Are people receiving too many medical tests?
CHICAGO — Too much cancer screening, too many heart tests, too many cesarean sections. A spate of recent reports suggests that many Americans are being overtreated. Maybe even President Barack Obama, champion of an overhaul and cost-cutting of the health care system. Is it doctors practicing defensive medicine? Or are patients so accustomed to a culture of medical technology that they insist on extensive tests and treatments? A combination of both is at work, but new evidence and updated guidelines are recommending a step back and more thorough doctor-patient talks about risks and benefits of screening tests.
Parkinson signs Kansas smoking ban
TOPEKA, Kan. — Gov. Mark Parkinson signed Kansas’ first statewide smoking ban Friday, calling it a victory for people concerned about clean air.
Loosening their belts
WASHINGTON — Retail sales posted a surprising increase in February as consumers refused to let snowstorms stop them from stepping up purchases for everything from clothes to appliances. The improvement provided hope that the recovery from the Great Recession is gaining momentum.
Truck, SUV hybrids?
WARREN, Mich. — General Motors Co. will keep making big trucks and SUVs because U.S. buyers demand them, but a major portion of them will be gas-electric hybrids in the near future, retiring Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said Friday.
Nixon suggests combining education departments
Looking to fill a $500 million gap in the state budget, Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday proposed combining the state’s education departments. The announcement found the approval of Dr. Robert Stein, commissioner of the Missouri Department of Higher Education. Combining the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education with the Department of Higher Education is part of the governor’s initial proposal to cut $125 million in spending. Slashing health care services, appropriations to schools, and axing one passenger train between Kansas City and St. Louis are also in his initial proposal.
Nixon announces more cuts
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has announced $125 million in spending cuts, with plans to trim hundreds of millions of dollars more in the future.
Continental may cancel more flights
DALLAS — Continental Airlines plans to cancel flights rather than risk stiff fines under new federal rules designed to punish carriers for delaying passengers.
Spring storms could be ferocious
OKLAHOMA CITY — Forecasters say a wetter-than-usual winter and a jet stream ripping over the part of the country known as “Tornado Alley” could lead to an active spring — perhaps starting with the strong twister that nicked a small western Oklahoma town Monday night. “It’s time to get ready,” Michelann Ooten of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said Tuesday as she surveyed damage from a storm that destroyed five homes and tore the roofs off several others in Hammon.
Iraqis defy intimidation to vote
BAGHDAD — Insurgents bombed a polling station and lobbed grenades at voters Sunday, killing 36 people in attacks aimed at intimidating those taking part in an election that will determine whether the country can overcome the sectarian divisions that have plagued it since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Pop. 1 towns tell Census: Get the count right
MONOWI, Neb. — The Founding Fathers must have chuckled at the impossibility of the job when they etched it into the Constitution: Count every man, woman and child along every back road and big-city avenue in the entire country. From Key West to Nome, today’s Americans will largely get the founders’ joke yet again as the U.S. Census embarks on its once-a-decade count this year — they’re accustomed to approximations of how many people plod their shared corner of the world.
Greinke stellar in spring debut
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Zack Greinke spent spring training last year working on a changeup and ended up with a 9.21 ERA — then he dominated the regular season and won the Cy Young Award. What will he do this year now that he’s off to a stellar start? Greinke allowed one hit over three scoreless innings in his first spring outing and the Royals beat the Texas Rangers 4-2 Friday.
Some good, some bad
WASHINGTON — At last, the unemployment crisis seems to be easing. That’s the good news.
IPad launch delayed a bit
NEW YORK — The much-anticipated iPad tablet computer from Apple Inc. will start hitting U.S. store shelves on April 3, slightly later than originally planned.
