Broken condom? No worries. The over-the-counter emergency contraceptive Plan B is arriving in pharmacies this week and next. Approved for OTC use in August, Plan B is 89 percent effective at preventing pregnancy if taken within the first 72 hours of unprotected sex. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, nearly half of the more than 6 million pregnancies that occur each year are unplanned. The organization estimates that expanded access to Plan B could cut unintended pregnancies–and abortion rates–in half.
Those midterm elections Tuesday continue to help weed out and build up the list of candidates expected to run for president in 2008. Let's start with the growing list of big losers. You can add Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who whined about the travel, and two foot-in-mouth senators, Republican George Allen and Democrat John Kerry.
It's time to put away the yard signs, tear down the fliers, and wash the "I voted" sticker grime off your clothes. After months of hand wringing, midterm elections are finally over. But what do the results mean for small-business owners? Actually not much, says Andy Birol, who owns a small-business consulting firm in Ohio, right smack in the middle of election madness. He says that the Democrats' capture of the House of Representatives and most likely the Senate matters to small companies about as much as did the ill-fated Janet Jackson Super Bowl snafu a few years ago.
AP - Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, whose party lost both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, will step down from his post when his two-year term ends in January, GOP officials said Thursday.
AP - A stunning new death count emerged Thursday, as Iraq's health minister estimated 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war — about three times previously accepted estimates.
On the same day President Bush promised a new bipartisan era, he urged the outgoing Congress to approve two of his most controversial ambitions before Democrats take the reins of power. He submitted the nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and said he wanted to move forward on legislation to authorize a domestic surveillance program.
Ed Bradley, the longtime "60 Minutes" reporter who was the only TV journalist to interview condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, has died from leukemia, aged 65. Katie Couric announced the death on CBS, calling Bradley "smooth, cool, a great reporter, beloved and respected."
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