Beginning in January, seniors whose income is greater than $80,000 if they're single and $160,000 if they're married will pay a higher premium for Part B of their Medicare coverage, the federal health insurance program for people 65 or older.
In 2004 George W. Bush carried 31 states, which elect 62 U.S. senators. Yet there will be only 49 Republicans in the Senate that takes office January 3. Why the shortfall? The answer, I think, is unforced errors. Let me make a list of them here.
The Mitt Romney hiring machine continues to plow through Washington. It's latest pick: Kevin Madden, the battle-tested spokesman for House Majority Leader John Boehner. Even if you don't know his name, you've seen his work. Of note: He was the Bush-Cheney '04 New England press coordinator, worked for the troublesome Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, jumped to Rep. Tom DeLay's operation before the Texan was sent packing and handled the Rep. Mark Foley page scandal. We hear he told Boehner last night about the new job and plans to move to Boston in two weeks, where Romney is setting up shop in the Italian North End. It could be awkward: The Irishman is a Yankees fan.
AP - A bipartisan commission, under pressure to offer a U.S. exit strategy for the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, has reached a consensus and will announce its recommendations next week, the group's co-chairman said Wednesday.
AP - Japan has the technological know-how to produce a nuclear weapon but has no immediate plans to do so, the foreign minister said Thursday, several weeks after communist North Korea carried out a nuclear test.
AP - President Bush's high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday was canceled in a stunning turn of events after disclosure of U.S. doubts about the Iraqi leader's capabilities and a political boycott in Baghdad protesting his attendance.
An Oregon man was arrested, told his fingerprints were on bomb materials and threatened with the death penalty. Two years later, the U.S. government apologized and settled his lawsuit for $2 million. "We lived in 1984," Brandon Mayfield told reporters Wednesday. "I'm talking about the George Orwell, frightening brave new world in which Big Brother is constantly watching you."
An Alabama high school coach who won an important case before the Supreme Court after he was fired from his job has reached a settlement with his local school board.
![[logo]](http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/bbc_news_120x60.gif "BBC News")
![[logo]](http://www.csmonitor.com/images/logo_88x31.gif "Christian Science Monitor"){kind=logo}
![[logo]](http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/section/NytSectionHeader.gif "NYT > Home Page")
![[logo]](http://www.usnews.com/usnews/images/rss/logo_rss.gif "USNews.com"){kind=logo}
![[logo]](http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/nws/th/main_142b.gif "Yahoo! News")
![[logo]](http://image.guardian.co.uk/sitecrumbs/Guardian.gif "Guardian Unlimited")
![[logo]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.0/logo/cnn.logo.rss.gif "CNN.com"){kind=logo}