Upper Midwest braces for severe spring flooding
FARGO, N.D. — Salesmen in Fargo are hawking products with names like the Muscle Wall and the Sandbagging Buddy. Emergency workers in Keokuk, Iowa, are planning to barricade the water treatment plant with limestone boulders. The farmers’ cooperative in Quincy, Ill., is moving grain inland to keep it dry. Spring could bring disastrous flooding again to the Upper Midwest, government forecasters are warning. And folks along the Red, the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers are taking precautions, especially after calamities last year and the year before.
National unemployment unchanged
WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in February as employers shed 36,000 jobs, fewer than expected. The figures suggested the job market is slowly healing but that significant hiring has yet to occur.
Retail posts strongest gains since late 2007
NEW YORK — Shoppers returned to the nation’s malls last month, buying a surprising amount of spring clothing and other items and helping stores post the strongest retail sales since November 2007, a month before the recession began.
Former Gitmo detainee running battles
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — A man who was freed from Guantanamo more than two years ago after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say. Abdul Qayyum also is seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.
Topeka unofficially becomes 'Google, Kansas'
TOPEKA, Kan. — Topeka’s mayor says the city shall temporarily be referred to as “Google, Kansas — the capital city of fiber optics,” in an effort to persuade the Internet giant to test an ultra-fast connection in the state capital. Mayor Bill Bunten issued the proclamation Monday after no city council members objected to the monthlong change.
How about $1,000 as an energy rebate?
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Sounding a familiar clean-energy theme, President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced details of a proposed energy rebate program he hopes will spur demand for insulation and water heaters — and jobs for hurting Americans.
Officials eye accelerator override
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is considering requiring all cars and trucks sold in the U.S. to have brakes that can override gas pedals to prevent sudden acceleration problems like those that led to reports of deaths and the recall of millions of Toyotas, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Congress on Tuesday.
Woman in custody after stabbing
A St. Joseph woman is in custody after she allegedly stabbed another woman late Friday night.
Renault gears up in Russia for clunkers program
MOSCOW — Renault SA is ready to take advantage of Russia’s cash-for-clunkers program, which starts next week, after ramping up its investment in the country by doubling capacity at its Moscow plant.
Growing, but still fragile
NEW YORK — Mixed reports Monday on manufacturing, construction and personal income and spending made clear that the economy is enjoying modest growth even though the recovery remains fragile.
Huge earthquake rocks Chile
TALCA, Chile — One of the largest earthquakes ever recorded tore apart houses, bridges and highways in Chile on Saturday and sent a tsunami racing halfway around the world. Authorities said at least 214 people were dead. The magnitude-8.8 quake was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles to the east. The full extent of damage remained unclear as dozens of aftershocks — one nearly as powerful as Haiti’s devastating Jan. 12 earthquake — shuddered across the disaster-prone Andean nation.
Still a ways to go
WASHINGTON — The recovery is losing steam.
No major headache
NEW YORK — Hundreds more flights were canceled Friday. Train and bus service was scrubbed. And some shipments of small packages and heavy freight were suspended or delayed.
Interest rate hikes bring good, bad
CHICAGO — The rate hikes are coming! The rate hikes are coming! Eventually. Days after the Federal Reserve seemed to sound the alarm that the era of near-zero interest rates is ending, Chairman Ben Bernanke tempered those expectations a bit this week.
Kansas Legislature approves statewide smoking ban
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas moved Thursday toward banning smoking in restaurants, bars, offices and other public places after a bill imposing restrictions on lighting up cleared the state Legislature.
Factory orders rise fueled by demand for aircraft
Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods shot up in January by the largest amount in six months, but the strength came from a surge in demand for commercial aircraft.
New home sales hit record low
WASHINGTON — Sales of new homes plunged to a record low in January, underscoring the formidable challenges facing the housing industry as it tries to recover from the worst slump in decades.
Rhode Island school district fires every teacher
A Rhode Island school district has voted to fire all the teachers at an underperforming school.
Deposit that check through your cell phone
NEW YORK — In the near future, you might not even have to visit a bank or an ATM to deposit a check. You’ll simply snap a couple of photos of it with your cell phone.
