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Senate Tries To Strike Balance On Abortion Language
The fight over health care has moved to the Senate, and that means the fight over abortion is there as well. Earlier this month, the House passed legislation that would ban federal funding of abortion, but most Democrats say it went too far. Can the Senate's version find a compromise?
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Students Protest University Of Calif. Fee Hike
Thousands of University of California students converged on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles Thursday, as regents adopted a 30 percent fee hike. It's one of the latest signs of California's continuing economic crisis. UC officials say, faced with a huge deficit of their own, they have no choice but to raise the fees. Many students say they can't afford to pay more.
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Pelosi: Obama Needs Room To Make Afghan Decision
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says she believes a health-care bill will pass, despite fierce debate over language about abortion. She tells Renee Montagne that when it comes to Afghanistan, she doesn't sense wide support among House members for a significant troop increase. Pelosi says she's asked members to give President Obama room to decide his Afghan strategy.
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Hard Lessons From Two Mass Killings In Texas
The Senate is conducting hearings into the recent shootings at Fort Hood — a tragedy that took place just miles from the site of a deadly 1991 attack. That episode, in which a gunman killed 23 people at Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, reshaped how police, medical and psychological personnel respond to such tragedies.
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Fungus Provides Clues To North American Extinctions
One of the great mysteries about North America is what killed off woolly mammoths and other exotic animals that roamed the land after the last ice age. Ideas have ranged from a comet impact and climate change to human hunters. A study published Friday in Science Magazine provides new clues about this — cleverly deduced from samples of a fungus that grew on the animal's dung.
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Black Males Hit Extra Hard By Unemployment
The country's spiraling unemployment rate continues to take a particular toll on men. The "he-cession," as it's sometimes called, has hit African-American men especially hard, increasing their unemployment rate to more than 17 percent last month.
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Irish Call Foul After Ref Hands Soccer Win To France
A blown call by referees cost the luckless Irish a spot in the 2010 World Cup. Within minutes of a shootout, the ball hit the outstretched palm of French striker Thierry Henry, who guided it to his foot then passed it to a teammate for the winning overtime goal.
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House Votes To Cancel Medicare Pay Cuts For Doctors
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was able to get the bill passed while the Senate couldn't by appending it to a more popular bill. Republicans complained that the cost of the measure was not offset and also charged that it was repayment to the AMA for endorsing the Democrats' health care bill.
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Army Relents; Allows Limited Media At Palin Event
Army officials had said they would prohibit coverage of Palin's on-post event, saying it would turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama.
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Senate Health Bill Strives To Balance Many Interests
Majority Leader Harry Reid added new taxes and modified major provisions from earlier Senate committee bills. The bill is expected to go to the Senate floor.
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GOP Uses Mammogram Study To Attack Health Bill
Republicans are suggesting that the new guidelines for breast cancer screening reinforce their nightmare scenario about health care rationing under President Obama's proposed overhaul. The political brouhaha comes as the Senate is about to take up its health care overhaul bill.
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GOP Governors Meeting Decidedly Upbeat
The Republican Governors Association is holding its annual meeting this week in Austin, Texas. Thanks to recent election victories in Virginia and New Jersey, Republicans are feeling good again. They plan to use those wins to help the party rebound in 2010.
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Geithner: Use Leftover Bailout Money To Cut Deficit
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the government's $700 billion bailout program will end "as soon as we can," and that part of it will be used to lower the record deficit. He urged Congress to move quickly in overhauling the nation's financial rules, which he says is key to a healthy economy.
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Postal Service Cancels Letter To Santa Program
The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.
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South African Runner Will Keep Gold Medal
Caster Semenya will keep her 800-meter gold medal from the world championships in Berlin, but the results of her gender tests will be kept confidential, the South African sports ministry says.
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Economic Indicators Signal Slow Growth Ahead
A forecast of economic activity for the next six months edged up less than expected in October, signaling slow growth next year. The Conference Board says its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.3 percent last month. Economists had expected a larger increase.
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AOL Cutting One-Third Of Staff
Internet icon AOL plans to cut about a third of its staff, or about 2,500 jobs. Time Warner, the New York media conglomerate, said this week that it will spin AOL off to investors Dec. 9.
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New Term For Karzai Brings Same Old Problems
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated in Kabul on Thursday for a new term amid tight security and ceremonial flourishes. But his second term is already beset by severe doubts that he will be any more effective at tackling the country's rampant corruption.
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Trying Sept. 11 Suspects In U.S. A Political Gamble
Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try the alleged Sept. 11 conspirators in federal courts has elicited sharply divided responses from Capitol Hill, the American public and victims' families. Holder says his decision is driven by evidence, not politics.
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Sen. Kerry's Daughter Arrested On Suspicion Of DUI
Alexandra Kerry, 36, was stopped by officers on a Hollywood street at about 12:40 a.m. Thursday and tested positive for driving under the influence, police say. She is the eldest daughter of the Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee.
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