U.S. National News

Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle

U.S. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid speaks about healthcare reform legislation during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington November 19, 2009. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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Reuters
AP - 1 hour, 25 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Invoking the memory of Edward M. Kennedy, Democrats united Saturday night to push historic health care legislation past a key Senate hurdle over the opposition of Republicans eager to inflict a punishing defeat on President Barack Obama. There was not a vote to spare.

  • This Nov. 17, 2009 photo shows Betsy Charlesworth holding her son, Marty, as son, Myles, right, takes a turn at Monopoly in their kitchen in Jericho, Vt. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)
    A bad month in Afghanistan rippled across the US AP - Sat Nov 21, 2:03 PM ET

    Every afternoon, seven days a week, Ed Epley has a 5 p.m. appointment with the war.

  • University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) student Kendall Brown and other UCLA students and supporters protest as the UC Board of Regents votes to approve a 32 percent tuition hike next year on November 19 in Los Angeles, California.(AFP/Getty Images/File/David Mcnew)
    UC Santa Cruz protesters still occupy building AP - 1 hour, 22 minutes ago

    SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - Dozens of protesters are occupying the main administrative building at University of California, Santa Cruz in the third straight day of protest over fee hikes and cuts to campus services.

  • FILE - This Bexar County Sheriff's Office 2007 booking file photo shows Capt. Michael Fontana after he was arrested for racing on a highway in San Antonio. Fontana, 35, an Air Force nurse, goes on trial Monday, Nov. 16, 2009 accused of killing three terminally ill patients at last summer in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Bexar County Sheriff's Office, File)
    Ex-Air Force nurse acquitted of killing patients AP - Sat Nov 21, 8:07 PM ET

    SAN ANTONIO - A court-martial acquitted a former military nurse of murder Saturday after he was accused of giving lethal doses of painkillers to hasten the deaths of three terminally ill patients at the Air Force's largest hospital.

  • FILE -This undated file photo released by Julien's Auctions shows Michael Jackson's glove from his 1983 performance of Billie Jean at the Motown 25 television special where he performed the Moonwalk for the first time. The glove and othe Jackson items will be auctioned on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009, at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City's Times Square. (AP Photo/Julien's Auctions, File)
    Jackson moonwalk glove sells for $350K in NYC AP - 1 hour, 17 minutes ago

    NEW YORK - The shimmering, white glove Michael Jackson wore when he premiered his trademark moonwalk dance in 1983 was auctioned off for $350,000 — plus tax — on Saturday.

  • In this video frame grab taken from NASA television, space shuttle Atlantis Mission Specialist Randy Bresnik works during the the second spacewalk of the STS-129 mission at the International Space Staion, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009. (AP Photo/NASA)
    Baby can wait as expectant dad finishes spacewalk AP - Sat Nov 21, 8:58 PM ET

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A spacewalking astronaut put aside the impending birth of his daughter and blazed through his first-ever venture outside the International Space Station on Saturday.

  • Hawaii anxiously watching year-end tuna supply AP - Sat Nov 21, 12:00 PM ET

    HONOLULU - On New Year's Eve each year, thousands line up at fish counters across Hawaii to buy blocks of raw tuna, hoping that eating it will bring good luck and prosperity in the new year. This year, the long tradition may get a little more difficult to observe.

  • EPA: Uranium from polluted mine in Nev. wells AP - Sat Nov 21, 6:31 PM ET

    YERINGTON, Nev. - Peggy Pauly lives in a robin-egg blue, two-story house not far from acres of onion fields that make the northern Nevada air smell sweet at harvest time.

  • NC man gets life in prison for woman's fatal scare AP - Sat Nov 21, 12:38 PM ET

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A man will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was found guilty in what prosecutors said was a case of scaring a 79-year-old North Carolina grandmother to death.

  • Teacher Jodie Hogan, center, hands out the boarding pass to her students of South River High School for their trip to Peru at Reagan National airport on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009, in Washington. The number of Americans traveling away from home for Thanksgiving will be up only slightly this year than in 2008, according to a report from the AAA auto club.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
    More Americans expected to travel for Thanksgiving AP - 2 hours, 27 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON - The number of Americans traveling away from home for Thanksgiving will be up only slightly this year from 2008, according to a report from the AAA auto club.

