weber is among a number of Iowa farmers who are benefiting as rising incomes in China lead to demand for billions of dollars of American farm goods.
"There are huge opportunities," said Weber, who in addition to his corn and soybean business, markets more than 14,000 hogs a year with a partner. "Absolutely huge."
National
February 13, 2012
The south central United States was pelted with a wintry mix of snow and freezing rain that threatened travel on Sunday, while frigid temperatures chilled the East Coast during what has been an unseasonably mild winter, forecasters said.
Arctic air was in place across parts of the Southern and Central Plains, where light snow and freezing rain were expected through Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
A winter weather advisory was in effect for parts of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, the NWS said.
National
February 13, 2012
EL PASO, Texas: Aamber Alderson's sweetheart - her husband, Staff Sergeant James Alderson - will be thousands of miles away from her on Valentine's Day. So on Friday at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, she recorded a virtual valentine that will be sent to troops in places including Kuwait and Afghanistan, where he is stationed.
"We love you, we miss you, you're our hero, come home safely," Alderson said she told her husband.
National
February 13, 2012
ST. LOUIS: A few blocks from the Mississippi River levee where a homeless W.C. Handy composed "St. Louis Blues" more than 100 years ago, the first national blues museum in the United States is taking shape.
While several regional blues museums have popped up around the country -- Memphis, Tennessee; Clarksdale, Mississippi; and Helena, Arkansas -- the St. Louis institution will be the first to tell the national story of the unique American musical form.
National
February 13, 2012
Hundreds of foreign students in a joint degree program at a North Dakota state university were admitted despite lacking credentials and awarded degrees without completing coursework, an audit of the program has showed.
According to a review of the procedures in place for certain international programs at Dickinson State University, just 10 of the 410 foreign students awarded joint degrees since 2003 actually fulfilled all required course work.
The majority of the degrees in question were granted to Chinese students, the remainder to Russian students, according to the report.
National
February 13, 2012
NEW YORK: Lawyers for Dr Aafia Siddiqui serving an 86-year prison sentence for shooting at US soldiers in Afghanistan told a New York Court that she should have been exempted from testifying due to mental illness.
They sought for dismissal of charges against her arguing there was no evidence that she in fact had shot at US authorities while in custody.
The arguments were made on Friday before the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
National
