His at-times hyperbolic rhetoric, fervent social conservatism and seeming indifference to whether or not people like him have made him something of a lightning rod. “If we wiped out the entire Congress and sent common people who have no political experience, we would get far better results than we have today,” he said in a remark typical of how he views the institution.

Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who developed a close friendship with President Obama when they served together in the Senate, is threatening to have the entire health care bill read on the Senate floor.

Senior Senate Democratic aides had heard Coburn was considering having potentially thousands of pages read aloud in effort to stall passage. “If he did this it would be even outrageous for a guy who’s become known as Dr. No around here,” one of them told POLITICO.

Coburn’s office confirmed that he is indeed thinking about having the bill read.

“That's a possibility,” Coburn spokesman John Hart said. “He wants to make sure everyone has a chance to read the bill.”

Coburn, who has a reputation for using procedural rules to block and delay legislation, has been an outspoken critic of the president’s health care overhaul. He recently told the New York Times: “My mission is to frame this health care debate in terms of the fiscal ruin of this country. … I have instructed my staff to clear my schedule for every minute that bill is on the floor.”

By Carol E. Lee

In an appearance at a Florida senior center, the Democratic leader referred to the so-called public option as "the consumer option." Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., appeared by Pelosi's side and used the term "competitive option."

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board unanimously approved licenses for an existing store on Washington Road in South Strabane, Washington County, and a Giant Eagle Market District store opening Nov. 5 at Settlers Ridge in Robinson Township, Allegheny County.

Beer will be sold out of cafe areas in each store. Customers can buy the equivalent of two six-packs to go or two beers to drink inside.

"This Giant Eagle Market District will probably have up to 250 different varieties of beer, and that will be domestic and imported. But we're going to have a real focus on craft beers, microbrews and specialty beers"

This is about a love story so toxic that no one survives...a tragic tale played out time and again in homes across the country - he abused her, she tried to leave him, and so he killed her. It's not about the tool that he used to accomplish that.

PITTSBURGH -- Pittsburgh could soon be alerted of crime at the first sound of trouble.

Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields will push for a high-tech crime fighting tool. He wants the city to start using a gunshot detection system, which would alert police within seconds of shots being fired.

The system works through a network of microphones. When the sound of gunfire is detected, 911 will be automatically alerted.

No official word was available on when or if Pittsburgh residents can expect this high-tech tool’s arrival.

NEW LONDON, Conn. — Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation's most notorious eminent domain project.

There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne's lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot's towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.

But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? They are noticeably missing.

Proponents of the ambitious plan blame the sour economy. Opponents call it a "poetic justice."

"They are getting what they deserve. They are going to get nothing," said Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the landmark property rights case. "I don't think this is what the United States Supreme Court justices had in mind when they made this decision."

Jada Harper, who turned seven on Sept. 1, has an inoperable malignant tumor in her brain and is in a coma with a ventilator doing her breathing for her. She has been at the famous cancer center in Houston since July, but her situation is now at the point not much else can be done to help her.
...
Moving Jada home from Texas — in a coma and attached to a ventilator — became the big challenge.

“They said a ground ambulance was too dangerous,” Wanda said. “They said she’d be dead within hours — it’s just too long of a trip from Houston.”

She needed to be moved in an air ambulance, which costs $10,000-$14,000, Wanda said.
...
“This all took place on Thursday,” Wanda said. “The next thing we knew, Savannah called us from Houston, and she was crying and crying. She said they had called her to tell her that FedEx had a flight coming to pick her and Jada up and bring them home.”

Ken Reeves, vice-president and general counsel of FedEx Freight, told the Daily Times that Madewell “was the one who put this whole thing together, and Doug Duncan in Memphis, (president and CEO of FedEx Freight Corp. in Memphis), and Pat Reed here in Harrison, (executive vice-president and CEO of FedEx Freight), both approved for FedEx Freight in Harrison to pay for it.”
...
Jada’s grandmother, Wanda, said, “I’m so overwhelmed. You don’t know how we’ve searched for the past two weeks. We’ve searched all over the U.S. to find somebody who could help us bring Jada home, and the answer was right here in our own hometown. These people at FedEx are miracle-workers.”

WESTMINSTER, Colo. It was anything but an ordinary Saturday at the Wal-Mart at 92nd and Sheridan.

Westminster Police confirm that on September 19th, a man grabbed and molested a little girl. Witnesses say he picked her up and was headed for the door.

Bystanders started yelling for help. But no one stopped the suspect, 34-year-old Kevin Salyers. Until something even more unusual happened.

A man working at the Comcast table at the front of the store tackled the suspect. Even more amazing, the Comcast employee, 22-year-old Cameron Aulner was in a wheelchair.