  • This Nov. 13, 2009 photo shows Iowa State University senior Scott Moseley, of Bettendorf, Iowa, left, talking with ISU Atheist and Agnostic Society president Anastasia Bodnar, right, while stopping at the Ask an Atheist booth at a campus community center, Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
    Atheist student groups flower on college campuses AP - 56 minutes ago

    AMES, Iowa - The sign sits propped on a wooden chair, inviting all comers: "Ask an Atheist."

  • Mental health cases tax police, emergency workers AP - Sat Nov 21, 1:30 PM ET

    BURLINGTON, Vt. - Police found him sitting on the floor of his old apartment near a bucket of urine, still dressed in his hospital gown.

  • Report finds wide disparities in gifted education AP - Sat Nov 21, 12:02 PM ET

    ATLANTA - When Liz Fitzgerald realized her son and daughter were forced to read books in math class while the other children caught up, she had them moved into gifted classes at their suburban Atlanta elementary school.

  • Linda Gerber, from Chicago, and a member of the live broadcast of The Oprah Winfrey Show, holds a copy of the Chicago Sun-Times as she departs Harpo Studios Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 in Chicago. Winfrey announced during the broadcast Friday, that her powerhouse daytime television show will end its 25-season run in 2011. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
    Losing Winfrey would be big blow for Second City AP - Sat Nov 21, 12:38 PM ET

    CHICAGO - Step outside Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios and into the near west side neighborhood that's been home to her television talk show for two decades, and it's easy to get a sense of what she's meant to Chicago.

  • FILE - In this Oct. 27, 2009 file photo, Music producer Berry Gordy arrives to the premiere of 'Michael Jackson's This Is It,' in Los Angeles. Gordy founded what would become Motown Records a half-century ago with an $800 loan. Today, that would get you two tickets with a bit to spare to the Motown 50 Golden Gala. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
    Motown caps 50th anniversary with hometown gala AP - Sat Nov 21, 1:44 PM ET

    DETROIT - Berry Gordy founded what would become Motown Records a half-century ago with an $800 loan. Today, that would get you two tickets with a bit to spare to the Motown 50 Golden Gala.

  • Santa Claus, also known as Patrick Farmer, at Santa Claus House in North Pole, Alaska Wednesday Nov. 18, 2009, holds letters from children sent this year that the U.S. Postal Service says they will no longer deliver. Citing privacy concerns, postal officials say that generically addressed letters to 'Santa Claus, North Pole' will no longer be forwarded to volunteers in the Alaska town as has been done for years. (AP Photo/Sam Harrel)
    Postal Service to resume North Pole Santa letters AP - Sat Nov 21, 9:31 AM ET

    ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Wide-eyed children around the world will be hearing from Santa's "elves" at the North Pole after all.

Crimes and Trials News

  • Mourners attend the funeral of one of the Fort Hood shooting victims. US Army Major Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people earlier this month at Fort Hood, Texas, intensified his communications with a radical Yemeni American cleric just months before the shootings and began discussing with him surreptitious financial transfers, The Washington Post reported Saturday(AFP/Getty Images/File/David Banks)
    Fort Hood suspect ordered held until court-martial AP - Sat Nov 21, 8:27 PM ET

    FORT WORTH, Texas - The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people at Fort Hood will be confined until his military trial, initially staying in a hospital where he is recovering from gunshot wounds, his attorney said Saturday.

  • Ex-Air Force nurse acquitted of killing patients AP - Sat Nov 21, 5:10 PM ET

    SAN ANTONIO - A military judge in Texas has found a former Air Force nurse accused of killing three terminally ill patients not guilty of murder.

  • Assistant US Attorney Gordon Michael Harvey (centre) argues against the release ofWalter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71 at a detention hearing. An elderly US couple charged with spying for Cuba for almost 30 years has pleaded guilty in the conspiracy, with the husband agreeing to serve a life sentence(AFP/HO/File/Art Lien)
    Elderly US couple pleads guilty in Cuba spy case AFP - Sat Nov 21, 9:45 AM ET

    WASHINGTON (AFP) - An elderly US couple charged with spying for Cuba for almost 30 years has pleaded guilty in the conspiracy, with the husband agreeing to serve a life sentence, the US Justice Department said.