national

Senate votes to begin health-care debate

By Noam N. Levey · Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009

WASHINGTON- Without a vote to spare, Democrats pushed their health-care overhaul legislation over its first obstacle on the Senate floor Saturday, as the chamber voted to begin formal debate of a sweeping measure to guarantee medical coverage for all Americans. The 60-39 procedural vote, backed by all 58 Democrats and two independents, with Ohio Republican George Voinovich not voting, overcame a Republican-led filibuster designed to block consideration of the bill and kept up momentum behind President Barack Obama’s top legislative priority.

Invasive Asian carp threaten Great Lakes

By Tina Lam · Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009

DETROIT- Two feared species of Asian carp have zoomed beyond the $9 million electric barriers built to keep them out of Lake Michigan.

Recent crimes upset sense of safety on campuses

By Mara Rose Williams · Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo.— Tuition might not be the most troubling concern for parents sending sons and daughters off to college. A disturbing pattern of violent crime has erupted across the nation’s campuses – from Yale University, where a female graduate student was strangled, to the University of California at Los Angeles, where a chemistry student was stabbed repeatedly in a lab. While saying campuses almost always are safer than their surrounding communities, Jonathan Kassa of Security On Campus Inc. acknowledged the headlines can create the opposite impression. “This has been a very uniquely deadly and brutal first semester, so there is concern,” said Kassa, the executive director of the nonprofit organization, which seeks to reduce campus crime. This month at Sacramento State University in California, a student was beaten to death in his dormitory by a bat-wielding roommate.

Cascades could hide large magma pool

By Les Blumenthal · Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009

WASHINGTON- A vast pool of molten rock in the continental crust that underlies southwestern Washington state could supply magma to three active volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains, Mount St.

Coal-fired power plants face curbs

By Renee Schoof · Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009

WASHINGTON- The Environmental Protection Agency will put controls on the emissions of hazardous pollutants such as mercury from coal-fired power plants for the first time by November 2011, according to an agreement announced Friday to settle a lawsuit against the agency. Many other polluters were forced to reduce emissions of toxic material such as mercury, arsenic and lead after the Clean Air Act was strengthened in 1990.

Some Democrats in Senate hold fate of health care bill

By David Lightman · Sunday, Oct. 25, 2009

WASHINGTON – A handful of moderate Senate Democrats will determine the fate of this year’s health care overhaul, and they’re sending strong signals that while they are willing to compromise, they’re wary of a strong public option. “I’ve ruled out a government-funded and a government-operated plan,” said Sen.