Meadows Valley Public Library

New jobless claims were unchanged last week at 505,000, matching analysts' expectations, but the four-week moving average of claims dropped to its lowest in almost a year, the Labor Department said Thursday.

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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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Attorney General Eric Holder spent hours testifying on Capitol Hill Wednesday. He defended his decision to send the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four other men to New York to face a criminal trial. Senators spent much of the hearing telling Holder why they think he's wrong.

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Documents obtained by NPR show that psychiatrists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center put their concerns about the accused Fort Hood shooter in writing. Two years ago, a top official there wrote an evaluation that harshly criticized Maj. Nidal Hasan's incompetence and unprofessional behavior.

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for another five-year term Thursday. Watching with a critical eye were foreign dignitaries who are pressing Karzai to make his second term in office far better than his first. Karzai promised to prosecute corrupt officials.

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A group of Cuban Americans has had unusual success getting House members to change their positions and vote against closer ties with Cuba. New analysis shows some political contributions from the U.S.-Cuba Democracy Pac reached lawmakers within days of them switching their vote.

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has unveiled the Democrat's bill overhauling health care. It costs less than the health care bill the House passed earlier this month, and its expansion of insurance coverage is somewhat more limited.

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President Obama wraps up his trip to Asia with a stop in South Korea, where leader Lee Myung-bak joked that Obama had saved the best for last. The two men discussed a range of issues, including free trade and the ever-present nuclear threat from North Korea.

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Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai promised Thursday to prosecute corrupt government officials and end a culture of impunity, speaking during an inauguration closely watched by the international community for signs that his administration is moving beyond the cronyism and graft of the past five years.

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Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin, a novel about daring, luck and mortality in 1970s New York, won the fiction prize Wednesday night at the 60th annual National Book Awards. T.J. Stiles' biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt, The First Tycoon, was the nonfiction winner.

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It’s not even Thanksgiving, and some Christmas-related books are already creeping up the list and Barbara Kingsolver’s new novel, “The Lacuna,” enters the hardcover fiction list at No. 5.

Flood victims argued the widening of a navigation channel maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers and subsequent loss of protective wetlands turned the channel into a speedway for the hurricane's storm surge. A federal judge in New Orleans agreed and awarded damages of about $720,000 to four people and a business.

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The State Ethics Commission said probable cause exists on several allegations tied to a three-month investigation into Mark Sanford's travel and campaign finances. Details of the charges — which should include whether the accusations involve civil or criminal allegations — were expected to be released next week.

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The professed Sept. 11 mastermind's North Carolina college years are recalled by a chemistry professor and a former classmate. The CIA claims those college years helped propel Mohammed on a path to terrorism. Though described as jovial, he also maintained a self-imposed isolation.

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Jonathan Safran Foer is just the latest in a long line of distinguished literary vegetarians.

Hershey, hoping to expand its overseas presence, has lined up a potential partner, Italian candymaker Ferrero International SA, in a possible bidding war for British candy maker Cadbury PLC. The combination could have the financial firepower to top a $16.4 billion hostile bid by Kraft Foods Inc.

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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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Setting up a historic year-end debate, the Senate Democratic leader introduced long-awaited legislation to reshape the nation's health care system. The measure aims to cover 31 million uninsured Americans over 10 years.

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Attorney General Eric Holder told senators Wednesday "failure is not an option" in the prosecution of Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Holder explained his rationale to bring Mohammed and four other terrorism suspects to the U.S. for a civilian trial.

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Conservationists worried about overfishing on the Pacific island of Kiribati persuaded fishermen to pick coconuts instead. The strategy backfired: Coconut oil production increased, but so did fishing. It turns out, fishermen who earned more money in coconut agriculture had more leisure time — which they spent fishing.

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