Nation headlines
Mom details health of daughter who died of the swine flu virus
7/4/2009 12:15 AM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- As the numbers of swine flu cases increase nationally, scientists say underlying medical conditions such as heart or lung problems, asthma and obesity have been linked to serious infections.
Lynn Lane, the mother of a 24-year- ...
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7/2/2009 12:42 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration will require two smoking-cessation drugs, Chantix and Zyban, to carry the agency's strongest safety warning over side effects including depression and suicidal thoughts.
The new requirement, called ...
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7/2/2009 12:41 AM
OXFORD, Fla. -- A 12-foot pet Burmese python broke out of an aquarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in her bedroom Wednesday in a central Florida home, authorities said.
Lt. Steve Binegar, of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office, said the toddler w ...
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7/2/2009 12:40 AM
PHOENIX -- The Arizona Senate has given final approval to a bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry a gun into a business that serves alcohol.
The 19-8 vote completes legislative action on the bill and sends it to Repub ...
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7/2/2009 12:37 AM
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers.
It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorad ...
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7/2/2009 12:35 AM
NEW YORK -- Battered mortgage giant Freddie Mac received $6.1 billion in new funds from the Treasury Department to help offset its mounting liabilities, according to a regulatory filing submitted Wednesday.
The company could also be close to naming ...
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6/30/2009 10:50 PM
ADELPHI, Md. -- Government experts called for sweeping safety restrictions Tuesday on the most widely used painkiller, including reducing the maximum dose of Tylenol and eliminating prescription drugs such as Vicodin and Percocet.
The Food and Drug ...
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6/30/2009 10:49 PM
CHICAGO -- A bone growth agent used in thousands of spinal fusion surgeries for neck pain has been linked to complications and higher cost, according to the first nationwide study of the product.
Safety questions arose last year about the protein p ...
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6/30/2009 12:57 AM
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. has decided not to appeal hundreds of millions of dollars in interest on punitive damages resulting from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The Irving, Texas-based company will pay about $470 million i ...
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6/30/2009 12:51 AM
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Supreme Court declared Monday that white firefighters in Connecticut were unfairly denied promotion because of their race, ruling against minorities in a major reverse discrimination case that could affect bosses and workers n ...
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6/30/2009 12:50 AM
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- It took Justice David Souter's final day at the Supreme Court to bring him into the limelight after nearly two decades in Washington.
A New England Republican who became a member of the court's liberal bloc, the typically retice ...
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6/30/2009 12:46 AM
PITTSBURGH -- The doctor had barely pulled away the needle when a blister appeared on Tracey Berg-Fulton's abdomen: An experimental shot was revving up the 24-year-old's immune system - part of a bold quest to create a vaccine-like therapy for diabet ...
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6/30/2009 12:44 AM
MIAMI -- Cassandra Smith spends $800 a month renting designer handbags and leases a luxury condo in downtown Miami. Environmentalist Zoee Turrill helped create a bike-sharing program at the University of Denver.
Though they might seem to come from ...
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6/30/2009 12:44 AM
NEW YORK -- As consumers get ready to celebrate July Fourth, many merchants already have dismissed summer as a washout.
Macy's flagship store has racks of summer tops, swimwear and dresses marked down as much as 50 percent, while luxury retailer Be ...
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6/30/2009 12:43 AM
NEW YORK -- Convicted Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for a fraud so extensive that the judge said he needed to send a message to potential imitators and to victims who demanded harsh punishment.
Scat ...
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6/30/2009 12:39 AM
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, President Barack Obama put a plug in for administration efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy.
"I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple ...
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6/30/2009 12:37 AM
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Television pitchman Billy Mays likely died of a heart attack in his sleep, but further tests are needed to be sure of the cause of death, a medical examiner said Monday.
Hillsborough County Medical Examiner Vernard Adams said Ma ...
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6/30/2009 12:36 AM
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) -- A college student played dead to escape a family shooting by his father, who killed the other son and their mother before setting their house on fire and taking his own life, investigators said Monday.
Authorities said the fath ...
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6/29/2009 12:11 PM
NEW YORK -- Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison Monday for fraud so extensive that the judge said he needed to send a symbolic message to those who might imitate his fraud and to victims who need relief.
Applau ...
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6/28/2009 10:57 PM
CHICAGO -- A surprising number of teenagers - nearly 15 percent - think they're going to die young, leading many to drug use, suicide attempts and other unsafe behavior, new research suggests.
The study, based on a survey of more than 20,000 kids, ...
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6/28/2009 10:56 PM
PHOENIX -- There was a time in the Wild West that cowboys had to check their guns before they could pull up a bar stool for a drink - rules that protected against the saloon gunfights that came to define the frontier era in places like Arizona.
But ...
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6/28/2009 10:56 PM
NEW YORK -- Twenty years later, the trash can is still crashing through America's window.
At the climax of Spike Lee's 1989 drama "Do The Right Thing," the eternal battle between love and hate teeters on a razor's edge. The young black man Radio Ra ...
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6/28/2009 10:55 PM
NEW YORK -- Repaying a student loan could soon be a little less painful.
Starting this week, anyone with a federal student loan can apply for a program that caps monthly payments based on income, and forgives remaining balances after 25 years. Thos ...
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6/28/2009 12:34 AM
HOUSTON -- The letters are unfailingly polite, the carefully crafted correspondence of a man with too much time on his hands.
There is no hint of aggression, nothing to suggest that they were penned by the same writer who once terrorized New York C ...
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6/28/2009 12:33 AM
Larry Roberta's every breath is a painful reminder of his time in Iraq. He can't walk a block without gasping for air. His chest hurts, his migraines sometimes persist for days and he needs pills to help him sleep.
James Gentry came home with rashe ...
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6/28/2009 12:32 AM
NEW YORK -- Scott Painter makes his living betting on startup companies, having played a role in launching 29 of them over the years. But with the bad economy choking initial public offerings and acquisitions, Painter is now backing an idea that make ...
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