USA TODAY:  A year after its “unintended acceleration” trouble began, Toyota today is announcing that it’s going to expand its recall of floor mats to include nearly 2.2 million more Lexus and Toyota vehicles in the U.S. The mats can jam against accelerator pedals — causing so-called pedal entrapment. The company calls the recalls “voluntary,” […]

 USA TODAY:   More than 1,800 errors by air-traffic controllers — including 43 most likely to cause a midair collision between planes — were reported to the Federal Aviation Administration last year. The agency says that points up the need for greater safety steps. Air-traffic errors that allowed planes to get too close together jumped 81% […]

USA TODAY:  Kids who grow up on traditional farms are 30% to 50% less likely than other children to develop asthma, a new study shows. But it’s not the fresh country air. It’s the germs. “Good” germs, that is, or at least harmless ones associated with cows, pigs and other barnyard creatures with which humans […]

AOL:  It’s the million-dollar question the Libyan people, the rest of the world — and perhaps even Col. Moammar Gadhafi himself — are asking: How long can he hang on? As is becoming abundantly clear, Libya is different from other Arab countries experiencing popular revolts in recent weeks. Tunisia’s ousted president, Zine El Abidine Ben […]

Inquirer Editorial: After getting convicted of racketeering and other charges, former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. tried to claim victory, since the jury acquitted him of other serious charges… Ciavarella’s scheme – hatched with another corrupt judge – involved taking nearly $1 million in illegal payments from a juvenile detention center’s builder and […]

USA TODAY:  Federal agents and police raided doctors’ offices across South Florida on Wednesday in a sweep aimed at what authorities say are operations that illegally deal pescription pain pills. The raids and tough new state laws that can result in criminal charges for doctors who overprescribe narcotics are part of a nationwide crackdown on […]

THE HILL:  Unions are not the cause of the country’s economic woes, Vice President Biden said Wednesday… Biden said the Republicans are trying to use the bad economy that their policies created to push a conservative social agenda. “We are going to see the economic conditions they created used as an excuse to fundamentally go […]

  NEWSMAX:  Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi has ordered his security forces to sabotage oil facilities, Time magazine reported Wednesday, quoting a source close to Gaddafi. According to the report, the forces were ordered to start blowing up oil pipelines in order to cut off flows to ports in the Mediterranean. “The sabotage, according to the […]

USA TODAY: …[President Barack] Obama has been accused by some Republicans— such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and McCain’s former running mate in the 2008 presidential election, Sarah Palin — of not taking a strong stand against Gadhafi. Both said Obama should consider asking NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over the country to prevent […]

      ALJAZEERA:  Lebanon has refused to grant landing permission to a private plane belonging to one of the sons of embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The plane was transporting the Lebanese wife of Hannibal Gaddafi to her home country as pro-democracy protesters take control of nearly most parts of Libya. Several members of […]

FINANCIAL TIMES:  King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced financial support measures, worth an estimated SR135bn ($36bn), in a bid to avert the kind of popular unrest that has toppled leaders across the region and is now closing in on Libya’s Muammer Gaddafi. The measures include a 15 per cent salary rise for public employees to […]