WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has chosen a suburban St. Louis high school to make his closing argument for a health care overhaul, pushing a new anti-fraud plan as he cranks up the pressure on skittish Democratic lawmakers to act fast. Obama is to speak Wednesday at St. Charles High School, his second health care address in three days. His speech comes as congressional Democrats stand on the brink of delivering the president a dramatic success with passage of his sweeping overhaul legislation - or a colossal failure if they can't get it done.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Israel's new plan to build 1,600 apartments for Jews in Palestinian-claimed east Jerusalem overshadowed Vice President Joe Biden's visit to the West Bank on Wednesday. Biden was to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, in part to ease their doubts about the latest U.S. peace efforts.
Behind the scenes, crafting the US no-fly list WASHINGTON (AP) - It starts with a tip, a scrap of intelligence, a fingerprint lifted from a suspected terrorist's home. It ends when a person is forbidden to board an airplane - a decision that's in the hands of about six experts from the Transportation Security Administration.
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How the AP-GfK poll on Obama was conducted The Associated Press-GfK Poll on President Obama, the direction of the country and health care was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from March 3-8. It is based on landline and cell phone telephone interviews with a nationally representative random sample of 1,002 adults. Interviews were conducted with 702 respondents on landline telephones and 300 on cellular phones. Digits in the phone numbers dialed were generated randomly to reach households with unlisted and listed landline and cell phone numbers.
EL CAJON, Calif. (AP) - Before he called 911, James Sikes says he reached down with his hand to loosen the "stuck" accelerator on his 2008 Toyota Prius, his other hand on the steering wheel. The pedal didn't move. "My car can't slow down," he began when a California Highway Patrol dispatcher answered his call.
KHOST, Afghanistan (AP) - The Taliban claimed responsibility Wednesday for a suicide bombing inside a U.S.-Afghan base in eastern Afghanistan that killed two NATO service members. A Taliban operative wearing an Afghan police uniform infiltrated the base Tuesday night and detonated his explosive vest next to a group of soldiers who were warming their hands beside a fire, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press by phone.
Senate to pass jobless aid, business tax breaks WASHINGTON (AP) - Legislation blending help for the jobless with popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals is slated to pass the Senate Wednesday over protests from conservatives who say it adds too much to the $12.5 trillion national debt. But compassion for the jobless and the political power of an annual package of tax breaks is likely to produce a bipartisan vote to pass the measure, even though it would add more than $130 billion to the budget deficit over the next year and a half.
PUL-E-CHARKHI, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates raised the possibility Wednesday that some of the U.S. forces involved in the Afghanistan surge could leave the country before President Barack Obama's announced July 2011 date to begin withdrawal. Without giving specifics, Gates said, "It would have to be conditions-based."
Osmonds return to stage after death of Marie's son LAS VEGAS (AP) - Marie Osmond told a Las Vegas Strip audience as she returned to the stage less than two weeks after her son's apparent suicide that she has relied on her spirituality to cope with his death "Little did I know I would be relying on my faith, especially as much as I did this past week," Osmond said before dedicating a song to her 18-year-old son, Michael Bryan, whom she called "my angel."
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mike Dunleavy and the Los Angeles Clippers parted company for good Tuesday, barely a month after he relinquished his head coaching duties to focus solely on being general manager. Now that arrangement is over, with the team announcing his departure in an e-mailed statement. Assistant general manager Neil Olshey will take over Dunleavy's job.