Toyota: Recalls won't solve all woes
WASHINGTON — The president of Toyota’s U.S. operations acknowledged to skeptical lawmakers on Tuesday that the company’s recalls of millions of its cars may “not totally” solve the problem of sudden and dangerous acceleration.
Criminal probe launched
NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Toyota’s safety problems, the company acknowledged Monday as it prepared to answer questions on Capitol Hill about its widespread vehicle recalls.
Gasoline heading above $3 a gallon by summer
NEW YORK — Retail gas prices likely bottomed out last week, and they’re again headed to above $3 a gallon this summer, experts said Monday.
Obama unveils last-ditch health plan
WASHINGTON — Making a last-ditch effort to save his health care overhaul, President Barack Obama on Monday put forward a nearly $1 trillion, 10-year compromise that would allow the government to deny or roll back egregious insurance premium increases that infuriate consumers.
Credit card reform may shock some
NEW YORK — Your next credit card statement is going to contain an ugly truth: how much that card really costs to use.
Many consumer goods fall in price
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve seems likely to keep interest rates at record lows for several more months after news Friday that consumer prices excluding food and energy fell in January.
Foreclosure crisis easing
WASHINGTON — The number of borrowers falling behind on their mortgage payments dropped sharply at the end of last year, a sign the foreclosure crisis is beginning to ebb.
State lawmakers block farm property tax changes
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers rejected a tax plan Thursday that would have increased property taxes for the state’s best farms and lowered taxes on the worst. Property taxes for Missouri farms are based on the land’s “productive value,” which is set by considering how much money can be earned through the land by agriculture. In December, the State Tax Commission voted to increase the productive values for higher quality land, cut them for lesser land and keep them the same for the worst.
Lawmakers: Not right time for building bonds
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Top Republican and Democratic state lawmakers said Thursday that Missouri can’t afford to issue $800 million in bonds for public buildings, despite legislative support for the measure last year.
Walmart, up and down
NEW YORK — Walmart Stores Inc., one of the recession’s biggest beneficiaries, felt the pinch during the fourth quarter as quarterly sales fell at U.S. Walmart stores for the first time.
A couple of good signs
WASHINGTON — Hopes that the economy can sustain its recovery drew support Wednesday from news that industrial ouput rose for a seventh straight month and home construction hit a six-month peak in January.
Toyota ponders Corolla recall
TOKYO — Could the Corolla be next?
Toyota considering Corolla recall
Toyota is considering a recall of its hot-selling Corolla subcompact after complaints about power steering problems — another blow to the world's largest automaker already reeling from a string of recalls for safety troubles.
Goal: To boost Internet access
WASHINGTON — Roughly 40 percent of Americans do not have high-speed Internet access at home, according to new Commerce Department figures that underscore the challenges facing policymakers who are trying to bring affordable broadband connections to everyone.
Government wants answers from Toyota
WASHINGTON — The government ordered Toyota to turn over documents related to its massive recalls Tuesday, pressing to see how long the automaker knew of safety defects before taking action.
Missouri considers restrictions on injured worker fund
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri House committee is considering legislation designed to stabilize a financially troubled state fund for injured workers by triggering higher workers’ compensation premiums for employers.
Few knew about University of Alabama shooter's past
Amy Bishop kept quiet about a violent episode in her past around colleagues and students at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. But there was one personal issue she didn't mind loudly complaining about: being denied tenure.
Costs to rise even if health care reform collapses
WASHINGTON — What could be worse than a health care overhaul? No health care overhaul. It’s anybody’s guess whether President Barack Obama’s health remake will survive in Congress. But there’s no doubting the consequences if lawmakers fail to address the problems of costs, coverage and quality: surging insurance premiums, more working families without coverage, bigger out-of-pocket bills, a Medicare prescription gap that grows wider and deeper, and government programs that pay when people get sick but do little to keep them healthy.
Older Newer
